Science
-
EPA employees put names to ‘declaration of dissent’ over agency moves under Trump
“People are going to die,” said Carol Greider, a Nobel laureate and professor of molecular and cellular biology at the University of California, Santa Cruz, who also signed the letter. She described last week’s East Coast heat wave as evidence of the ways people are feeling the effects of climate change. “And if we don’t…
-
Vera Rubin Scientists Reveal Telescope’s First Images
“You’ve not seen the whole thing, all captured at once at this depth with so many objects there,” said Steven Ritz, a physicist at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and the project scientist for Rubin construction. “That, I would point out, is new. And just how pretty it is.” Additional coverage by the BBC,…
-
How changing ocean colors could impact California
Earth’s oceans have been getting greener at the poles and becoming bluer closer to the equator, according to a study published Thursday in Science. The shift reflects changes in marine ecosystems, which experts say could affect fish populations and create problems for fisheries, including in California. “It has lots of potential implications for the way…
-
Scientists warn of critical missing piece in humans’ understanding of animals: ‘Not quite sophisticated enough’
Animals use various strategies to adapt to climate change, but scientific studies usually measure only one factor over a period of time or space. A new paper says considering multiple factors within one study could create a more holistic understanding. “The picture that we all have in our heads for species on the move, we’re…
-
The Mysterious Inner Workings of Io, Jupiter’s Volcanic Moon
Researchers disagree on the best interpretation of the Galileo data. The magnetic signals “were taken as probably the best evidence for a magma ocean, but really they weren’t that strong,” said Francis Nimmo, a planetary scientist at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and a coauthor of the new study. The induction data couldn’t distinguish…
-
Big Waves and High Tides Can Be Just as Insidious as Hurricanes
“Large waves and high tides are already beating up the shoreline,” said Gary Griggs, a professor of earth and planetary sciences at the University of California, Santa Cruz. A 2019 study by a UC Santa Cruz associate professor, Borja Reguero, and others used satellite data and modeling to suggest waves had grown 0.47% more powerful…
-
Pluto’s hazy skies are making the dwarf planet even colder, James Webb Space Telescope finds
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has discovered that a hazy sky over frozen Pluto is helping to cool the dwarf planet’s atmosphere. The discovery of the haze was predicted back in 2017 by planetary scientist Xi Zhang of the University of California, Santa Cruz, to explain why Pluto’s thin atmosphere is so leaky. Additional…
-
A fog-free San Francisco? Scientists ponder California’s climate future
Peter Weiss, a faculty researcher and lecturer at the UC-Santa Cruz department of environmental sciences, said that despite a growing narrative of waning fog along the California coast, the data to support it is “very spotty,’’ with few academic studies in the last decade. Also in the Salinas California.
-
Wake Up, America. Cutting Health and Science Funding Costs Lives
Nobel Laureate and UC Santa Cruz Distinguished Professor Carol Greider coauthored an opinion article explaining why billions of dollars in NIH funding is worth the price. The article calls on senators to demand that the Trump administration reverse devastating cuts to the NIH that will cause unnecessary deaths, cost billions in economic activity, and have…
-
Webb confirms Pluto’s atmosphere cools with haze
After New Horizons’ Pluto flyby, UC Santa Cruz‘s Xi Zhang proposed in 2017 that Pluto’s atmosphere is dominated by haze particles, making it unlike any other in the solar system. He suggested that these particles heat up and cool down, controlling Pluto’s entire energy balance.
-
Genome BC backs DNA-based environmental monitoring in rural and Indigenous communities
This project, led by Caren Helbing (University of Victoria) and Rachel Meyer (University of California Santa Cruz), adapts a U.S.-based tool for Canadian use. The platform allows users to view and share biodiversity data from eDNA samples. It builds on previous work from the iTrackDNA initiative, which helped establish Canada’s national eDNA standards.
-
This seagull took an 80-mile truck ride twice to find food
“It was surprising and comical, so much so that we wanted to look closely into this one individual’s behavior to understand how this happened,” Megan Cimino, a researcher at the Institute of Marine Sciences at UC Santa Cruz and lead author of the study, told Axios. Additional coverage by SFGate and Smithsonian Magazine.