UCSC in the News
March
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March 25, 2025 - Game DeveloperUC Santa Cruz professor roleplays gig economy, publisher negotiation, and layoffs with game design students
Retora Games founder and UC Santa Cruz Lecturer of Computational Media Tyler Coleman held classroom exercises with game design students in order to help prepare them for the harsh current realities of the game industry. -
March 21, 2025 - Tech BrewThe Human Genome Project’s legacy is still yielding new advances
Distinguished Professor of Biomolecular Engineering David Haussler and UCSC Genomics Institute Executive Director Lauren Linton were quoted in a story by Tech Brew on the continuing impact of the Human Genome Project. -
March 21, 2025 - APOcean dumping – or a climate solution? A growing industry bets on the ocean to capture carbon
“It’s like the Wild West. Everybody is on the bandwagon, everybody wants to do something,” said Adina Paytan, who teaches earth and ocean science at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
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March 20, 2025 - Santa Cruz SentinelTrump is turning off the lights on biomedical research: Why it matters for Santa Cruz
Guest commentary by UC Santa Cruz Science Division Professors Needhi Bhalla, Susan Carpenter, and Carol Greider: "A total of $59 million and 102 research projects, in addition to $145 million in local economic impact is what’s at stake in Santa Cruz if these proposed NIH funding cuts go through. From life-saving drugs to cutting-edge cancer treatments, NIH-funded research is vital to both our health and our economy. These cuts will cripple UCSC’s research capacity, endangering everything from the newest medical discoveries to your neighbor who lost their UC Santa Cruz job. We can’t afford to let this happen."
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March 19, 2025 - GuardianDark energy: mysterious cosmic force appears to be weakening, say scientists
Professor Alexie Leauthaud-Harnett, a co-spokesperson for Desi and a cosmologist at the University of California, Santa Cruz, said: “What we are seeing is deeply intriguing. It is exciting to think that we may be on the cusp of a major discovery about dark energy and the fundamental nature of our universe.” Also covered by the New York Times, Washington Post, Scientific American, Nature, CBS News, and many other outlets internationally.
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March 18, 2025 - Lookout Santa CruzAsk Lookout: What happened to the walking path on Capitola's Depot Hill?
Gary Griggs, UC Santa Cruz professor of earth and planetary sciences, notes that Depot Hill is “probably the most rapidly eroding section of cliff in Santa Cruz County.” He added that the buff has eroded about a foot each year over the past century.
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March 18, 2025 - KAZUAs investors fret over a coming recession, a UC Santa Cruz economist says it has already begun
U.S. financial markets have been in turmoil for weeks, as investors debate whether President Trump's trade war and falling consumer confidence could trigger a full-blown recession. But a UC Santa Cruz economist says that a model he helped develop, which is attracting growing attention, shows that the economy is already in a recession and has been for nearly a year. "Our method starts to flash in April 2024," said Pascal Michaillat, an associate professor of economics. "That's when the method crosses its threshold and says a recession might have started."
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March 20, 2025 - Monterey County WeeklyLocal promotores trained on climate change impacts are now teaching fellow farmworkers.
UC Santa Cruz has been working with local organizations for two years on Campo-Sano, a research project investigating the impact of climate change on the well-being of farmworkers. That work included development of a bilingual app with an anonymous tipline about unsafe conditions. Professor Matthew Sparke, leader of the project, says adoption of the app will help agencies like CalOSHA and Department of Pesticide Regulation to address concerns. “The app is only going to really start working well when lots of farmworkers use it,” he said.
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March 19, 2025 - USA TodaySchools closed and went remote to fight COVID-19. The impacts linger 5 years later.
New research on the lingering effects of the pandemic on teachers from University of California, Santa Cruz Professor of Education Lora Bartlett and her colleagues show that the pandemic-era "hastened a downward spiral in career satisfaction and longevity for teachers. The biggest declines in satisfaction took place in places where teachers described experiencing a lack of support and respect from school leaders and the public during the pandemic and felt that their expertise was often ignored, including in plans to address post-pandemic learning loss," Bartlett said.
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March 17, 2025 - KQEDDaffodils Signal Resilience in Santa Cruz Mountains, Almost 5 Years After CZU Fires
Karen Holl, an ecologist from nearby University of California, Santa Cruz, weighed in that a species like California poppies would have been her first choice, though daffodils are not listed on the California Invasive Plant Council’s problem invasives list. “Daffodils should be confined to gardens,” Holl said.
