Annapurna Devi Pandey, an anthropologist at the University of California, Santa Cruz, whose research has taken her to homes for the abandoned in her native India, says respect for elders remains ingrained in society, but some must make a difficult choice between caring for their children or their parents. “The sense of duty,” she says, “becomes kind of an existential issue.”
UCSC in the News
August
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August 27, 2024 - The New York TimesWith Dams Removed, Salmon Will Have the Run of a Western River
Environmental Studies Ph.D. student Brook Thompson, who grew up on the Yurok reservation, explained the importance of restoring salmon in the Klamath River to historical levels. “My grandpa said that there were so many salmon when he was younger that you could walk across their backs to the other side,” Thompson said. “It’s just so hard to express to people who are so used to fishing for sport or fun that salmon is really everything for us. The health of the river is literally our health.” Additional coverage in the Los Angeles Times. -
August 27, 2024 - Ed SourceLet’s ensure ‘Recess for All’ law really does apply to all
Rebecca London, a professor of sociology and faculty director of Campus + Community at the University of California, Santa Cruz, co-wrote this opinion piece that highlights healthier learning environments California students can expect this fall thanks to the landmark Senate Bill 291. Known as "Recess for All," the bill requires elementary schools to provide students with at least 30 minutes of daily recess, while also prohibiting withholding recess as punishment. -
August 27, 2024 - The Mercury News‘Brutal’ trade-offs keep some South Bay farmworkers laboring in dangerous heat
Global and Community Health Program co-director Matt Sparke, who is currently studying the impacts of climate change on farmworker health, spoke with The Mercury News about the risks of rising temperatures and the barriers and incentives that keep workers from taking advantage of state-mandated heat protections.
“The trade-offs are brutal, and the risks are compounding on so many levels,” Sparke said. -
August 22, 2024 - The EconomistAmerica’s recession signals are flashing red. Don’t believe them
An early-warning system for recessions would be worth trillions of dollars. Governments could dole out stimulus at just the right time; investors could turn a nice profit. Unfortunately, the process for calling a recession is too slow to be useful. America’s arbiter, the National Bureau of Economic Research, can take months to decide. Other countries simply look at gdp data, which emerge with a lag. A new paper by Pascal Michaillat of the University of California, Santa Cruz, adds a second indicator: changes in the job-openings rate.
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August 28, 2024 - BillboardUC Santa Cruz’s Quarry Amphitheater gears up for first concert since extensive renovation
Billboard teases the upcoming return to concerts this fall at the Quarry Amphitheater. The amphitheater officially reopens as a music venue on October 12 with Kevin Morby. This reopening comes after years of being closed due to COVID-19 and rennovations. -
August 22, 2024 - KTVUUC Santa Cruz begins DNA study to save endangered brown bears
It's a race against time to save one of the nation's most iconic animals: the brown bear. As their numbers continue to plummet nationwide, UC Santa Cruz is stepping in with groundbreaking research to unlock the secrets hidden in their DNA by creating a 23andMe concept for bears. Joanna Kelley, an ecology and evolutionary biology professor at UC Santa Cruz and the project's lead investigator, discussed the project.
Additional coverage by KING5 news.
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August 20, 2024 - Entertainment WeeklyAlicia Silverstone worries fans after eating potentially poisonous fruit
Rachel Meyer, an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at UC Santa Cruz, was able to confirm the identity of the plant to Entertainment Weekly as Solanum pseudocapsicum. She noted that the plant "is mildly poisonous but a couple of fruits won't hurt—worst is it could make you vomit." -
August 18, 2024 - KUOWSan Juans’ sea stars start long crawl back from near-extinction
“Such a large number were impacted over such a large area that captive rearing probably isn’t realistic for restoring populations,” said Bellingham-based researcher Melissa Miner with University of California, Santa Cruz. “Raising them to sub-adult size takes a lot of time and resources.” Additional coverage in Canadian Geographic.
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August 14, 2024 - ScienceWill regulators OK controversial effort to supercharge ocean’s ability to absorb carbon?
