Categories
Arts
Through War and Peace, These Doves Rock
By Daniel Erenstein, Neurobiology, Physiology & Behavior ‘21 “The diversity of the breeds is something astonishing,” Charles Darwin wrote in “On the Origin of Species.” He was not referring to his famous Galápagos finches. [...]
Lazarus Dies, Lazarus Lives Again
By Jesse Kireyev, History ‘21 Each of these photos captures a landscape in slow degradation. Berryessa, for all the wintergreen beauty that it holds, has experienced horrifying fires numerous times over the past few years. [...]
COVID-19 Cover Art Gallery
This year, for the first time, The Aggie Transcript accepted submissions for our journal's cover from the wider undergraduate community at UC Davis. To celebrate the release of our fifth annual print edition, we present [...]
News
Disparities in Reproductive and Sexual Healthcare of Women with Disabilities
By Manasvini Pochimireddy. Author’s Note: I wrote this piece for a general academic audience of my peers. I specifically chose this topic because disabled women have been a historically marginalized group, with inadequate resources in [...]
Most Endangered Whale on Earth is America’s–and you’ve never heard of it
By David Kwon. In 2021, a joint team of researchers led by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) revealed the discovery of a new species of baleen whale: the Rice’s whale. Baleen whales (mysticetes) are [...]
Lung Cancer Vaccines: An Investigation of Potential Targets for a Novel Immunotherapy
By Rhea Bains. Abstract: This review comprehensively synthesizes research published within the last five years about a novel immunotherapy for lung cancer, known as a cancer vaccine in situ or intratumoral vaccination. The treatment involves [...]
Campus Reports
How Poop is Fighting COVID-19
By Laura Gardner, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology ‘22 Author’s Note: With so much information in the media and online about COVID-19, I find many people get lost in, and fall victim to, false information. I [...]
A Dive into a Key Player of Learning and Memory: An Interview with Dr. Karen Zito
Image by MethoxyRoxy - Own work, CC BY-SA 2.5 By: Neha Madugala, Neurology, Physiology, and Behavior, ‘21 Author’s Note: After writing a paper for the Aggie Transcript on the basics of dendritic spines, I wanted [...]
Cryogenic Electron Microscopy: A Leap Forward for UC Davis
Photo originally published in Structural Studies of the Giant Mimivirus. PLoS Biol 7(4): e1000092. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.1000092. License: CC BY 2.5. By Nathan Levinzon, Neurobiology, Physiology, and Behavior ‘23 Author's Note: The purpose of this article is to inform the [...]
Biology
Disparities in Reproductive and Sexual Healthcare of Women with Disabilities
By Manasvini Pochimireddy. Author’s Note: I wrote this piece for a general academic audience of my peers. I specifically chose this topic because disabled women have been a historically marginalized group, with inadequate resources in [...]
How Toxoplasma gondii, a protozoa parasite, performs its parasitic behavior and how the infection would influence the intermediate hosts’ health and behavior.
By Chengyu Sun, Evolution, Ecology, and Biodiversity, '25 Author’s Note: This review article was written for the assignment of Dr. Brenda Rinard’s UWP 102B. I chose the topic of discussing the behavior and uniqueness [...]
Impact of Perception on Animal Conservation Efforts and Biodiversity
By Adyasha Padhi, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and Sociocultural Anthropology '25 Humanity has impacted our planet’s biodiversity in extensive ways, both deliberately and accidentally. According to the World Wildlife Fund, there has been an average [...]
Health and Medicine
Neonatal Isoerythrolysis in Equines, Felines, and Other Species
By Sara Su, Animal Science and English '24 Neonatal Isoerythrolysis: An Overview Neonatal isoerythrolysis (NI) is an alloimmune disease, an immune response against non-self-antigens from the same species. A non-self antigen can be any foreign [...]
The Use of Remotely Sensed Data in Modeling Cholera Amidst Climate Change
By Shaina Eagle, Global Disease Biology, ‘24 Introduction Over 300,000 people reported having cholera in 2020 [12]. This infectious disease is spread by water or seafood contaminated by the Vibrio cholerae bacteria. V. cholerae can [...]
Breast Cancer Screenings for Transgender Individuals
By Anisha Narsam, Neurobiology, Physiology, and Behavior, '23 Author’s note: I hope to raise awareness about the barriers that transgender individuals face in order to obtain mammograms, and possible methods for increasing breast cancer screenings [...]
