UCSC in the News
November
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November 27, 2023 - Mercury News
UC Santa Cruz researchers build AI to prevent drownings
Professor of Computer Science Alex Pang's research on using AI to monitor beach conditions was featured in the Santa Cruz Sentinel and the Mercury News. -
November 20, 2023 - Grist
The UAW ratifies a contract — and labor’s road ahead in the EV transition
Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies Mijin Cha told Grist that labor organizing efforts within the renewable energy transition must not be framed as obstacles to progress on climate change. “The greed of the fossil fuel industry is what’s stopping the energy transition, not the fact that people want to make a decent wage,” she said. -
November 16, 2023 - Financial Express
India and the APEC
Nirvikar Singh, distinguished professor of economics at UC Santa Cruz, argues in an op-ed that, if India can obtain an APEC membership, it would help improve flows of knowledge, capital, and goods within the region through better coordination of policies. -
November 14, 2023 - The Mercury News
Predator protector
Environmental Studies Professor Chris Wilmers was interviewed by The Mercury News for a story about mountain lion researchers. -
November 13, 2023 - New Scientist
Just leaving trees to grow could store a third of our carbon emissions
Environmental Studies Professor Karen Holl urged caution in interpreting the findings of a new study by other researchers. Holl says the global analysis might miss complicated social and ecological dynamics that determine whether protection or restoration of forests is possible at a local level. -
November 13, 2023 - Los Angeles Times
‘We’re not going to quit’: Why a California community is boycotting carrots
Professor Emeritus of Agroecology Steve Gliessman spoke with the Los Angeles Times about water management issues that have led to a boycott of carrots in the Cuyama Valley. -
November 09, 2023 - The State Press
Panel discussing desalination in Mexico fails to include environmental impact, Mexican voices
The State Press criticized the methods of an Arizona State University panel on desalination and pointed to UCSC Environmental Studies Professor Brent Haddad's work on the Salton Sea Long Term Planning Project as offering a better model. -
November 15, 2023 - Reuters
Scientists discern internal structure of mysterious dwarf planet Eris
"We already knew that Eris is more rock-rich than Pluto, but what we didn't know was whether Eris had separated the rock from the ice," said University of California Santa Cruz planetary scientist Francis Nimmo, lead author of the study. Additional coverage in Voice of America and EarthSky. -
November 01, 2023 - Monterey Herald
Monterey Bay Economic Partnership State of the Region to focus on key issues
Monterey Herald covered the Monterey Bay Economic Partnership (MBEP) State of the Region event, where Chris Benner, director of the UCSC Institute for Social Transformation, gave a keynote speech sharing findings from a report he produced with MBEP on regional economic equity indicators. -
November 14, 2023 - KTVU
APEC University and SF startup CEO look at ways to help sustainability policies
The APEC University Leaders Forum drew more than 130 university presidents, professors, researchers, and politicians from APEC's 21 member economies to San Francisco for a day of speeches and panel discussions on the topic "Investing in Tomorrow's Biodiversity." Eric Palkovacs, one of the forum organizers and a professor at UC Santa Cruz, says it was exciting to hear people discuss a wide range of environmental issues. Additional overage in AOL and CCTV. -
November 13, 2023 - Art Daily
Smithsonian American Art Museum and National Portrait Gallery acquire film installation by Isaac Julien
The Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery and Smithsonian American Art Museum have jointly purchased the tour de force "Lessons of the Hour" (2019) by artist and filmmaker Sir Isaac Julien. Julien is the Distinguished Professor of the Arts at the University of California, Santa Cruz. -
November 07, 2023 - New York Times
Gazing Into the Past and Future at Historic Observatories
The New York Times Travel section explored the history of Lick Observatory. UC Santa Cruz Staff Astronomer Elinor Gates said, "You might look at a galaxy and it’s 25 million light-years away. It’s taken 25 million years for that light to get from that galaxy, come through the telescope to the eyepiece, to your eyeball. It’s a different experience than just looking at a pretty picture on a computer screen or in a book.” -
November 02, 2023 - Lookout Santa Cruz
Ms. Blue is coming down — what happened to Seymour Center's iconic whale skeleton and what's next
After taking a beating from the elements at UC Santa Cruz’s coastal campus, the structure supporting the blue whale skeleton affectionately known as Ms. Blue has been deemed unsafe. But fear not, says Seymour Marine Discovery Center director Jonathan Hicken — the bones are staying, and the center wants input on the next chapter of the whale’s legacy. -
November 05, 2023 - New York Times
A Guide to the James Webb Telescope's View of the Universe
"We live in this beautiful galaxy, the Milky Way," says Brant Robertson, professor of astronomy and astrophysics at the University of California, Santa Cruz. "We can’t see the Milky Way from inside, and we can’t fly out and see it. But we know that our galaxy developed from other galaxies." -
November 02, 2023 - Time Magazine
A Blueprint From History for Tackling Homelessness
Jonathan van Harmelen, a Ph.D. candidate in history at UC Santa Cruz, penned this opinion piece arguing that one of the most pressing issues facing the United States during the 2020s is the issue of homelessness. Based on his academic research, he points out that some of the implemented solutions for homelessness build on the same ideas launched nearly a century ago during the New Deal when the Farm Security Administration sought to tackle acute homelessness during the Great Depression. -
November 02, 2023 - Quanta Magazine
Icy Oceans Exist on Far-Off Moons. Why Aren’t They Frozen Solid?