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March 18, 2025 - The AtlanticWho Wants to Live in the Palisades Now?
Move everyone out of the wildland-urban interface and you may have taken away the people who were clearing brush and otherwise reducing the fire risk for the city nearby, said Miriam Greenberg, a sociology professor at UC Santa Cruz. Leaving these areas untouched, Greenberg said, means “the potential for future disasters increases significantly for those adjacent urban areas, which is most of California.”
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March 14, 2025 - Scientific AmericanLife on Earth May Have Been Jump-Started by ‘Microlightning’
Professor Emeritus of Biomolecular Engineering David Deamer was quoted in a Scientifc American story on how wet-dry cycles may have contributed to the origins of life on Earth. -
March 13, 2025 - NPROcean plant cell discovery might revolutionize farming
It's one of the holy grails of biotechnology, says Jon Zehr, the ability to engineer plants that could snatch nitrogen out of the air and use it to grow without any of the pollution, energy, or expense that current fertilizers require. Additional NPR coverage. -
March 14, 2025 - CNNFact check: Trump falsely claims ‘I invaded Los Angeles.’ His water releases didn’t go to LA
President Donald Trump continues to claim that he sent fire-plagued Los Angeles the critical water he says California’s leaders refused to provide. In reality, the water was directed to a dry lake basin elsewhere in the Central Valley – more than 100 miles north of Los Angeles. “The only way that water got to LA is if an Angeleno driving by got mud on their tires,” said Brent Haddad, an environmental studies professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
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March 10, 2025 - San Francisco Public PressToxic Waste Cleanups Take Longer in Marginalized Communities
Lindsey Dillon, an associate professor of sociology at the University of California, Santa Cruz, who studies the impact of toxic sites on surrounding communities, said the Public Press’ findings are consistent with academic literature on environmental justice. “Marginalized groups get fewer resources,” Dillon said.
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March 07, 2025 - VoxThe problem with dating? Your standards might be too high.
Campbell Leaper, a distinguished professor of psychology at the University of California, Santa Cruz commented on how dating expectations can clash with shifting gender norms and increased levels of education and employment for women. “A lot of these men who are not going on to college are often having trouble finding jobs and then resenting women,” he explained.
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March 06, 2024 - The GuardianRepublicans want corporate oligarchy. We need economic democracy
Michael A McCarthy, director of the Community Studies Program at UC Santa Cruz, coauthored an opinion article with U.S. representative Rashida Harbi Tlaib about how to build an economic system that works for all Americans by advancing collective ownership models across sectors. -
March 03, 2025 - National GeographicWhere were enslaved Africans taken from? The answer could be hidden in their bones.
Anthropology Professor Vicky Oelze's groundbreaking map of strontium isotopes found across sub-Saharan Africa could help descendants of enslaved people reconstruct their family histories. By comparing strontium values found in a person's remains to strontium values across a landscape, scientists can gauge where that person is most likely from. "Individual histories are completely erased" by the slave trade, says Oelze, but strontium signatures can help us see "the invisible."
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March 04, 2024 - San Francisco ChronicleCalifornia’s effort to streamline wildfire prevention could have long-term consequences
Karen Holl, a distinguished professor of environmental studies at UC Santa Cruz, spoke with the San Francisco Chronicle about the potential pitfalls Governor Newsom's executive order and emergency proclamation to suspend the California Environmental Quality Act, the Coastal Act and other longstanding regulations in order to remove red tape from projects to reduce fuels from state forests.
