Social Sciences
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Some Dogs Learn New Words Just Like Toddlers Do
The new research offers proof that some dogs can learn some words even when they are not addressed directly by their owners, says Nameera Akhtar, a psychology professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz, who was also not involved in the study.
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How can nature protect us from the effects of climate change
UC Santa Cruz economics professor Galina Hale hosts Center for Coastal Climate Resilience Director Mike Beck on the radio show “Cutting Edge,” to discuss their new study on nature-based solutions for climate adaptation.
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Sen. Mark Kelly vows to fight for First Amendment amid Pentagon threats
Kelly remains subject to military rules known as the Uniform Code of Military Justice. “These regulations have been used to restrict political expression as well as other activities,” University of California Santa Cruz professor Elizabeth Beaumont wrote in a column for Middle Tennessee State University’s Free Speech Center.
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Winter Storms Ease Drought in California, for Now
Michael Loik, a professor of environmental studies at the University of California at Santa Cruz, said Californians should continue to live with a conservative mind-set regarding water supply. “Drought is the norm in California,” he said. “The next drought is just around the corner.”
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School closures have rocked this LA-area district – are they destroying it, or saving it?
“Just because a district needs a loan from the state does not mean it should be – or always is – put into receivership,” said Rene Espinoza Kissell, an assistant professor of education at UC Santa Cruz who studies school funding. Where wealthier districts may get supervision, lower-income districts with majority students of color are…
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How to fix Delhi’s air pollution disaster
Openness to diverse sources of expertise and rigorous testing of ideas before scaling up might be the key to fix Delhi’s hazardous air, writes Distinguished Professor of Economics Nirvikar Singh.
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Prison methods are as bad as you’ve heard, and spilling onto the streets
Distinguished Professor of Psychology Craig Haney wrote an opinion article about the damaging dynamics and lack of accountability inside jails and how these practices are increasingly taking place outside of jails too, with anonymous government actors operating unrestrained by due process safeguards, subjugating and terrorizing people with impunity — as has long been common inside…
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How Trump administration science cuts muffled one NIH institute
Jennifer Reardon, a professor of sociology and the founding director of the Science and Justice Research Center, has studied how dangerous ideas from eugenics can easily resurge. “It didn’t just go away; genomics has inherited that,” she said. “And so, if you take the thin structures we created to try to mitigate against that, and…
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The Zombees Are Here (And That’s Probably OK)
Stacey Philpott, an ecology professor at UC Santa Cruz, has studied how honeybees and yellow-faced bumblebees interact with A. borealis, and her work suggests that honeybees fall victim to the fly more often in specific environments, like urban gardens.
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Did wolves save Yellowstone’s aspen trees?
“Elk have declined a lot since wolves were reintroduced, but it’s not clear that that’s due to wolves,” said Chris Wilmers, an ecologist at the University of California, Santa Cruz and the author of another recent study that assessed the impacts of large carnivore recovery across North America.
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Ask Lookout: Why has Santa Cruz’s water demand dropped?
The decline stems from both cultural shifts and better fixtures in homes – things like low-flow toilets and high-efficiency washing machines – said Brent Haddad, director of the Center for Integrated Water Research at UC Santa Cruz.
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Have Wolves Saved Yellowstone’s Aspens?
“Most ecologists suspect that wolves and other predators have something to do with the decline of elk,” said Environmental Studies Professor Chris Wilmers. “But how much can be attributed to wolves, how much can be attributed to predators in general, how much is attributed to those other causes hasn’t been worked out yet.”