Given the controversy surrounding geoengineering experiments, it’s important for scientists to do public outreach before experiments happen, Environmental Studies Professor Sikina Jinnah told Science. Although scientists might be inclined to stay in the lab and focus on the technical questions, they need to engage with the public, she says. “Until scientists take this seriously, we’re going to continue being in a holding pattern.” -
August 15, 2024 - Popular ScienceYou can (probably) sing better than you think
Popular Science covered research by cognitive science Ph.D. Candidate Matt Evans and Psychology Professor Nicholas Davidenko that shows a surprisingly large portion of the population has a type of automatic, hidden 'perfect pitch' ability. Additional coverage in Earth, Cosmos, and Yahoo News. -
August 12, 2024 - Business InsiderThere's a 40% chance the US economy is already in a recession, according to a new indicator
Business Insider covered a new paper coauthored by Associate Professor of Economics Pascal Michaillat that presents a new recession indicator method that uses data on both the unemployment rate and the vacancy rate for jobs. -
August 12, 2024 - The VergeA controversial experiment to artificially cool Earth was canceled — what we know about why
Environmental Studies Professor Sikina Jinnah, who co-chaired the advisory committee for Harvard University's SCoPEX solar geoengineering experiment, talked to The Verge about some of the lessons learned from that process. “One of the core messages that comes out of this is that public engagement is necessary even when you don’t think that the impact of the experiment is going to be felt in a real way, in a concrete way, in real time," she said. "This issue has such a long tail, and it has such deeper meaning for so many people.”
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August 13, 2024 - CNNFact check: Trump made at least 20 false claims in his conversation with Elon Musk
Gary Griggs, a University of California, Santa Cruz professor of earth and planetary sciences who studies sea-level rise, said last year that Trump’s similar claims “can only be described as totally out of touch with reality” and that Trump “has no idea what he is talking about.”
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August 12, 2024 - East Bay TimesA new plan seeks to protect California's coast against a rising ocean. And it doesn't require sea walls.
“This is the biggest dilemma human civilization has had to face,” said Gary Griggs, a distinguished professor of Earth Sciences at UC Santa Cruz, in an interview earlier this year. “Many of the biggest cities in the world are at sea level. Our options are very few. We have to face it. There is absolutely nothing we can do over the long term to hold back the Pacific Ocean.”
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August 11, 2024 - Los Angeles TimesOutbreak of neurotoxin killing unprecedented number of sea lions along California coast
Raphe Kudela, a professor of ocean science at UC Santa Cruz, said there might also be a connection to heat and runoff from inland rivers. He said in the last few years, really wet winters have contributed to an increase in river runoff — and a resulting dump of nutrients into California’s coastal waters. “So you get a pulse of upwelling, which brought some cool water with even more nutrients to the surface, and then everything warmed up. That’s just absolutely perfect conditions for a bloom like this,” he said.
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August 07, 2024 - Scientific AmericanMoon ‘Spiders’ Suggest Extensive Underground Lunar Caves
The researchers spotted the first four spiders hiding almost imperceptibly in a photograph from the powerful cameras on NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter: “The spider legs are almost at the edge of resolution,” says the study’s lead author, Mikhail A. Kreslavsky, a planetary scientist at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
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August 06, 2024 - SF GatePack of coyotes surround, kill dog on popular San Francisco beach
A family group of coyotes have dwelled in the Presidio for decades, and the canines visit and occupy beach habitats year-round, which can be important areas for feeding and denning in the same way green spaces and parks are in a highly developed city like San Francisco, said Frankie Gerraty, a Ph.D. student at UC Santa Cruz who has been studying coyotes hunting harbor seal pups along the California coastline.
“I love dogs and think that dogs should be allowed on some beaches, but I do think that dog owners need to recognize that their dogs can strongly influence beach ecosystems and wildlife in a variety of direct and indirect ways,” Gerraty said.
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August 01, 2024 - The Washington PostAs India ages, a secret shame emerges: Elders abandoned by their children
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August 01, 2024 - ThrillistUp Close and Personal With the Secret Elephant Seals of Año Nuevo State Park
University of California, Santa Cruz lecturer Patrick Robinson, who has been studying the pinnipeds for over 20 years, and other scientists affix satellite tracking devices on elephant seals to determine how they migrate with such pinpoint precision. “Better understanding how elephant seals migrate will help us learn more about other deep-ocean-dwelling mammals, such as elusive beaked whales that have experienced mass stranding events,” Robinson explains.
