Office of Research
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New book on startling Confederate policy during Civil War
Relatively few people are aware that during the Civil War, Confederate leaders put forth a proposal to arm slaves to fight against the Union in exchange for their freedom. In his new book Confederate Emancipation: Southern Plans to Free and Arm Slaves during the Civil War (Oxford University Press, 2006), UC Santa Cruz history professor…
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Nathaniel Mackey to deliver annual UCSC Faculty Research Lecture
UC Santa Cruz professor of literature Nathaniel Mackey will deliver the 38th annual Faculty Research Lecture on Wednesday, February 15, at 8 p.m. in the Music Center Recital Hall. His lecture is titled “Cante Moro.” The event is free and open to the public. Mackey was selected by UCSC faculty members for the prestigious honor…
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UCSC conference to reflect on New Orleans after Katrina
The UCSC Center for Cultural Studies will present a one-day conference, “Reflections on Katrina: Place, Persistence & the Lives of Cities” on Saturday, January 21, from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. at Oakes College, Room 105. The conference is the second of three quarterly events in 2005-06 that are part of the Center for Cultural…
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New study highlights role of hit-and-run collisions in the formation of planets, asteroids, and meteorites
Hit-and-run collisions between embryonic planets during a critical period in the early history of the Solar System may account for some previously unexplained properties of planets, asteroids, and meteorites, according to researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, who describe their findings in a paper to appear in the January 12 issue of the…
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History professor finds powerful women’s labor movement in Latin America
In 2001, UC Santa Cruz history professor Dana Frank was asked by the U.S. Labor Education in the Americas Project (US/LEAP), a Chicago nonprofit, to develop a union label for the U.S. banana market. Frank signed on as a consultant and traveled to Central America to attend union workshops and regional conferences. She stayed with…
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Large survey of galaxies yields new findings on star formation
New findings from a large survey of galaxies suggest that star formation is largely driven by the supply of raw materials, rather than by galactic mergers that trigger sudden bursts of star formation. Stars form when clouds of gas and dust collapse under the force of gravity, and the study supports a scenario in which…
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Astrophysicists detect very high-energy gamma rays from the Milky Way
Scientists using the Milagro Gamma-ray Observatory in New Mexico have captured evidence of radiation emitted from the plane of our home galaxy at extremely high energies. The researchers detected “TeV gamma rays”–electromagnetic radiation in the one trillion electronvolt energy range, about a trillion times more energetic than visible light–and determined that the gamma rays were…
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Simulations shed light on Earth’s history of magnetic field reversals
A new analysis of computer simulations of Earth’s magnetic field suggests that its behavior was different early in Earth’s history, resulting in greater stability and fewer reversals of the magnetic field. The findings by researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, are helping to reconcile the geologic record of magnetic field reversals with the…
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Unmanned submersible sheds light on an undersea volcano
Rock samples collected last year show surprising variation in the chemistry of an undersea volcano on the Juan de Fuca Ridge near Seattle. The variation comes from the mantle, the source of the magma that erupted from the volcano to form the rocks, and may influence the microbial communities that now inhabit the volcano, said…
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Ancient sediments show influence of southern ocean circulation on climate
About 34 million years ago, the Earth’s climate transitioned from a “greenhouse climate” to the “icehouse climate” of today, forming a massive ice sheet on the Antarctic continent. A new study by Linda Anderson, an ocean sciences researcher at the University of California, Santa Cruz, suggests that oceanographic features in the Southern Ocean–the intensity of…