Author: Public Affairs

Chemist Joe Konopelski basked in his 15 minutes in the spotlight, and much more, for attempts in his lab to synthesize a potential cancer-fighting compound from a marine animal that divers can no longer find. The San Francisco Chronicle carried the story first, followed by an Associated Press article and photo that hit the front…

This is not your father’s solar system About two years ago, astrophysicist Douglas Lin recalls, speaker after speaker at an astronomy meeting in Hawaii deplored the lack of convincing evidence for new planets outside of our solar system. Lin then arose to state that making planets is incredibly easy. Researchers weren’t finding them, he said,…

The UC Santa Cruz Farm and Garden is looking for volunteer docents to help teach the principles of organic farming and gardening to visitors who tour the Farm and Garden. Farm and Garden docents participate in a range of activities that include tours, public education programs, and other activities that support the Farm and Garden.…

Easy: When eternal inflation ended and ordinary inflation began in our corner of the cosmos Time and the heaven came into being at the same instant in order that, having been created together, if ever there was to be a dissolution of them, they might be dissolved together. –Plato, Timaeus Many questions in cosmology appear…

In a comprehensive new analysis of more than 200 top universities, UCSC ranks 11th in the nation among public campuses in the quality of its research productivity. The study and rankings are detailed in a just-published book that chronicles the rise of a new generation of postwar research universities in the United States. The book,…

Sunny Seattle, just a $64 round-trip away, is playing host to this year’s meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the largest general science organization in the world. The meeting, February 13-18, is an annual showcase for forefront research in science, and it also features interdisciplinary sessions on public policy, science and…

Imagine if remembering how to walk was as hard as remembering your great uncle’s birthday. If you’re like most people, you’d be tripping all over yourself. Indeed, walking is such a natural activity that it’s not something people typically associate with memory. That’s because it draws on what memory researchers call implicit memory, which takes…

A mystery starring globular clusters, the Hubble Telescope, inflation, and the Seven (Sub)dwarfs It’s a curious cosmic conundrum: The most ancient stars appear older than the universe itself. Embarrassing headlines aside, this situation has sparked intense research by astronomers, cosmologists, and stellar modelers, all trying to turn back the clock to reconcile the histories of…

Tina Campt Assistant Professor of Women’s Studies Tina Campt studies the history of Afro-Germans, and Afro-German women in particular. Her work focuses on the period of the Third Reich. She is also interested in questions of identity formation and the ways in which studying the history of Afro-Germans opens up new perspectives on the history…

Residents of Merrill’s B building will be able to bypass busy signals, time limits, and tied up telephone lines next quarter to log directly onto the campus computer network over high speed ethernet lines. In a pilot program, students in that residence hall will be the first to use the Student Communications System, an $8.1-million…

SANTA CRUZ, CA–Deborah Meier, founder of one of the most remarkable public schools in the country, will give a talk at the University of California, Santa Cruz, on Tuesday, February 25, at 7:30 P.M. The talk, titled "The Power of Their Ideas," is free and open to the public. It will be held in room…

SANTA CRUZ, CA–In a comprehensive new analysis of more than 200 top universities, the University of California, Santa Cruz, ranks 15th in the nation in the quality of its research productivity. The study and rankings are detailed in a just-published book that chronicles the rise of a new generation of postwar research universities in the…