July
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July 30, 2024 - The HillCalifornia’s housing crisis could be raising risk of climate disasters, researchers fear
The Hill covered research being led by Sociology Professor Miriam Greenberg and Associate Professor of Sociology Hillary Angelo, which is testing the theory that lack of affordable housing in California’s urban centers may be fueling increased development in adjacent wildlands—exacerbating the impacts of climate change. -
July 26, 2024 - Financial ExpressThe Budget and the end of ‘reform’
Distinguished Professor of Economics Nirvikar Singh wrote an opinion article for Financial Express arguing that the complex nature of modern manufacturing makes tariff policy difficult to implement perfectly in India, but minimal attempts at fine-tuning are a good sign. -
July 22, 2024 - Los Angeles Times
Could AI robots with lasers make herbicides — and farm workers — obsolete?
Chris Benner, professor of sociology and environmental studies and director of the Institute for Social Transformation, likened the disruptive potential of new agricultural tools. “We need more efficiencies in agriculture to improve profit margins and be able to pay workers in the field more, but that’s ultimately going to displace some people,” Benner said. “What do we do, in that context, to support people who need new training into other types of jobs? The social challenges are much harder than the technical training challenges.” -
July 17, 2024 - SierraPrisoners Are Uniquely Vulnerable to Extreme Heat and Flooding
Several options exist for dealing with climate hazards in California prisons, explains Abby Cunniff, a PhD candidate at the University of California, Santa Cruz, who studies environmental injustice and California prisons. One is to make prisons more durable to climate effects.
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July 31, 2024 - Santa Cruz SentinelUC Santa Cruz awarded portion of federal coastal resiliency grant
UC Santa Cruz will receive more than $2 million in federal grant funding from the total $71.1 million recently awarded to the California Marine Sanctuary Foundation to boost the resiliency of coastal communities threatened by sea level rise and extreme weather.
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July 31, 2024 - San Jose Mercury NewsPeregrine falcons mount a comeback in Yosemite, thanks to rock climbers
The Santa Cruz Predatory Bird Research Group hired climbers to gather egg shell samples from the nest ledges for testing. Then the group launched a bold plan: take the thin-walled eggs from nests, incubate and hatch them in the safety of a laboratory, and return the young to the nests.
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July 31, 2024 - The GuardianScientists propose lunar biorepository as ‘backup’ for life on Earth
“In order for cloning to be an option, one needs cells that are alive,” said Beth Shapiro, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at UC Santa Cruz and chief science officer of the de-extinction company Colossal Biosciences, who was not involved in the lunar biorepository proposal. This means it is not possible to clone a woolly mammoth from DNA fragments, she explained, but de-extinction is possible if tissue samples are collected and stored in a way that ensures the cells stay alive. -
July 24, 2024 - KneeDeep TimesLetting the Cliff Crumble
Which is exactly why fellow UCSC Professor Mike Beck, director of the Center for Coastal Climate Resilience, believes “moving back,” also called planned relocation or managed retreat, also isn’t a viable solution for West Cliff despite the fact it’s another key strategy of the 50-Year Vision. “To me, it’s simply an easy way to kick the can down the road and pretend like it’s actually a strategy.” -
July 24, 2024 - SF GateWhat it's like to live in a Calif. tourist attraction being swallowed by the sea
The flooding along the Capitola coastline is only likely to get worse as climate change progresses, according to Gary Griggs, a professor of Earth and planetary sciences at UC Santa Cruz, who has been working in the area for more than 50 years.
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July 18, 2024 - Santa Cruz Sentinel
UC Santa Cruz workshop explores brain-inspired computing
“This workshop is just as much about workforce development as it is about the future of semiconductors,” said assistant professor of physics Aiming Yan. “Being so close to Silicon Valley, we want to help students across the region realize that this is a promising area to pursue a career in.”
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July 17, 2024 - New AtlasOur brains take naps while we're awake – and wake when we're asleep
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July 16, 2024 - KQEDAlgal Blooms Love Heat Waves. When is Bay Area Swimming Dangerous for Humans and Pets?
Not every algal bloom is toxic to humans and animals, but the bright green bloom currently floating on the surface of Discovery Bay definitely could be, said Raphael Kudela, a phytoplankton ecologist at UC Santa Cruz. This bloom is caused by cyanobacteria, which Kudela describes as “harmful algae that produces really nasty toxins.”
