Bug Squad

Perseverance prevailed. The third instar monarch caterpillar we found munching on the remnants of our cut-back milkweed on Jan. 23 in Vacaville, Calif., is now an adult butterfly fluttering around the neighborhood.

To bee or not to bee? That's a crucial question as the UC Davis Biodiversity Museum Day/Month, Honey Bee Haven and the California Master Beekeeper Program scramble for funds between now and Sunday, Feb. 28. That's when the UC Davis-authorized crowdfunding drive ends.

When the Ironic Bonds Team and the Gibbs Team won the 12-team competition in the UC Davis Eric Conn Biochemistry Quizzes, it's not game over. It's the beginning of a three-game global series.

Answer me this: What is the name of the proteins (water channels) that facilitates water transport into and out of cells? And who discovered this family of proteins?

If you're meandering around the UC Riverside campus and see a cockroach, it might have a connection to UC Davis distinguished professor Bruce Hammock. This is a story of what might have been that never was and never will be and it all has to do with Hammock's cockroaches.