For most of humankind’s existence, Earth was the only known ocean-draped world, seemingly unlike any other cosmic isle. But in 1979, NASA’s two Voyager spacecraft flew by Jupiter. Its moon Europa, a frozen realm, was decorated with grooves and fractures — hints that there might be something dynamic beneath its surface. “After Voyager, people suspected that Europa was weird and might have an ocean,” said Francis Nimmo, a planetary scientist at the University of California, Santa Cruz. -
November 07, 2023 - Scientific American
Detecting Cancer Early by Measuring RNA in the Blood
Scientific American features Assistant Professor of Biomolecular Engineering Daniel Kim's research on using RNA in the bloodstream for an early, non-invasive cancer detection test.
October
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November 22, 2023 - NPR
NPR Books We Love: We're Safe When We're Alone by Nghiem Tran
NPR featured second-year Creative Writing/Critical Ph.D. candidate Nghiem Tran's novel We’re Safe When We’re Alone (Coffee House Books) in its 2023 "best of the year" list, describing this work of fiction as "hypnotic" and "richly allusive." -
October 30, 2023 - Marketplace
Your scam stories
Additional coverage by Marketplace of telemarketing scams that target immigrants included insights from Assistant Professor of Sociology Juan Manuel Pedroza. -
October 25, 2023 - The Guardian
Carrots farms v valley: the battle over a water-depleted California region
Professor Emeritus of Agroecology Stephen Gliessman spoke with The Guardian about the risks of overdrawing water in the aquifers of California's Central Valley. -
October 25, 2023 - The Guardian
Food for thought: how TV cooking shows influence the way we eat
Associate Professor of Sociology Alison Alkon spoke to The Guardian about how cooking shows have the potential to help people expand their culinary horizons. -
October 25, 2023 - Washington Post
Review | Five great sci-fi and fantasy novels to read now
The latest novel from micha cárdenas, the director of the Critical Realities Studio and assistant professor of art and design at UC Santa Cruz, was reviewed in the Washington Post. The reviewer notes that the novel, Atoms Never Touch, conjures an immersive dystopia, full of facial recognition, augmented-reality lenses and a brutal security state — while still showing the power of community and resistance. -
October 24, 2023 - Popular Science
Is de-extinction only a pipette dream? This startup has a big, expensive plan to find out.
Beth Shapiro, who co-directs the Paleogenomics Lab at the University of California, Santa Cruz and has studied the flightless bird’s genome for almost two decades, advises Colossal’s avian genomics work. -
October 24, 2023 - Miami Herald
Can UM-led team create a ‘perfect’ reef? Why the U.S. military is banking on it
The nation’s military has been working on a new weapon: Creating a ‘perfect,’ self-healing coral reef that can withstand disease, warming temperatures and sea rise.The reef design is made up of three stacked layers. The bottom layer is a concrete chamber called the “sea hive” after its honeycomb shape. As waves hit the bottom row of sea hives, turbulence is reduced from underneath. “We are trying everything we can do to move the water over, under and through,” said Borja G. Reguero, a researcher at the University of California, Santa Cruz. -
October 25, 2023 - Scientific American
Depleted Groundwater Could Be Refilled by Borrowing a Trick from Solar Power
Researchers measure the water that flows off the hillside and into the basin. To calculate how much water seeps underground, they use stream and pressure gauges, as well as thermal probes inserted into the shallow soil at the bottom of the basin. “The infiltrating water carries heat,” says Andrew Fisher, a hydrogeologist at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and co-founder of the project. “By measuring the amount of heat carried downward, we can determine the flow rate.” -
October 16, 2023 - Wired
None of Your Photos Are Real
The aesthetics of online socializing reaffirmed old racial imbalances around beauty but also opened up a space for women of color, especially, to have representational agency, says Derek Conrad Murray, a professor at UC Santa Cruz who specializes in the history of art and visual culture. “Self-representation and social media enabled many women of color to challenge culture industries that prop up beauty standards that have traditionally ignored and demeaned them,” he says. -
October 12, 2023 - CBS Bay Area
Researchers fortifying California salt marshes from effects of climate change
Between the land and the sea, salt marshes are the true guardians of our coastline. Evolutionary biologist Kerstin Wasson runs the Wasson Research Lab at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and is a member of the team behind the project. "What we've done here at Hester Marsh is build tomorrow's marsh," Wasson said. Additional coverage in KION. -
October 13, 2023 - AP News
Factory fishing in Antarctica for krill targets the cornerstone of a fragile ecosystem
While the end of commercial whaling has allowed populations to rebound, a new study by the University of California, Santa Cruz found that pregnancy rates among humpback whales in Antarctica have been falling sharply — possibly due to a lack of krill, their main prey. Chinstrap penguins and fur seals face similar stresses. “The marine foragers are there for the same reason the boats are: because there’s lots of krill,” said Ari Friedlaender, a University of California, Santa Cruz biologist who has spent 25 years researching whales in Antarctica. AP News wrote an additional story on this topic, highlighting the takeaways of this report. -
October 20, 2023 - Marketplace
Inside the world of immigration scams
Assistant Professor of Sociology Juan Manuel Pedroza joined Marketplace to discuss one of his areas of research: scams that target immigrants. Pedroza described the problem and some interventions that might help bring justice. -
October 18, 2023 - E&E News
Why the UAW wants inside the battery factory
Sociology and Environmental Studies Professor Chris Benner told E&E News that the move to electric vehicles "could be a major turning point in labor,” if current organizing efforts are successful in securing favorable wages and working conditions. -