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March 16, 2025 - NPR
An animation breakthrough makes it possible to more accurately illustrates Black hair
Cross-disciplinary professor AM Darke breaks down her recent research on animating Black hair. Historically, character models in animation feature white hair and most of the research into animating hair is done on straighter hair patterns. Darke’s research into coily hair provides a course to better representation that will revolutionize animation. -
March 11, 2025 - Santa Cruz Sentinel
UC Santa Cruz to showcase next generation of artists with Open Studios
This Friday, March 14, UC Santa Cruz will open its doors for the public to get a first glimpse into the future of art. The quarterly open studios is a free event for the public where they can come to campus and see art in all forms: painting, sculpture, photography and more. -
March 10, 2025 - San Francisco Chronicle‘It’s just chaos’: How California scientists are facing attacks on research by Trump and DOGE
“We’re feeling frustrated,” Needhi Bhalla, a professor of molecular, cell and developmental biology at UC Santa Cruz, said of the precarious situation. “And wondering why something that has benefited from bipartisan support for 70 years is now currently a target.” Graduate student Fabiola Avalos-Villatoro was also quoted. -
March 10, 2025 - Santa Cruz LocalFederal funding freeze threatens UCSC research, Santa Cruz biotech industry
A de facto funding freeze on federal biomedical grants could soon stymie UC Santa Cruz research on cancer and other diseases, and stifle the county’s biotech industry, several UC Santa Cruz faculty members said. Quoted faculty members include Carol Greider, Karen Ottemann, Needhi Bhalla, and Ed Green. -
March 07, 2025 - KAZU-FM
UC Santa Cruz professors and students rally for science
Several hundred people rallied in Santa Cruz Friday to support science in the face of significant threats to federal funding. “Stand Up for Science” rallies took place on the UC Santa Cruz main campus and at the coastal science campus. Chair of the UCSC Microbiology and Environmental Toxicology department Karen Ottemann spoke to a crowd of at least 200 outside the science and engineering library. Additional coverage in the Santa Cruz Sentinel, KSBW-Salinas, KION-Salinas, and Lookout Santa Cruz. -
March 06, 2025 - San Jose Mercury newsDaylight saving time is bad for you. Here’s what you can do to soften the blow.
The surprising array of downsides come because our bodies — and those of many animals, plants and even bacteria — are intricately linked to the day-night cycle, explains Carrie Partch, a scientist who studies circadian rhythm at the University of California, Santa Cruz. -
March 10, 2025 - Mercury News
UC teams with Bay Area tech company for new lab that hopes to make AI work for artists
The UC Santa Arts Division launched a new lab, A4, last fall focused on combining AI and the arts. A4 opened with a summit featuring arts professors and notable Arts Division alumni including Kevin Nolting, a producer for Pixar. The lab will create new opportunities to breach the gap between arts and tech as the two become increasingly intertwined. -
March 05, 2025 - Santa Cruz Sentinel
UCSC’s annual student-run dance production beautifully answers ‘The Calling’
Random with a Purpose, the annual student run dance show received a stunning review for it’s dedication to art and performance. Student director Emily Pflieger decided to follow the theme of “The Calling” inspired by her love for dance, and her call to be a part of the dance world. Writer Jake Thomas raves that the show is “a passionate and energetic celebration of creative inspiration.” -
February 28, 2025 - 7X7Spring Arts 2025: Ruth Asawa, Colman Domingo, Bay Area Dance Week + More
Professor Sir Isaac Julien’s recent work was highlighted as part of a list of best art shows to visit. I Dream a World at the de Young Museum opens on April 12, and is a retrospective on American history and race.
February
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February 28, 2025 - Scientific American
Why You Can’t Get That Song Out of Your Head
Scientific American spoke with UC Santa Cruz Psychology Professor Nick Davidenko and Ph.D. student Matt Evans about “earworms,” the types of songs that get stuck in your head and play automatically on a loop. Davidenko and Evans have studied earworms together, finding that when people sing out their earworms, they have a remarkable ability to perfectly match the pitch of the original songs they were based upon. -
February 26, 2025 - Lookout Santa Cruz
This week in Santa Cruz County business
Lookout Santa Cruz's weekly roundup of business news shared findings from a report by UC Santa Cruz's Center for Labor and Community, which showed that 44% of Santa Cruz County workers, students and residents between the age of 18 and 34 said they’d be interested in joining a union. -
February 24, 2025 - KQED
Dr. Nia Imara’s ‘Painting The Cosmos’ Underscores the Connections in Everything
Raised in Oakland, Imara is a graduate of UC Berkeley’s Department of Astronomy and a professor at UC Santa Cruz. In her book, another quote from Mae Jemison speaks directly to the author’s personal story: “Science provides an understanding of a universal experience. Art provides a universal understanding of personal experience.” Additional coverage by ABC News, CBS News, Science Magazine, and KTVU. -
February 28, 2025 - NPRResidents near a fire at a California lithium battery plant worry about their health
Don Smith is a professor of environmental toxicology at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He says the state and San Jose test results look contradictory for a couple reasons. They sampled different locations, and San Jose state researchers only analyzed the topmost layer of soil. Some of the state tests included deeper samples, which, Smith says, could result in diluted levels of metals. He says people are right to want more clarity. Additional coverage in KAZU.