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July 16, 2024 - Santa Cruz Sentinel
Guest Commentary | Unions benefit workers — and employers
Veronica Hamilton, a graduate student researcher for the Center for Labor and Community, and Teresa Ghilarducci, a researcher collaborating with the center, wrote an opinion article for the Santa Cruz Sentinel about the importance of labor unions. They write that union activity creates a "ripple effect" that ultimately "lifts living standards and promotes dignity in work across the economy." -
July 11, 2024 - Rest of WorldThe Northeast Indian YouTubers challenging cultural stereotypes through mukbang
Anthropology Professor Dolly Kikon says viral mukbang videos from Northeast India show an intimate relationship between tribal communities, their land, and natural resources. “In these videos, food from the source to the table is being emphasized," she told Rest of World. "There is [an] assertion of indigeneity, there is an element of ecology. In a few minutes, they [the creators] are bringing the entire landscape in, and telling their own story.”
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July 10, 2024 - Canadian GeographicMelting away: The fight against Sea Star Wasting Disease
Carrie Melissa Miner, an Academic Specialist with UC Santa Cruz and researcher at MARINe, says that instances of Sea Star Wasting Disease are difficult to study due to the limited stress responses that sea stars exhibit. “When sea stars are observed with lesions or tissue necrosis, particularly when there are just a handful of individuals, we cannot be sure whether symptoms are a result of disease or from another cause such as injury incurred from a predation attempt that exposed tissue to bacteria/infection,” she says.
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July 12, 2024 - Scientific American
How Antarctic Scientists Think about the Future of Our Planet
Another episode of Scientific American's Science Quickly podcast featured UC Santa Cruz chemical oceanographers Carl Lamborg and Phoebe Lam and doctoral student Marissa Despins. The three discussed how the climate crisis intertwines with their work. Listen to the previous episodes on June 14 and June 28. -
July 12, 2024 - Washington Post
Webb space telescope keeps delivering cosmic surprises
Garth Illingworth, an astronomer at the University of California at Santa Cruz who was among the people who dreamed up the Webb in the late 1980s, said the telescope has assembled a vast amount of data on exoplanets — the worlds that orbit distant stars. That data still needs to be assembled into a coherent picture, he added. “It is a little like an alien walking through an earthly zoo, looking at the vast range of animals and then trying to assemble the relationships and common aspects,” he said.
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July 15, 2024 - San Francisco Chronicle: DatebookIn ‘Seeing Through Stone,’ artists imagine a world without prisons
Highlights from 'Seeing Through Stone,' an exhibition co-created with the Institute of Arts and Science and the San Jose Museum of Art. The UC Santa Cruz sponsored show includes artists from all over the country reflecting on incarceration and prison abolition. -
July 12, 2024 - The Santa Cruz Sentinel
Filmmakers of ‘You Will Not Replace Us’ attend screening, discussion in Capitola
This week, the Santa Cruz Sentinel covered a panel discussion moderated by University of California, Santa Cruz Continuing Lecturer in History and Literature Bruce Thompson, who spoke with the filmmakers of “You Will Not Replace Us,"which confronts the complex relationship between Black and Jewish Americans and the common struggle to fight hate. -
July 05, 2024 - The PajaronianGoing forth for beach cleanup
UC Santa Cruz chemistry professor Rebecca Braslau, whose team is working on methods to break down post-consumer plastic and turn it into something useful, was collecting trash to get a boots-on-the-ground view of the scope of plastic waste. “We try to raise awareness about single-use plastic items in general, and this is part of that,” she said.
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July 05, 2024 - East Bay Times
Fremont blames heat for massive Lake Elizabeth fish die-off
Mark Carr, a professor of marine ecology at the University of California, Santa Cruz, said the fish are suffocating because they are competing with the lake’s ecosystem over the limited oxygen and losing ... “You can get phytoplankton blooms, algal blooms, at night that the phytoplankton respires, which means it consumes oxygen, so then it too will reduce the oxygen levels in the water – especially in the shallow water that is more vulnerable to the heat.” -
July 02, 2024 - Santa Cruz Sentinel
UC Santa Cruz community archivist named Watsonville Film Festival board president
UC Santa Cruz's first community archivists, Rebecca Hernandez, will be taking over as the President of the Watsonville Film Festival. She was on the board for the festival and is excited to be taking over from former president Yazmin Herrera. Hernandez hopes to expand the organization, bringing in more filmmakers and more voices. -
June 26, 2024 - Santa Cruz Sentinel
Talking Heads fans rejoice: Jerry Harrison, ‘Stop Making Sense’ coming to UC Santa Cruz
UC Santa Cruz's Quarry Amphitheater is hosting a one of a kind showing on the 1984 concert movie 'Stop Making Sense.'