October 17, 2023 - Financial Express
China now has a huge debt overhang
Distinguished Professor of Economics Nirvikar Singh wrote an op-ed arguing that money in China was invested in ways that do not generate the funds to pay back the lenders or investors. -
October 14, 2023 - Santa Cruz Sentinel
Conference examines affordable housing crisis
The Santa Cruz Sentinel covered a conference on the local housing crisis, where Professor of Sociology Miriam Greenberg presented about how future development must take care not displace current low-income residents. Santa Cruz Local also covered this conference. -
October 13, 2023 - The Hill
GM concession bolsters EV proponents amid auto strike
Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies Mijin Cha spoke with The Hill about the UAW union's efforts to unionize battery plants. “[F]ighting for EV battery manufacturing to be union is really important to show that green jobs can be good jobs and that there is no conflict between addressing climate change and supporting workers,” she said. -
October 16, 2023 - Santa Cruz Sentinel
UC Santa Cruz Center for Monster Studies holds Monsters Ball Costume Party
The Santa Cruz Sentinel ran a brief story and photo highlighting the UC Santa Cruz Center for Monster Studies and the Monsters Ball Costume Party that was held at the Institute of the Arts and Sciences as part of the 2023 Festival of Monsters. -
October 13, 2020 - CNN
Japanese American prisoner art depicts life in WWII detention camps
A CNN.com feature story about the art of Japanese-American internees during World War II included an interview with Alice Yang, chair of the history department at the University of California Santa Cruz, who has extensively researched the legacy of Japanese American detention and the subsequent struggle for reparations. -
October 10, 2023 - Quanta
In Our Cellular Clocks, She’s Found a Lifetime of Discoveries
“We are linked to this day in ways that I think people just push off,” says UC Santa Cruz biochemist Carrie Partch. If we understand the clock better, she has argued, we might be able to reset it. With that information, we might shape the treatment of diseases, from diabetes to cancer. -
October 05, 2023 - BBC
Asteroid 16 Psyche - facts and stats about the metal-rich spacerock
In 2019, Francis Nimmo and Jacob Abrahams of the University of California Santa Cruz proposed the theory of (ancient) ferro-volcanism. This is a process you might expect when a newly formed, molten body is cooling down from the outside in. -
October 06, 2023 - Forbes
Nearby Exoplanets Could Harbor 8-Billion-Year-Old Microbial Life
In his new paper, Piero Madau, a distinguished professor of astrophysics at the University of California, Santa Cruz, puts forth a practical roadmap to statistically frame how near we can expect to find microbial life on earthlike planets circling G and K spectral type stars. Additional coverage in Earth. -
October 11, 2023 - Inside Higher Education
New on the Job: Jody Greene, University of California, Santa Cruz
As the inaugural associate campus provost for academic success, Jody Greene is responsible for faculty development, support and retention to promote student success in the classroom and beyond. Greene was the subject of a feature story in Inside Higher Education this week. -
October 11, 2023 - Grist
Cooking oil has a deforestation problem. A startup says it has a solution.
Professor Julie Guthman, a social scientist who studies food systems, spoke with Grist about the challenges of assessing sustainability claims in new food products that don't disclose full information about their supply chains and processes. -
October 05, 2023 - Good Times
“Voices Of Pajaro” Brings South County Reality To UCSC
Good Times magazine covered an event organized by UCSC's Center for Reimagining Leadership that shared stories and experiences from the Pajaro levee breach and encouraged students to get involved. Astronomy and Astrophysics Professor Enrico Ramirez‑Ruiz is the center's director, and Environmental Studies Professor Sikina Jinnah is associate director. -
October 04, 2023 - KTVZ
How farmers used California's floods to revive underground aquifers
Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies Hannah Waterhouse discussed aquifer water management with KTVZ News Channel 21. -
October 07, 2023 - Santa Cruz Sentinel
UC Santa Cruz climate justice forum discusses Pajaro Valley flood, encourages student action
The Santa Cruz Sentinel covered an event organized by UCSC's new Center for Reimagining Leadership that gathered community leaders to teach students about injustices in the response to the Pajaro levee breach and what they can do to get involved in the community. -
October 10, 2022 - Forbes
Get Your Monster On In Time For Halloween At University Of California, Santa Cruz
Forbes Magazine ran a detailed feature story about UC Santa Cruz's Festival Of Monsters, which kicks off on Friday the 13th this month. The magazine described UCSC's Center for Monster Studies as "a scholarly center devoted to investigating the many definitions of monsters and monstrosity throughout history and culture." -
October 03, 2023 - Ms. Magazine
Teaching Patriarchy Post-'Barbie'
Lindsay Knisely, a lecturer in the Humanities Division, penned this opinion piece. She notes that this summer’s Barbie film has moviegoers around the world talking about the patriarchy. Now that we have the language to describe our predicament, it’s critically important to keep talking about the patriarchy, and to keep going down the path that Barbie takes us on to investigate the way our daily lives are impacted by patriarchal constructs. -
October 02, 2023 - Axios
AI: Trust & Responsibility
Last week, Axios hosted an Expert Voices roundtable discussion in San Francisco featuring local leaders across government, the tech industry and AI startups. One of the featured experts was Linda MacDonald Glenn, founding director & faculty, UC Santa Cruz Center for Applied Values and Ethics in Advanced Technologies. -
September 26, 2023 - The Scientist
Smart Gateways into the Lab of the Future
Professor of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology Sofie Salama and Distinguished Professor of Biomolecular Engineering David Haussler spoke about the smart technology behind growing brain organoids in their Braingeneers lab on the Scientist Speaks podcast.