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February 27, 2025 - Earth.comHow cosmic rays from a supernova explosion impacted Earth and changed history
The star’s explosion released intense ionizing cosmic radiation which, based on modeling predictions, could have collided with the Earth’s surface for roughly 100,000 years. “It’s really cool to find ways in which these super distant things could impact our lives or the planet’s habitability,” said lead author Caitlyn Nojiri from UC Santa Cruz. Additional coverage in Live Science and Forbes.
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February 26, 2025 - Popular MechanicsA 'Third State' Exists Between Life and Death—And That Suggests Your Cells Are Conscious, Some Scientists Say
A growing number of new studies have found that, at least for some cells, death isn’t the end, but the beginning of something wholly unexpected. "This is nothing new,” said University of California, Santa Cruz plant biologist Lincoln Taiz. -
February 26, 2025 - Santa Cruz Sentinel
UC Santa Cruz Theater Arts’ ‘Paradise Blue’ delivers potent vision of Detroit
This stunning review of the African American Theater Arts Troupe’s production of Paradise Blue puts special emphasis on Professor Don Williams powerful directorial skills. Writer Jake Thomas says “This is a powerful play full of emotional arcs and sparking with the electricity of music, lust and murder.” -
February 24, 2024 - Yahoo Newsthat the restoration of this ocean feature could protect thousands of lives: 'We level the playing field'
"Our modeling is a major advance in characterizing the effectiveness of nature-based infrastructure for coastal protection. The approach can also be applied to other ecosystems, such as beaches, marshes, oyster reefs, and mangrove forests," said Borja Reguero, who led the research at UC Santa Cruz.
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February 23, 2025 - WIREDThe strange relationship between the evolutionary boom in an African lake and the explosion of a supernova
Evidence of cosmic radiation debris arriving at the same time that a virus community in Africa was boosted. Scientists at the University of California, Santa Cruz think the two factors are linked. They believe the radiation was likely powerful enough to break the double-stranded DNA of organisms, thereby driving mutations and diversifying species.
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February 20, 2025 - GristDroughts are getting worse. Is fog-farming a fix?
Peter Weiss, an atmospheric chemist at the University of California, Santa Cruz, has been installing them in Pacifica, just south of San Francisco. In the summertime, fog can provide enough water to sustain a home's established plants without turning on the hose.
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February 18, 2025 - Earth.com
Photos capture coyotes hunting and eating baby seals for the first time
Motion-triggered cameras have captured these wild canines dragging baby seals away from mainland beaches. This discovery has sparked questions about how these predators use the shore as part of their menu. Led by UC Santa Cruz Ph.D. student Frankie Gerraty, the investigation uncovered details of coyote hunting patterns near seal rookeries. Also in USA Today, Daily Mail, and SF Gate.
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February 25, 2025 - The InterceptTitle 42 Isn’t About Public Health — It’s About Keeping Immigrants Out
Associate Professor of Sociology Juan Pedroza says erroneously linking immigrant communities to the spread of infectious diseases has been a common anti-immigration strategy throughout U.S. History. “You can find in the United States plenty of evidence of people saying that immigrants are bringing disease and will be contaminating the nation, including public health,” he said. -
February 21, 2025 - KIONClosing out Black History Month, one UCSC study shows some disparities
For Black History Month, KION covered a study out of UCSC's Institute for Social Transformation that highlights the ongoing disparity faced by black communities living in the Monterey and San Benito counties. The study considered issues like educational attainment, poverty levels, and access to health care. -
February 23, 2025 - Santa Cruz Sentinel
UC Santa Cruz Ph.D. candidate writes environmental children’s book
Brook Thompson, a Ph.D. student in environmental studies at UC Santa Cruz, shared some of her life experiences in her new children’s book, “I Love Salmon and Lampreys: A Native Story of Resilience,” which will be published March 4.
