Many people shy away from tackling the deep questions everyone has. Questions like “Why are we here?” “Where are we going?” and “What is the meaning of life?” UNLV Professor Dr. Michael Pravica is not one of those people. In fact, he’s spent much of his academic life attempting to answer those very questions with his background as a physicist providing a rational underpinning for his beliefs.

Amid the worst regional drought the Western U.S. has seen in 1,200 years, and in a year when Rocky Mountain snowpack levels also hit record lows, the Colorado River system is now barely over one-third of its total hydrological capacity, according to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.

UNLV professor Edwin Oh joined ARC Reno on Wednesday to discuss new research showing hospital wastewater monitoring may help detect dangerous drug-resistant C. auris outbreaks months before patients show symptoms. The study involved researchers and public health partners across Nevada, including the Nevada State Public Health Laboratory in Reno. Researchers say the technology could help hospitals identify outbreaks earlier and improve response times.

Stuck lithium ions, responsible for older batteries' loss in capacity, could be freed if gently encouraged by high-energy X-rays.

New UNLV-led research may prove the contrary, adding years to the lifespan of our beloved battery-powered electronic devices.

A deadly fungus called C. auris can be detected in sewer water from hospitals and nursing homes five months before it shows up in clinical tests of patients, according to a new study. 

Regeneration has long been the stuff of science fiction. At UNLV, researchers are now studying frogs that can regrow their eyes in days — work that could bring that idea closer to reality for human patients.

Regeneration has long been the stuff of science fiction. At UNLV, researchers are now studying frogs that can regrow their eyes in days — work that could bring that idea closer to reality for human patients.

Candida auris presents ongoing challenges for Nevada’s healthcare facilities. In 2025, the Silver State on its own accounted for 22% of the nation’s nearly 7,200 C. auris cases — reporting 1,605 infections to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and outpacing California’s roughly 1,550 cases and Texas’ 830. When adjusted for population, Nevada logged 20 times more cases per capita than its coastal neighbor.

A new UNLV-led study found that testing wastewater from hospital sewer lines can detect drug-resistant strains of C. auris months before patients begin showing symptoms, offering health officials an earlier warning of potentially deadly outbreaks.

Every hospital has drains. Sinks, toilets, floor gullies in procedure rooms, the slow trickle from IV lines flushed between patients. For years, all of that went down the pipes and nobody thought much about it. But researchers at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas have spent the better part of four years paying very close attention to what hospitals are washing away, and what they’ve found in Southern Nevada’s sewer lines is, by any measure, alarming: a drug-resistant killer fungus circulating through healthcare facilities months before a single patient tests positive.

UNLV-led research team uses wastewater surveillance to suss out C. auris strains with greater precision, paving way for potential new therapeutic development