September
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September 29, 2023 - The Fish Site
Could power plants fuel alternative aquafeeds?
Aquaculture news organization The Fish Site covered new research by Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies Pallab Sarker that will study whether microalgae grown using power plant emissions could be an effective ingredient in feed for trout. Additional coverage in All About Feed. -
September 26, 2023 - Financial Express
Moonshots and mind games
Distinguished Professor of Economics Nirvikar Singh wrote an op-ed for Financial Express about how India can achieve world-class excellence with its domestic institutions and resources. -
September 25, 2023 - GBH
Why people leave prison 'more broken' than when they entered
GBH interviewed distinguished Professor of Psychology Craig Haney about the challenges that formerly incarcerated people experience when reentering society. -
September 22, 2023 - The Boston Globe
Democrats flock to picket lines where workers worry about their electric vehicle push
Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies Mijin Cha spoke with The Boston Globe about how electric vehicles relate to the United Auto Workers strike. “It’s really important that we don’t say it’s workers versus the environment,” she said. “They’re not against an electric vehicle transition; they just don’t want to be left behind.” -
September 29, 2023 - Los Angeles Times
As heat waves warm the Pacific Ocean, effects on marine life remain murky
Heather Welch, a marine spatial ecologist at UC Santa Cruz, and other researchers have created statistical models designed to predict where animals will go when things heat up. “So one of the tricky things with heat wave impacts is you have to be lucky and actually have direct observations during the events,” she said. -
September 26, 2023 - Financial Times
Joe Biden and Donald Trump plan rival Michigan trips in scrap for union votes
Labour historian Dana Frank, a professor emerita at University of California, Santa Cruz, said it was significant that Biden had intervened in this dispute, particularly given he stayed neutral in strikes by writers and actors and also undercut a planned strike by railway workers last year. "He didn’t choose to intervene in any of the Los Angeles strikes, which he could have, and he chose to throw the [railway workers] to the wolves," she said. "His hand is being forced by Trump, and Trump’s ability to weasel his way into the mind of white, working-class men in the Midwest." -
September 22, 2023 - The Hill
Six months later, our call to slow AI development is more crucial than ever
Anthony Aguirre, the executive director and secretary of the board at the Future of Life Institute and the Faggin Presidential Professor for the Physics of Information at the University of California, Santa Cruz, penned this op-ed warning of the dangers of unchecked artificial intelligence. -
September 19, 2023 - San Francisco Chronicle
Review: In-depth look at California's rising sea levels finds grim threats and glimmers of hope
The author of this book speaks with UC Santa Cruz’s Gary Griggs, who laments that much of the problem is that in California, “everybody wants to live on the sand.” -
September 18, 2023 - Voice of America
In Costa Rica, Natural Farms Provide Refuge for Birds
Natalia Ocampo-Penuela is a University of California, Santa Cruz environmental scientist who was not involved in the study. She said the findings may seem to make sense without research. But she added that it is very rare to have detailed data over a long time from tropical areas to show that diversified farming can support some forest bird populations. -
September 14, 2023 - Ars Technica
Autopsy of a star reveals what was eviscerated by a monster black hole
“ASASSN-14li is exciting because one of the hardest things with tidal disruptions is being able to measure the mass of the unlucky star, as we have done here,” said astrophysicist Enrico Ramirez-Ruiz of UC Santa Cruz, one of the authors of the study. -
September 07, 2023 - Essence
'Creating Characters That Look Like Us': The Video Game Company Bringing Type 4 Hair Into Gaming
Since they were invented, video games have received constant upgrades, be it in graphics, new worlds, or expanded options for play. But one thing has been largely missing: “[o]ptions are still pretty limited for creating characters of color, particularly for creating Black characters. And a huge component is a lack of Black hairstyles and textures,” gaming news site Polygon observes. A.M. Darke, Assistant Professor, UC Santa Cruz, creator of the Open Source Afro Hair Library (OSAHL), which has been under development since pre-2020, collaborates on efforts to bring attention to the problem. -
September 08, 2023 - Los Angeles Times
Opinion: Oceans are heating up. Who will protect the turtles, whales and fish crossing borders into cooler waters?