June
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June 27, 2024 - Miami HeraldHarsh Florida law sees more Black kids tried as adults than white kids
The Miami Herald interviewed Psychology Professor Craig Haney about the possible impacts of a Florida law that has seen more juveniles tried as adults. “For young people who are in the process of development and haven’t fully learned social skills … this is an experience that damages their maturation,” Haney said. -
June 18, 2024 - GristChicago teachers demand climate solutions in their next contract
As heat and extreme weather become more prevalent because of the climate crisis, J. Mijin Cha, an environmental studies professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz, said it makes sense that climate demands are turning up in union negotiations. “If you want a green school, you have to really think about what the challenges of the climate crisis will bring to students who are trying to study,” said Cha. “Things like heat and other things that will intensify from the climate crisis are then educational issues.”
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June 26, 2024 - Sky & TelescopeNew Observatory Opens in the Young Country of Kosovo
Pranvera Hyseni is a force of nature when it comes to pursuing her passion. Currently a PhD student at the University of California, Santa Cruz, Pranvera studies the composition of meteorites. Nevertheless, she found the time and energy to not only engage in cutting-edge research but also to establish her country’s premier astronomical facility. Additional coverage by Radio Free Europe. -
June 28, 2024 - Scientific American
Life for Researchers on This Icebreaker Is Cold and Fulfilling
Scientific American interviewed UC Santa Cruz chemical oceanographers Carl Lamborg and Phoebe Lam and doctoral student Marissa Despins about how researchers live and work on a U.S. icebreaker making its way through the waters of West Antarctica. -
June 28, 2024 - CNNFact check: Sea levels are already rising faster per year than Trump claims they might rise over ‘next 497 years’
Gary Griggs, a University of California, Santa Cruz professor of earth and planetary sciences who studies sea level rise, said last year that Trump’s similar claims "can only be described as totally out of touch with reality" and that Trump "has no idea what he is talking about."
Additional coverage by Yahoo News and KTEN-TV.
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June 24, 2024 - Smithsonian MagazineThese Supercorals Are Causing Problems
Despite how placid corals appear, in reality they’re constantly competing with each other, explains Giacomo Bernardi, a molecular ecologist at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and the lead author of the new study. Once one species has an advantage—for instance, being more resilient against warming water, acidification or different fishing practices—it will outcompete other species, Bernardi says. “It’s going to overgrow the other ones.”
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June 25, 2024 - earth.comHydrothermal vents could support life on Jupiter's moons
“This study suggests that low temperature hydrothermal systems could have been sustained on ocean worlds beyond Earth over timescales comparable to that required for life to take hold on Earth,” said Andrew Fisher, the study’s lead author and a distinguished professor of Earth and planetary sciences at UC Santa Cruz.
Additional coverage in Space.com, Live Science and Yahoo.
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June 25, 2024 - Ars TechnicaResearchers upend AI status quo by eliminating matrix multiplication in LLMs
Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering Jason Eshraghian's research on energy effecient large language models was featured in Ars Tecnica, with additional coverage in Venture Beat, The Register, and Tech Xplore. -
June 20, 2024 - NBC MiamiUM develops artificial reef as coral restoration efforts put on hold
“We’re facing increasing risks on our coastline, that’s because of enhanced coastal development but also loss of our coastal habitats," said Dr. Mike Beck, the director of the Center for Coastal Resilience at the University of California at Santa Cruz. "Those habitats are our first line of coastal defense, coral reefs, mangroves and other wetlands, and without those reefs the cost of storms could double, so what we’re trying to do is restore those reefs, enhance those protections and reduce our risks overall." -
June 14, 2024 - BBCAntarctic whale 'acrobatics' revealed in drone footage
As BBC News filmed with scientists in the Antarctic Peninsula, one whale used its four-metre-long fin to sweep a net of bubbles around its prey and trap them, known as "bubble-netting". "The flick of that of that flipper really shows how adaptable, how creative, these animals can be," said Dr Ari Friedlaender from the University of California, Santa Cruz. Humpbacks are "much more acrobatic" than other similarly sized whales, Dr Friedlaender said.
