Author: Public Affairs

Barry Sinervo Assistant Professor of Biology Barry Sinervo, a behavioral ecologist, uses the common side-blotched lizard as a model system to study the fascinating ways in which animal behavior and hormonal systems can dictate evolution and sexual selection. He received acclaim for a recent paper in Nature that described "rock-scissors-paper" mating strategies among male lizards…

SANTA CRUZ, CA–When poor vision hobbled the Hubble Space Telescope, UC Santa Cruz astronomer Sandra Faber and several colleagues suggested that a set of high-tech corrective lenses would restore the telescope’s keen eyesight. They were right, and in the last three years Hubble has rewarded astronomers–and the public– with one stunning view of the cosmos…

For years, union organizers and labor activists have urged consumers to "buy American" as a show of support for American workers. But does buying a Volvo really put U.S. autoworkers out of work? Does increasing foreign competition actually depress U.S. wages? Economists disagree. At UCSC, labor economist Lori Kletzer () is embarking on a 12-month…

SCIPP researchers skeptical about hints of a new particle In a famous experiment more than 80 years ago, physicist Ernest Rutherford fired particles into an ultrathin layer of gold. Most particles zipped through, but some ricocheted sideways and backward, as if they had struck immovable objects. This amazing result parted the curtain of mystery around…

Gail Hershatter, professor of history, is the author of Dangerous Pleasures: Prostitution and Modernity in Twentieth-Century Shanghai (University of California Press, 1997). Hershatter makes use of a broad array of sources–from classical texts, to newspaper reports on court cases, to surveys by doctors and social workers–to present an intellectual history on one of society’s most…

Alumni, current and prospective students, and their families and friends will come to the campus on Saturday, April 19, for the Banana Slug Spring Fair. Last year, more than 3,000 people attended the fair. This year’s campus open house features special faculty lectures; alumni reunions; tours of the colleges, campus, and special facilities; and presentations…

SANTA CRUZ, CA–The National Science Foundation announced on March 28 that it will negotiate a five-year agreement with the University of California, San Diego, to revolutionize high-performance computing resources for the nation’s scientists and engineers. UC Santa Cruz is one of 37 institutions that will contribute to the program, called the National Partnership for Advanced…

Nature Magazine Publishes Commentary By Linguist That Shows Ebonics Is A Linguistically Sound Dialect Editors: Below is a commentary piece written by Geoffrey K. Pullum, professor of linguistics at the University of California, Santa Cruz, on both the decision by the Oakland school board to recognize Ebonics as a language of its students and the…

SANTA CRUZ, CA–Are female faculty underpaid? The question quickly triggers a host of follow-up queries, such as how do you weigh productivity? How do you compare the productivity of faculty artists and scientists? Should faculty research be reviewed independent of teaching performance? Ronald Oaxaca, a professor of economics at the University of Arizona, has been…

The Space Telescope Science Institute has selected 15 young scientists for the 1997 Hubble Postdoctoral Fellowship Program. Inaugurated in 1990, the program funds research opportunities for outstanding applicants chosen from among the approximately 200 Ph.D. astronomers and astrophysicists who graduate annually. Appointed for three-year terms, Hubble Fellows conduct research of their choice related to the…

Two Academic Senate committees have endorsed the proposed major in electrical engineering, the final step in the campus approval process, said Executive Vice Chancellor R. Michael Tanner. "Implementation of the electrical engineering undergraduate major represents a critical step forward in the development of engineering programs at UC Santa Cruz," Tanner said. The Academic Senate Committee…

United Press International spoke with physicist Michael Nauenberg about the London conference he helped to organize on Isaac Newton. The science and history conference, held on March 21, attracted the world’s leading Newtonian scholars. The San Francisco Chronicle published a paean to Pioneer 10, the most distant spacecraft from Earth. A diagram showed the famous…