Heather Welch, a marine spatial ecologist at UC Santa Cruz who develops climate-ready tools to manage biodiversity and fisheries, penned this op-ed highlighting the dangers and complexities of marine heatwaves. -
September 10, 2023 - Mercury News
$7 million project begins to rebuild historic Northern California wharf wrecked in huge winter storms
It was arguably the most dramatic image from the powerful storms that battered Northern California’s coastline in January: The Capitola Wharf, an 855-foot-long landmark that dates back to 1857, torn in half by pounding waves. “Maybe it will do fine for 10 or 20 or 30 years,” said Gary Griggs, a professor of Earth sciences at UC Santa Cruz. “But if we have another big winter this year all bets are off.” -
September 04, 2023 - New York Times
Architecture's Second Looks, and Second Acts
Kresge College is included in this list of buildings, sites, streets, design movements and architects that have received updates this year. The 1973 U.C. Santa Cruz dormitory complex by the postmodernist architects Charles Moore and William Turnbull Jr. and the landscape architect Dan Kiley — a self-styled Mediterranean village tucked in a redwood grove — has received an update set to welcome students this month, with final phases finished later in the academic year. -
September 05, 2023 - USA Today
New effort aims to revamp calculus to keep students in science, technology, engineering fields
Math professor Martin Weissman is rethinking how his university teaches calculus. Over the summer, the professor from the University of California at Santa Cruz, spent a week at Harvard to learn how to redesign the mathematics for life sciences courses his institution offers. Called Math 11 A and B, these classes, which students take as freshmen and sophomores, constitute a “leaky pipeline,” Weissman said. -
September 05, 2023 - Newsweek
Here's Which Sea Animals Are Hurt Most by the U.S. Heatwaves
Heatwaves can have a devastating impact on some marine predators such as sharks but other species can adapt, scientists have discovered. Heather Welch, associate specialist with the Institute of Marine Sciences, noted that, "instead of being a story about winners and losers, this is a story of how variable marine heatwave impacts can be. To understand the full scope of impacts, we need to move beyond single-species, single-heatwave case-studies towards more holistic ecosystem-based investigations." -
September 05, 2023 - SPACE.com
Star blows giant exoplanet's atmosphere away, leaving massive tail in its wake
Astronomers have monitored the trailing gas tail of HAT-P-32 b created from helium flowing from its atmosphere with telescopes from Earth. "We have monitored this planet and the host star with long time series spectroscopy, observations made of the star and planet over a couple of nights," research lead author and University of California Santa Cruz, Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics postdoctoral fellow Zhoujian Zhang said. "And what we found is there's a gigantic helium gas tail that is associated with the planet. The tail is large — about 53 times the planet's radius — formed by gas that's escaping from the planet." Additional coverage in Cosmos Magazine. -
September 04, 2023 - APNews
Farms with natural landscape features provide sanctuary for some Costa Rica rainforest birds
Small farms with natural landscape features such as shade trees, hedgerows and tracts of intact forest provide a refuge for some tropical bird populations, according to an 18-year study in Costa Rica. The findings may seem intuitive, but Natalia Ocampo-Penuela, a University of California, Santa Cruz conservation ecologist not involved in the study, said it’s extremely rare to have detailed long-term data from tropical regions to show that varied farming landscapes can sustain some forest bird populations. “With 18 years of data, you can show the species is persisting in that area, not simply passing by,” she said. -
September 21, 2023 - Inside Higher Ed
Barriers to Tenure and Promotion Persist for Psychology Faculty of Color
Inside Higher Ed interviewed Psychology Professor Margarita Azmitia about a new report from a committee she co-chaired about barriers to advancement for faculty of color in psychology. -
September 18, 2023 - Grist
How the shift to electric vehicles is fueling the UAW strike
Grist interviewed Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies J. Mijin Cha about how working conditions at EV battery factories relate to the current United Auto Workers strike. -
September 06, 2023 - VoxDev
Targeting health incentives in India
Assistant Professor of Economics Ariel Zucker joined VoxDev to discuss her research on personalized incentives for exercise among 6,800 adults with diabetes and hypertension in urban India. -
September 15, 2023 - The New York Times
U.A.W. starts strike small, but repercussions could prove far-reaching
The New York Times interviewed Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies J. Mijin Cha for a story about strikes by the United Auto Workers union and how they relate to electric vehicle production. Additional coverage in In These Times presents a counterpoint to mainstream media narratives around the strikes. -
September 13, 2023 - WIRED
Auto workers prepare to strike for a place in the EV future
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September 15, 2023 - WBUR News
The expanding universe of Lofi Girl
WBUR News, Boston's NPR station, spoke with UCSC Ph.D. student of Computational Media Kevin Weatherwax about his research on and personal relationship with Lo-Fi music. -
September 18, 2023 - Chemical and Engineering News
The tricky ethics of AI in the lab
Assistant Professor of Computer Science and Engineering Leilani Gilpin was quoted in a C&EN story on the pace of development in the field of generative AI and the ethical challenges at play. -
September 12, 2023 - NIH Director's Blog
New Approach to ‘Liquid Biopsy’ Relies on Repetitive RNA in the Bloodstream
The National Insitutes of Health Director's Blog features Assistant Professor of Biomolecular Engineering Daniel Kim's research into liquid biopsy technology for cancer early detection. -
September 10, 2023 - The Mercury News
This Monterey Bay deep-sea creature is the ‘sister’ that took its own evolutionary path
The Mercury News reports on research into the earliest moments in animal evolution, quoting UCSC adjunct professor of ecology and evolutionary biology Steven Haddock and citing the work of former biomolecular engineering postdoc and project leader Darrin Schultz. -
September 06, 2023 - Science
Humans aren’t the only fat primate
Professor Emerita of Anthropology Adrienne Zihlman commented about a study featured in Science Magazine that offers new insights on how and why different species of primates can become overweight. -
September 04, 2023 - The New York Times
A Strong Job Market Doesn’t Mean the Economy Is Recession-Proof
An opinion column in The New York Times discusses research by Associate Professor of Economics Pascal Michaillat on how to measure the tightness of the labor market and assess its health and efficiency. -
September 04, 2023 - The Washington Post
Farms with natural landscape features provide sanctuary for some Costa Rica rainforest birds
Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies Natalia Ocampo-Peñuela commented on new research featured in The Washington Post that shows how agricultural areas with natural features can help to sustain birds.
