Science
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New book looks at Santa Cruz coast ‘then and now’
A new book by Gary Griggs, professor of Earth and planetary sciences at UC Santa Cruz, and local architect Deepika Shrestha Ross offers a unique look at the Santa Cruz coastline. The book juxtaposes historic photographs with photographs taken from the same locations today, showing how the coastline has evolved and changed, sometimes dramatically, over…
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California Academy of Sciences honors UCSC botanist Jean Langenheim
Jean Langenheim, professor emerita and research professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of California, Santa Cruz, has been chosen to receive the 2006 Fellows Medal of the California Academy of Sciences (CAS). This is the highest honor bestowed by the academy, founded in 1853 as the first scientific institution in the western…
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Astronomers trace the evolution of the first galaxies in the universe
A systematic search for the first bright galaxies to form in the early universe has revealed a dramatic jump in the number of such galaxies around 13 billion years ago. These observations of the earliest stages in the evolution of galaxies provide new evidence for the hierarchical theory of galaxy formation–the idea that large galaxies…
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UCSC leads astrophysics research consortium
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has awarded a five-year, $9.5 million grant to researchers studying the astrophysics of supernovae and gamma-ray bursts. The Computational Astrophysics Consortium includes researchers at five universities and three national laboratories and is led by Stan Woosley, professor of astronomy and astrophysics at the University of California, Santa Cruz. The…
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Study confirms ammunition as main source of lead poisoning in condors
A study led by environmental toxicologists at the University of California, Santa Cruz, has confirmed what wildlife biologists have long suspected: Bullet fragments and shotgun pellets in the carcasses of animals killed by hunters are the principal sources of lead poisoning in California condors that have been reintroduced to the wild. Lead poisoning is a…
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Newly discovered gene may hold clues to evolution of human brain capacity
Scientists have discovered a gene that has undergone accelerated evolutionary change in humans and is active during a critical stage in brain development. Although researchers have yet to determine the precise function of the gene, the evidence suggests that it may play a role in the development of the cerebral cortex and may even help…
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Study documents the marathon migrations of sooty shearwaters
Every summer, millions of sooty shearwaters arrive off the coast of California, their huge flocks astonishing visitors who may have trouble grasping that the dark swirling clouds over the water consist of seabirds. Scientists have long known that sooty shearwaters breed in New Zealand and Chile and migrate to feeding grounds in the Northern Hemisphere.…
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UCSC collaborating in interdisciplinary center to study marine microbes
The University of California, Santa Cruz, is one of six partner institutions in a new interdisciplinary science and technology center that will focus on the microbial inhabitants of the sea. Funded by a five-year, $19 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Center for Microbial Oceanography Research and Education (C-MORE) is based at…
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A simple survey yields a cosmic conundrum
A survey of galaxies observed along the sightlines to quasars and gamma-ray bursts–both extremely luminous, distant objects–has revealed a puzzling inconsistency. Galaxies appear to be four times more common in the direction of gamma-ray bursts than in the direction of quasars. Quasars are thought to be powered by accretion of material onto supermassive black holes…
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Atomic-resolution structure of a ribozyme yields insights into RNA catalysis and the origins of life
Which came first, nucleic acids or proteins? This question is molecular biology’s version of the “chicken-or-the-egg” riddle. Genes made of nucleic acids (DNA or RNA) contain the instructions for making proteins, but enzymes made of proteins are needed to replicate genes. For those who try to understand how life originated, this once seemed an intractable…