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June 14, 2024 - Scientific American
Glacial Melting Could Change the Chemistry of Antarctic Seawater
Phoebe Lam, a chemical oceanographer at the University of California, Santa Cruz, is featured in Scientific American's Science Quickly podcast episode on how an iron infusion from glacial meltwater might change Antarctica’s seas and the climate.
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June 12, 2024 - The AtlanticA Wild Plan to Avert Catastrophic Sea-Level Rise
An audacious plan to avert sea-level rise was dreamed up by a member of the older guard, a 57-year-old glaciologist at UC Santa Cruz named Slawek Tulaczyk.
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June 14, 2024 - ABC NewsExtra moisture on West Coast allowing climate-sensitive Joshua trees to recover: Experts
The obligate mutualism between the moth and the Joshua tree is limited to a narrow belt where the trees grow best, as neither can survive at high elevations, but the tree cannot reproduce in low elevations either, according to research led by UC Santa Cruz professor of environmental studies Gregory Gilbert.
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June 10, 2024 - DeadlineSundance Institute sets Producers Lab Fellows for 2024
The Sundance Institute selected UC Santa Cruz Alumna, Brenda Avila-Hanna (2013, M.F.A. Social Documentary) as one of their producing fellows for the upcoming season. -
June 09, 2024 - Times of San DiegoUCSD-UCSC Coastal Project Highlights Importance of Building Local Resilience to Climate Change
The University of California at Santa Cruz’s Center for Coastal Climate Resilience is working on a project to explore local mitigations along with UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the San Diego Supercomputer Center, using cutting-edge technology and natural structures to model climate solutions. “A great deal of risk is driven by our coastal development choices,” said Michael Beck, a UC Santa Cruz marine sciences professor and the Center for Coastal Climate Resilience director. -
June 07, 2024 - BBC
Following Antarctic whales for climate change clues
Natalia Botero Acosta, a postdoctoral researcher at UC Santa Cruz, takes samples of whale blubber with a crossbow, and tests them in her lab to look for signs of hunger, stress or pregnancy, using chemical signals, or hormones, that build up in its blubber. -
June 10, 2024 - American Council Of Learned SocietiesExperiential learning at the University of California, Santa Cruz: How one dean collaborated with others to recenter the humanities and expand experiential learning
Heather Hewett of the The American Councll Of Learned Societies wrote a feature story for the ACLS focusing on Employing Humanities and Experiential Learning in the Humanities Division at UC Santa Cruz, and Humanities Dean Jasmine Alinder's work to center Humanities and expand Experiential Learning on campus. -
June 08, 2024 - Financial Express
Restating status as largest democracy
Distinguished Professor of Economics Nirvikar Singh wrote an opinion article for Financial Express analyzing outcomes from India's recent elections and their potential economic impacts. -
June 07, 2024 - KSQDSowing Seeds: Stories of Filipino Immigrants in Pajaro Valley
A look into the Sowing Seeds exhibition at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art History, which was curated by PhD candidate Christina Alyson Plank. The work examines the lives of Filipino Americans in the Pajaro Valley over the last century. The podcast intervews Grace McCarty, one of the members of Watsonville is in the Heart, one of the organizations that help establish this exhibition.
May
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May 31, 2024 - National GeographicDon't cut them down: Letting dead trees rot can help make new life
“Wood-decay basidiomycetes are unusual in that they can break down a major compound of the wood called lignin,” says Gregory Gilbert, a professor of environmental studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz. “Once that is broken down, the easier-to-eat cellulose is available for other fungi, insects, and bacteria.”
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May 30, 2024 - Financial Express
Put food and water on the policy table
In this opinion piece, Nirvikar Singh, a professor of economics, argues that redesigning agriculture policy around ideas of growing food and preserving water resources, and starting with farmers, makes political and economic sense.