August
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August 29, 2023 - Audubon
Birds of a Feather Do Indeed Flock Together, According to New Research
When former University of California, Santa Cruz graduate students Alexis Chaine and Daizaburo Shizuka started banding birds on their campus arboretum, they hoped to explore crown plumage variation among various visiting sparrows. Soon after, they noticed that the birds they banded, among them Golden-crowned Sparrows, consistently returned to the same section of the arboretum. This was 20 years ago. Bruce Lyon, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the university, remembers the first year of the banding project well. “On average, 50 percent of the birds we tagged [initially] returned the next winter,” Lyon says. “So we saw an opportunity to follow individuals across their winter lives." -
August 31, 2023 - BBC
Science In Action - Drowning Coastal Ecosystems
Ecologist Alexa Fredston has found that bottom-dwelling fish may be more resilient to the effects of marine heatwaves than previously thought. Additional coverage in Le Figaro, Axios, Agence France-Presse, and The Hill. -
August 26, 2023 - Live Science
A black hole 'assassin' ripped a star to shreds and left its guts strewn about the galaxy
"ASASSN-14li is exciting because one of the hardest things with tidal disruptions is being able to measure the mass of the unlucky star, as we have done here," says Enrico Ramirez-Ruiz, an astrophysicist at University of California, Santa Cruz and co-author of the new work. -
August 29, 2023 - New York Times
Waves Along California’s Coast Are Getting Bigger, Study Says
A 2019 study, led by Borja G. Reguero, a researcher in the Institute of Marine Sciences, found that the rising sea-surface temperatures were influencing global wind patterns and making waves stronger. -
August 26, 2023 - New York Times
Isabel Crook, 107, Dies; Her Life in China Spanned a Century of Change
Mrs. Crook’s most recent book is “Prosperity’s Predicament: Identity, Reform, and Resistance in Rural Wartime China (1940-1941),” which is based on her prewar field notes. One of its editors, Gail Hershatter, a history professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz, said the book offers a unique look at a rural society that even in China, with its rapid urbanization, seems to many like a foreign country. -
August 25, 2023 - Fast Company
The next pandemic could wipe out crops, not people
Disease-resistant plants can alter airflow in ways that keep plants dry and healthy and create physical barriers that block pathogen movement. Especially if they’re tall, resistant plants can act like fences that diseases have to hop over. “Somebody did a nice experiment taking dead corn stalks and just plopping them in the bean field,” says plant pathologist Gregory Gilbert from the University of California, Santa Cruz. “And that works, too, because it’s just keeping things from moving around.” Additional coverage in Grist. -
August 22, 2023 - Los Angeles Times
In the face of sea level rise, can we reimagine California's vanishing coastline?
This LA Times feature follows Gary Griggs, an oceanographer at UC Santa Cruz, as he explains issues of erosion on California's coasts and the sacrifices that must be made to address them. This feature is an excerpt of an upcoming book, "California Against the Sea: Visions for our Vanishing Coastline." -
August 22, 2023 - SPACE.com
Supermassive black hole chews up huge star, spits stellar 'guts' into space
"Observing the destruction of a massive star by a supermassive black hole is spellbinding because more massive stars are expected to be significantly less common than lower-mass stars," said Enrico Ramirez-Ruiz of the University of California, Santa Cruz, a co-author of the study. -
August 17, 2023 - Sierra Magazine
These Animals Are Already Adapting to a Changing Climate
“Flexibility has been really important for them to overcome prey changes because of climate change,” Ana Valenzuela-Toro, the author of the study and researcher at the University of California, Santa Cruz, said. “I tend to think of California sea lions as the raccoons of the sea.” -
August 31, 2023 - Los Angeles Times
California debates solitary confinement in local jails — and whether it’s really possible to end it
Distinguished Professor of Psychology Craig Haney spoke with the Los Angeles Times about the harms caused by long-term solitary confinement. -
August 31, 2023 - Univision
Sobredosis de droga en latinos se ha venido duplicando desde la pandemia: autoridades de San Francisco, en alerta
Assistant Professor of Latin American and Latino Studies Carlos Martinez spoke with Univision 14 about the dangers to Latino drug users from fentanyl. -
August 22, 2023 - Grist
The next pandemic could strike crops, not people
Environmental Studies Professor Gregory Gilbert spoke with Grist about how promoting diversity of plants in agricultural settings creates physical barriers to the spread of disease. -
August 21, 2023 - Smithsonian Magazine
An In-Depth Look at Latino History Among the Stars and Skies
Professor and Chair of Latin American and Latino Studies Catherine Ramírez spoke about Latino Futurism for a special podcast series of the National Air and Space Museum that was covered by Smithsonian Magazine. -
August 15, 2023 - Good Times
No Sanctuary: Animal Rescues Struggling with Climate Change
Environmental Studies Professor Mike Loik shared his insights on climate change effects and solutions with Good Times for a story about the impacts of climate change on local animal rescue operations. -
August 14, 2023 - Financial Express
An economic strategy for India: Many bottlenecks and challenges that India faces require deeper integration across levels of govt
Distinguished Professor of Economics Nirvikar Singh wrote an opinion column for Financial Express reflecting on India's economy in honor of the country's Independence Day. -
August 17, 2023 - Inside Higher Education
UCSC professor emerita of history Dana Frank was quoted in an Inside Higher Education story about the proposed name change for Cabrillo College
During the public discussion portion of a Cabrillo College Governing Board meeting covered by Inside Higher Education, Dana Frank spoke out in favor of changing the college's name. "In keeping the name, we would be teaching that it’s good to celebrate those who invaded other people’s ancestral homelands, killed and in many cases enslaved them," she said.
