Author: Public Affairs

SANTA CRUZ, CA–About 25,000 people die by murder or manslaughter each year in the United States. This translates into a homicide rate of 1 murder or manslaughter for every 10,000 people, a rate roughly 50 times higher than that of New Zealand, 15 times higher than that of Great Britain, and 12 times higher than…

SANTA CRUZ, CA–To complement upcoming presentations of Charles Dickens’s Martin Chuzzlewit (April 2-23, locally) and Hard Times (April 30), airing as part of Mobil Masterpiece Theatre on PBS, a resource kit and viewers’ guide have been produced for use by educators and the general public. The materials were coproduced by the Dickens Project at the…

SANTA CRUZ, CA–Three miles under the whitecaps of the world’s oceans, large chapters of earth’s history are engraved in stone. Sediments that settled millions of years ago on the seafloor recorded everything from temperature change to the slow waltz of drifting continents. Geologists would have a field day–if they could. Alas, the crushing presence of…

SANTA CRUZ, CA–The Institute of Marine Sciences at the University of California, Santa Cruz, already a key link in the growing chain of scientific institutions in the Monterey Bay Area, has received a significant boost from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation of Los Altos: a $1 million award to create an Endowment in Ocean…

SANTA CRUZ, CA–The well-being of the Monterey Bay environment, from the mountaintops to the ocean floor, is the focus of a broad new program based at UC Santa Cruz known as Monterey Bay Regional Studies (MBRS). Researchers at UCSC created the program, pronounced "embers," to help draw dividends from the region’s remarkable wealth of natural…

SANTA CRUZ, CA–Pursuing a plan to increase its membership, the University of California, Santa Cruz, Foundation has added five new trustees to its board. The trustees will participate in the private fund-raising efforts of the board, which promotes and supports academic programs, scholarships and fellowships, and capital improvements at UC Santa Cruz. Two of the…

SANTA CRUZ, CA–Visitors to Long Marine Lab love its blue-whale skeleton. But there’s another whale that really helps the lab thrive: the "Whale of an Auction," an annual fund-raising event for the lab’s public education programs. This year’s extravaganza, the tenth annual auction, begins at 6 p.m. on Friday, March 31, in the Porter College…

SANTA CRUZ, CA–Four scholars from the University of California, Santa Cruz, who have recently published books exploring aspects of the environment and environmental politics will gather for a talk and booksigning on Tuesday, March 21, at 7:30 p.m. at the Capitola Book Cafe, 1475 41st Ave. The talk, titled "Changing Views of Politics, Science, and…

SANTA CRUZ, CA–November in Antarctica: sunshine round the clock, melting ice, calm weather. Perfect conditions for an explosion of plant growth in the water, fueling a future feeding frenzy for penguins, walruses, whales, and seabirds. A perfect time, too, for a cruise to study the workings of this food web–the foundation of one of the…

SANTA CRUZ, CA–Physicist Abraham Seiden has received the "outstanding faculty award" for 1994-95 from his peers in the Natural Sciences Division at UC Santa Cruz. The annual award honors excellence in three areas: research, teaching, and service to the campus, scientific organizations, and the public. Seiden, a professor of physics, directs the Santa Cruz Institute…

SANTA CRUZ–The manager of the Alan Chadwick Garden at the University of California, Santa Cruz, will teach gardening techniques at a free workshop Saturday, March 11, from noon to 2 p.m. at UCSanta Cruz. Orin Martin will offer ideas on how to select and start seeds, enrich soil, and prepare garden beds for planting. He…

SANTA CRUZ, CA–The air is abuzz–literally–as scores of tiny iridescent hummingbirds alight in the Arboretum at the University of California, Santa Cruz, just in time for the annual Hummingbird Festival. The birds don’t know about the festival, of course. They just come to sample the Arboretum’s plentiful nectar-rich blooms. Scheduled for Saturday, March 18, this…