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May 29, 2024 - Internationale Politik QuarterlyHow to Help Build Peace in Sudan
Politics Professor and Legal Studies Program Director Mark Fathi Massoud wrote for Internationale Politik Quarterly about the steps EU policymakers must take to support Sudanese civil society, cut off weapons supplies to militias, and prevent a catastrophic humanitarian crisis. -
May 30, 2024 - The GuardianJames Webb space telescope photographs most distant known galaxy
Prof Brant Robertson, of the University of California-Santa Cruz, said: “We could have detected this galaxy even if it were 10 times fainter, which means that we could see other examples yet earlier in the universe – probably into the first 200m years. The early universe has so much more to offer.”
Additional coverage in Scientific American.
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May 29, 2024 - Martha's Vineyard TimesHerring runs depleted across the Island
A study by researchers at the University of California Santa Cruz has concluded that “bycatch was an important source of mortality” for river herring “originating from rivers within the Mid-Atlantic and Southern New England.”
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May 29, 2024 - The Atlantic‘La Niña Really Can’t Come Soon Enough’
"California loves El Niño because that rescued us last year from the drought," Alexa Fredston, a quantitative ecologist at UC Santa Cruz, told me. The climate phenomenon should cool the world. But first, we have to make it through another sweltering summer.
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May 30, 2024 - Yahoo NewsTV's teen love stories are getting the 'grid treatment' on social media.
Associate Professor L. S. Kim comments on modern teen shows and their iconography, focusing on the similar moments between teen shows throughout the past 25 years. -
May 23, 2024 - GizmodoNASA Releases Catalog Packed With the Most Bizarre Alien Worlds
“Planets similar in size typically have a mass between roughly 6 and 12 times the mass of Earth,” explained Joseph Murphy, a graduate student at UC Santa Cruz and co-author of the study. This “exoplanet oddity” as Murphy refers to it, may have an Earth-like core surrounded by an unusually thin, hydrogen-dominated atmosphere, or it could have a water-rich core beneath a steam atmosphere. Additional coverage by CNN Brasil.
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May 23, 2024 - ForbesRussia’s Stationing A Nuclear ASAT In Orbit Could Spark Next World War
Astrophysicist Joel Primack, Distinguished Professor of Physics Emeritus at the University of California, Santa Cruz, said: “If ~1000 Starlink satellites were explosively destroyed, a debris chain reaction would create a lethal debris field” - a giant and deathly halo of “tiny missiles” that circles the Earth for generations into the future.
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May 29, 2024 - Santa Cruz Sentinel
Museum of Art & History exhibit highlights Filipino American stories
The Santa Cruz Sentinel ran a feature story about "Sowing Seeds," an ongoing Museum of Art & History exhibit highlighting Filipino American history in the Pajaro Valley. The exhibition is the result of a prestigious $75,000 Public Humanities Projects: Exhibitions Planning grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to Watsonville Is In The Heart (WIITH), housed in The Humanities Institute at UC Santa Cruz. -
May 27, 2024 - Phys.orgCamera tags capture social flexibility of Antarctic minke whales
The study was led by Dr. Jenny Allen as a Griffith University Research Associate in collaboration with the University of California Santa Cruz (UCSC). Data were collected in 2018 and 2019 around the Western Antarctic Peninsula as part of a research grant from the National Science Foundation's Office of Polar Programs to Dr. Ari Friedlaender, a Professor in UCSC's Ocean Sciences Department. -
May 24, 2024 - NewsweekDead Baby Sea Lions Suddenly Found on California Islands Spark Concerns
According to a report by the Los Angeles Times on Thursday, Patrick Robinson, director at the University of California Santa Cruz Año Nuevo Reserve, said it is not uncommon to see "some" dead baby sea lions around this time of year; however, he said the number observed this month is "alarming."
Additional coverage by KSBW, Newsweek, SFGate, SFist, and other outlets.
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May 23, 2024 - EosConfined at Sea at the End of the World
Embedded on a research cruise in the Antarctic, a journalist joins a scientists’ “summer camp” led by UC Santa Cruz researchers. -
May 23, 2024 - KPBSAs lithium emerges in Imperial County, what will it take for residents to benefit?
KPBS spoke with Chris Benner, faculty director of the Institute for Social Transformation, about findings from a report he recently coauthored on equitable economic development opportunities for lithium in California's Imperial Valley. -
May 21, 2024 - Santa Cruz Sentinel
Mountain lion prompts brief lockdown at Aptos High School
Environmental Studies Professor Chris Wilmers, founder of the Santa Cruz Puma Project, spoke with the Santa Cruz Sentinel about local mountain lion behavior.
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