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August 30, 2023 - Teen Vogue
Disabled Music Fans Are Failed by Concert Venues and Ticketing Systems
Assistant Professor of Computational Media Kate Ringland's research is cited in a Teen Vogue story on accessibility in the live music industry. -
August 17, 2023 - Los Angeles Time
Wildfires once fueled extinctions in Southern California. Will it happen again?
“This paper provides a picture of how climate change can completely transform ecosystems,” said Jarmila Pittermann, a plant physiologist at UC Santa Cruz who researches extinction. “It is super-convincing and a massive warning to all of us.” Additional coverage in the Smithsonian Magazine. -
August 17, 2023 - Harper's Bazar
Art As a Radical Tool for Realizing Abolition
Three years into launching their multimedia initiative Visualizing Abolition, the University of California, Santa Cruz’s Professor Gina Dent and Dr. Rachel Nelson have built a consortium of musicians, scholars, and artists whose relationships to the criminal legal system vary. -
August 29, 2023 - Wired
How to Use AI to Talk to Whales—and Save Life on Earth
Ari Friedlaender researches whale behavior at UC Santa Cruz and has amassed a great deal of data on what behavior that could help move Earth Species closer to developing algorithms that can work across the full spectrum of the animal kingdom. -
August 23, 2023 - Reuters
Scientists solve the genetic puzzle of sex-related Y chromosome
Assistant Professor of Biomolecular Engineering Karen Miga and UCSC genomicist and postdoc Monika Cechova were quoted extensively in coverage of the first complete sequence of a human Y chromosome. Additional coverage in CNN, STAT, Popular Science, USA Today, Business Insider, and many others. -
August 15, 2023 - KQED
Bay Area Red Tide Crisis Ends, Watchdog Group Declares Algae Bloom Over
The microscopic critter looks like a swimming potato chip with a tail, said Raphael Kudela, a phytoplankton ecologist at UC Santa Cruz. He said the organism thrives in the bay because the shallow water warms up quickly. “It’s just really happy when it’s in the bay,” he said. “As long as it’s happy, it’s just going to keep going, and going, and going.” -
August 14, 2023 - BBC
Why fidgeting is good for you
Professor of Computational Media Katherine Isbister's research on fidget objects is cited in a BBC story. -
August 10, 2023 - BBC
Meet the fearless scientists saving Antarctic whales… With crossbows and tiny inflatable boats
Ari Friedlaender, professor of ocean sciences at the University of California, Santa Cruz, is featured in this piece on researchers who study a variety of whales in the Antarctic Ocean. -
August 08, 2023 - Los Angeles Times
UC admits record number of California first-year students for fall 2023, led by Latinos
The University of California admitted a record number of California applicants for fall 2023, as campuses received more funding to increase coveted seats, according to preliminary data released Tuesday. Michelle Whittingham, UC Santa Cruz associate vice chancellor of enrollment management, said the campus plans to enroll 4,189 first-year students this fall and winter thanks to such factors as additional state funding and quicker completion of degree programs through more summer classes. Whittingham was also quoted on this topic in the San Francisco Chronicle, SF Gate and the San Jose Mercury News. Additional coverage in Inside Higher Ed, KION and EdSource. -
August 07, 2023 - USA Today
Pictures mislead: Ample evidence the Earth is round and sea levels are rising | Fact check
The long-term tide gauge at Fort Denison “has recorded a gradual ... but fairly consistent rise in sea level of 0.1mm/yr or 3 inches/century,” said Gary Griggs, a professor of earth sciences at UC Santa Cruz. -
August 04, 2023 - KQED
As Algal Bloom Returns to the Bay, Is Swimming Safe for Humans (and Pets)?
Not every red tide, or algal bloom, is toxic — although they can be. The species behind the recurring algal bloom in San Francisco Bay is called Heterosigma akashiwo and isn’t known at this time to be toxic to humans. The microscopic critter looks like a swimming potato chip with a tail, said Raphael Kudela, a phytoplankton ecologist at UC Santa Cruz. He said the organism thrives in the bay because the shallow water warms up quickly. Plus, it’s full of tasty treats it likes to fill up on. -
August 03, 2023 - AP News
Big waves becoming more common off California as Earth warms, new research finds
Giant waves, measuring as high as 13 feet, are becoming more common off California's coast as the planet warms, according to innovative new research that tracked the surf's increasing height from historical data gathered over the past 90 years. Oceanographer Gary Griggs at the University of California, Santa Cruz said while a jump of a foot in wave height over more than 50 years is not huge, the findings are consistent with what scientists know is happening to the world’s oceans as they warm: They are becoming increasingly violent due to more extreme storms and wreaking havoc along coasts. Additional coverage in USA Today, Smithsonian Magazine and more than 800 other outlets. -
August 01, 2023 - NPR
Surf's up! Wave heights increase on California's coast as climate warms
A 2019 study led by Borja Reguero, a coastal scientist at the University of California, Santa Cruz, found that the energy in ocean waves has increased over most of the last century because of climate change. -
August 09, 2023 - The New Yorker
The race to save the world's DNA
Computational biologist Benedict Paten was quoted in a New Yorker story about the Earth BioGenome Project, a gloabl effort to sequence the DNA of as many species as possible. UCSC Genomics Insitute research scientist Ann Mc Cartney's contributions to this project are also mentioned. -
August 02, 2023 - Reuters
US pork firms divided over bill in Congress to overturn California animal welfare law
Reuters spoke with Economics Professor Galina Hale about how the proposed EATS Act could negatively impact farmers who have made efforts to comply with new animal welfare laws in California.
