The Wall Street Journal reported on reactions across the U.S. to a study released in April outlining falling birth rates. Experts say the alarm from these numbers doesn’t tell the whole story, nor is this trend anything new. “We measure fertility rates in real time, but women live their reproductive lives across decades,” says Martha Bailey, a professor of economics and director of the California Center for Population Research at UCLA. “The top-line number sounding alarms means they are waiting — but this generation still has lots of time.” Read more about UCLA in today’s CNN, Spectrum News 1 and others.

More highlights from UCLA in the News: June 8, 2026

Toxic carcinogen found in wildfire cleanup zones | Santa Monica Daily Press

A cancer-causing metal detected in the air around last year’s Los Angeles wildfire cleanup zones may have exposed more than 3 million residents to dangerous levels of a toxic carcinogen, according to a new study by University of California researchers … “It shows that well after the wildfires were extinguished, nanoparticles, which are so small they can enter the circulatory system very quickly, were in the air around the burn zones,” said Michael Jerrett, professor in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health and a co-author of the study. (UCLA’s Dr. Yifang Zhu was also quoted.)

The latest on the conflict in Iran | KCAL-TV

“Well, the issue really is Iran attempting to link the conflict Israel has with Hezbollah to the broader ceasefire negotiations that are meant to end the war. And from the Israeli perspective, and from the U.S. perspective, they really are two separate tracks. So I think what we’re seeing now is an attempt to decouple this, following Iran’s retaliation against Israel for Israel launching rockets into Lebanon,” said UCLA’s Benjamin Radd (Radd was also interviewed by CNN.)

California is efforting to make a breeding bird atlas | Spectrum News 1

The California Bird Atlas is enlisting the public’s help to document breeding birds with an inaugural “Big Weekend” happening right now. It’s a new statewide effort to document the breeding activity of birds all over California, and they’re relying on citizen scientists all over the state to help them gather specific data about breeding behavior, like building nests or feeding young. (UCLA’s Kelsey Reckling and Morgan Tingley were featured.)

‘Outstanding’ Australians on 2026 King’s Birthday honours list | ABC News (Australia)

Professor Terence Tao AC has been recognized for his service to mathematical sciences and academia. The Adelaide-born professor of mathematics at the University of California, Los Angeles, said: “It’s sort of stunning that my country has given me this recognition”. The 50-year-old showed early signs of being a math prodigy and attended classes at Flinders University as a child.

Undocumented Californians targeted with new healthcare cost increase | SF Gate

Nadereh Pourat, a healthcare policy researcher at UCLA, said undocumented people without healthcare can still use some county medical facilities. But that could overload the facilities and extend wait times for entire communities. She said the cuts are almost certainly because of Trump’s H.R. 1 bill. 

Races for governor, LA mayor tighten as vote tally stretches | Los Angeles Times

“The odds have shifted dramatically in Raman’s favor,” said Zev Yaroslavsky, a former council member who runs the Los Angeles Initiative at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs. (Yaroslavsky was also interviewed by KNX-AM.)

LA County race may signal growing resistance to tax increases | LAist

“If that trend continues, it’s possible that ER could pass,” said Zev Yaroslavsky, director of the Los Angeles Initiative at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs.

How prediction markets could forecast the future of science | Nature magazine

It is difficult for experts to pin down the precise probability of a pandemic, but the chance of a global hantavirus outbreak “is very, very low,” says Vaithi Arumugaswami, an infectious-disease researcher at the University of California, Los Angeles. Forecasting from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggests that the virus’s risk to the U.S. public is extremely low, and the [World Health Organization] says that transmission between humans is uncommon.

The link between drug and alcohol use, adolescent mental health | Medical Xpress

Adolescents who use drugs or binge drink alcohol are more likely to experience psychological distress and have seriously thought of or attempted suicide, according to a new study from the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research. Data from the 2022–2024 California Health Interview Surveys show that 9% of California adolescents ages 12–17 currently use one or more substances, which for this study included marijuana/THC, binge drinking alcohol, e-cigarettes and cigarettes. Current use was defined as having used any of the four substances in the past month. (UCLA’s Imelda Padilla-Frausto was quoted.)

Parkinson’s disease is consistently linked to pesticide exposure | Public Health Watch

Dr. Beate Ritz, a professor of epidemiology and neurology at the University of California, Los Angeles, has been studying the link between pesticides and Parkinson’s for almost three decades in California’s Central Valley. The region produces a quarter of the country’s food and has the greatest concentration of farmworkers in the United States.  

4 skin soothers when you have chronic hives | Good Housekeeping

Dr. Tanya Kormeili, a clinical professor of dermatology at UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine and founder of Derm & Rejuvenation Institute in Los Angeles, also recommends colloidal oatmeal baths when patients are in the thick of a flare.