Technology
Floating Photovoltaics (FPVs): Impacts on Algal Growth in Reservoir Systems
By Benjamin Narwold, Environmental Science and Management major '23 Author’s Note: I wrote this review paper to learn more about the environmental impacts of floating photovoltaics (FPVs) because this topic directly applies to my work [...]
First steps in the development of small-scale 3D printed hydrogel bioreactors for protein production in space travel
By Maya Mysore, Laura Ballou, Anna Rita Moukarzel, Alex Cherry, David Duronslet, Lisette Werba, Nathan Tran, Hannah Mosheim, Stephen Curry, Simon Coelho Advisors: Kantharakorn Macharoen, Matthew McNulty, Andrew Yao, and Dr. McDonald, Dr. Nandi, and [...]
Fold@Home: Aid in COVID-19 Research from Home
Image via Folding@Home By Nathan Levinzon, Neurobiology, Physiology, and Behavior ‘23 Author's Note: The purpose of this article is to introduce and inform the UC Davis scientific community of Folding@Home; a distributed computing project that allows [...]
Book Reviews
It’s in the Blood- Or Rather, the Genes: A Review of The Gene: An Intimate History
By Gita Mallya, Plant Biology, ‘19 Author’s note: I wrote this piece for my UWP 104E class with Brenda Rinard during Fall Quarter 2017. The assignment was to read a classic book based in [...]
Understanding the Tumultuous Trajectory of a Concept in The Gene
By Daniel Erenstein, Neurobiology, Physiology, and Behavior, ‘19 Author’s Note: In my Writing in Science (UWP 104E) course, Dr. Brenda Rinard assigned us a review of a classic book in science. My interests in social [...]
To Infinity and Beyond: A Review of “The Life of Pi, and Other Infinities” by Natalie Angier
By Lo Tuan, Neurobiology, Physiology, and Behavior and Managerial Economics, ’17 Author’s Note: I wrote this review as an assignment for a UWP course that investigates the role of science in society using different lenses [...]
Literature Reviews
A War of Multiple Fronts: How to Fight Duchenne
By Alex Neupauer, Genetics and Genomics, '23 Author’s Note: As a Genetics and Genomics major and a person with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), I was compelled to write a review on how to alleviate the [...]
The Gut Microbiome and Obesity
By Lazer Introlegator, Neurobiology, Physiology, and Behavior, '23 Author’s Note: Ever since I learned about the existence of the microbiome, I have been fascinated. When Dr. Brenda Rinard assigned my UWP102B class (Writing in the [...]
The Effects of Ozone on Plant-Pollinator Interactions
By Hanna Francis, Biological Sciences '22 Author's Note: I grew interested in plants through botany and plant biochemistry courses at UC Davis and learned about insects while volunteering at the Bohart Museum of Entomology on campus. [...]
Science and Society
Vocal Communication in the Domestic Dog
By Sarah Su, Animal Science, '24 Abstract Companion animal species have multiple forms of communication, including tactile, visual, olfactory, and auditory signals. This paper will focus on vocal communication in canines, comparing the behaviors [...]
The Heart of the Matter
By La Rissa Vasquez, Neurobiology, Physiology, and Behavior ‘23 and Shaina Eagle, Global Disease Biology ‘24 In 1818, Mary Shelly published what is now regarded as the pioneer of the science fiction genre, the [...]
What do scaling laws tell us about the biochemistry of life beyond Earth?
By Tammie Tam, Molecular and Medical Microbiology ‘22 Humanity has always been intrigued with the possibility of life existing elsewhere in the universe. In 1977, NASA attached the Golden Record, a detailed account [...]
Undergraduate Research
Floating Photovoltaics (FPVs): Impacts on Algal Growth in Reservoir Systems
By Benjamin Narwold, Environmental Science and Management major '23 Author’s Note: I wrote this review paper to learn more about the environmental impacts of floating photovoltaics (FPVs) because this topic directly applies to my work [...]
Inference on the Dynamics of COVID-19 in Kerala, India
By Darya Petrov Author's Note: I worked on this research project at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, while we were fully remote and on lockdown. I chose this topic because it was extremely relevant [...]
Recovering Individual Based Model Outcomes on Spatiotemporally Coarsened Data
By Sameerah Helal, Applied Mathematics, Under supervision of Stephanie Dodson Author's Note: Individual Based Models (IBMs) are commonly used to study animal migrations and foraging behaviors. These flexible models are powerful in identifying the mechanisms [...]