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July 25, 2023 - New York Times
The Prize for the Longest Pregnancy in Mammals May Go to This Whale
“This paper helps us further understand the underlying physiological complexity of these really large, charismatic, but also very ecologically important, species that just so happens is generally hard to study,” said Logan Pallin, a marine biologist at the University of California, Santa Cruz, who wasn’t involved in the study. “It’s work like this that incrementally moves us in the right direction to use science to make better informed decisions on conservation.” -
July 26, 2023 - Science Magazine
Ship noises prove a nuisance for arctic narwhals
The research uncovers “some really great information on a species we know very little about,” says Ari Friedlaender, an ocean ecologist at the University of California, Santa Cruz, not involved in the study. Knowing how the whales react to these noises could help conservationists “act proactively” to protect the animals in their Arctic home where warming waters already threaten their lifestyles. -
July 26, 2023 - Popular Science
Machu Picchu was home to ancient people from all over South America
A recent study, co-authored by anthropologist Lars Fehren-Schmitz, analyzed the 500 year-old DNA of those buried near Peru’s iconic Incan citadel Machu Picchu and showed that the servant class that lived and died there — forcefully relocated to the structure by the Incan empire — hailed from more diverse backgrounds than scientists had anticipated. Additional coverage in the Santa Cruz Sentinel and Scientific Inquirer. -
July 21, 2023 - KPNX
Yes, scientists believe Earth is hotter than past 24,000 years
Jim Zachos, a paleoclimatologist at the University of California, Santa Cruz, was interviewed about confirming scientific data that indicates the globe is hotter now than the last 24,000 years. -
July 19, 2024 - Los Angeles Times
The most famous extinction event in the planet’s history is happening again — in Santa Cruz
In the last 500 million years, Earth has experienced a handful of mass extinctions, causing nearly all of life to disappear in the blink of an eye. Now, scientists at UC Santa Cruz are recreating the planet’s most famous extinction event to find out why one plant survived when everything else was wiped out. -
July 18, 2023 - Washington Post
The U.S. is about to open a new window into Earth’s mysterious insides
“The engine that keeps our magnetic field going may be dependent on the chemical behavior of oxygen or sulfur embedded within Earth’s roiling outer iron core,” said Quentin Williams, a planetary scientist at the University of California at Santa Cruz. -
July 12, 2023 - Lookout Santa Cruz
With bat baby season upon us, UCSC prof explains how to spot them and why they matter
Bats have come back to the Bay Area from winter migrations and are raising young all around the region. Winifred Frick, chief scientist at Bat Conservation International and an ecology and evolutionary biology research professor at UC Santa Cruz, tells Lookout how and where to find bats — and when you might catch a glimpse of a baby bat getting a flying lesson. -
July 12, 2023 - Smithsonian Magazine
We Can Hear Silence Like a Sound, Scientists Say
Nico Orlandi, a philosopher at the University of California, Santa Cruz, says, "This gives reason to suppose that silences are treated by the auditory system in the same way sounds are treated." -
July 15, 2023 - The Guardian
‘Mindblowing’: how James Webb telescope’s snapshots of infant universe transformed astronomy
Brant Robertson, an astrophysicist at the University of California, Santa Cruz, discussed images from the James Webb Telescope with The Guardian and Business Insider. -
July 23, 2023 - The Guardian
‘We’re going to see workers die’: extreme heat is key issue in UPS contract talks
Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies J. Mijin Cha spoke with The Guardian about how climate change issues intersect with labor organizing. -
July 27, 2023 - CalMatters
California forbids plans to unmask workers at In-N-Out — and most other workplaces
Assistant Professor of Sociology Alicia Riley, a core faculty member of UCSC's Global and Community Health Program, spoke with CalMatters about how In-N-Out's mask ban could contribute to workplace inequities in health risk. -
July 27, 2023 - Monterey County Weekly
The housing crisis has implications that go well beyond housing.
Monterey County Weekly shared findings from a report on the economics of housing issues in the Monterey Bay area that was led by Professor Chris Benner, director of the Institute for Social Transformation at UC Santa Cruz. -
July 25, 2023 - Financial Express
India’s new research push
Distinguished Professor of Economics Nirvikar Singh wrote an op-ed for Financial Express advocating for a university-centered model of enhancing research capabilities in India. -
July 23, 2023 - The Atlantic
Oppenheimer Nightmares? You’re Not Alone.
Veronica Tonay, a licensed psychologist and a retired professor at UC Santa Cruz, spoke to The Atlantic about her research on dream theory as it relates to nightmares about the new film Oppenheimer.