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February 19, 2025 - Financial ExpressBeyond staying the course
In this op-ed, Nirvikar Singh, a distinguished professor of economics at the University of California, Santa Cruz, argues that many policies available to the Centre (and potentially states), none radical, can even lead to faster growth in the short run while India’s demographics are still favorable.
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February 20, 2025 - GeographicalStrontium: the metal with remarkable powers to help track ancestral roots
A new strontium isotope map of Sub-Saharan Africa developed by Anthropology Professor Vicky Oelze could help descendants of the transatlantic slave trade to finally trace their roots. So far, the map has been used to precisely trace the origins of two people found in the Anson Street African Burial Ground: Kuto and Banza (both named by the Charleston community), who were both brought to the US from western Angola. -
February 18, 2025 - POLITICOWhat's Next for Lithium Valley
Politico’s California climate reporter Blanca Begert hosted a panel discussion with Chris Benner of the University of California, Santa Cruz, and Manuel Pastor of the University of Southern California, two experts with a new book out about the Salton Sea region. The event was on Feb. 19 at 12pm at the UC Student and Policy Center.
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February 16, 2025 - Washington PostUnder Trump, NASA meetings are on hold and missions are up in the air
“Our immensely successful research enterprise is under attack,” said Garth Illingworth, an astrophysicist at the University of California, Santa Cruz and one of the scientists who decades ago conceived of the James Webb Space Telescope.
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February 14, 2025 - ECO MagazineStudy Finds Important Marine Species Vulnerable to Changing Climate
Dungeness crab, Pacific herring, and red abalone are among the marine species most vulnerable to the changing climate's effect on California's coastal waters, a new study led by Timothy Frawley, an assistant project scientist at UC Santa Cruz’s Institute of Marine Sciences, finds.
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February 13, 2025 - ABC NewsHow marine biologists are using elephant seals as nature's 'artificial intelligence'
Marine biologists at the University of California, Santa Cruz, led by Roxanne Beltran, have tagged thousands of northern elephant seals with smart sensors that can measure anything from physical environmental characteristics – like temperature of air or water – the salinity of the ocean, location and how deep the seals are diving, according to a paper published in Science on Thursday. Additional coverage in Atlas Obscura, Earth.com, Monga Bay, and Eco Magazine.
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February 19, 2025 - Santa Cruz Sentinel
UC Santa Cruz’s eXperimental Theater gives ‘The Comedy of Errors’ new energy
UC Santa Cruz’s production of Shakespeare’s Comedy of Errors received a rave review highlighting its brilliance and humor. Special commendations were given to director and Professor in the Department of Performance, Play and Design Patty Gallagher, who is a Shakespeare expert. -
February 12, 2025 - The Washington Post
We thought these places were useless. They may help save the world.
Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies Scott Winton explained how the soggy, anoxic environment of peatlands make them ideal for sequestering carbon from organic matter. “Those organisms that would break down organic matter and decompose it and recycle it back into nutrients and CO2, they can’t work efficiently. And so the organic matter tends to pile up.” -
February 12, 2025 - Santa Cruz Sentinel
Photos | UC Santa Cruz team prepares for premier of Shakespeare’s ‘The Comedy of Errors’
This inside look at UC Santa Cruz’s upcoming performance of Comedy of Errors gives audiences a behind the scenes look at the production. These pictures give a look into the production during their dress rehearsal. -
February 12, 2025 - Santa Cruz Sentinel
UC Santa Cruz brings Shakespearean comedy to the stage
UC Santa Cruz is bringing back its love for Shakespeare. For several decades the university staged the Bard’s productions every summer until losing funding. The upcoming production of Comedy of Errors will rejuvenate student and audience passions for plays. -
February 08, 2025 - Fresno BeeDebunking myths perpetuated by Donald Trump about undocumented immigrants
Lucinda Pease-Alvarez, a professor emerita of education at UC Santa Cruz who has worked extensively with immigrant children and their families, co-authored this op-ed debunking a variety of myths the current president relies on when targeting undocumented immigrants.
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February 07, 2025 - Lookout Santa Cruz
UC Santa Cruz report details socioeconomic challenges for Black populations in Monterey, San Benito counties
Compared to other racial groups, Black residents of Monterey and San Benito counties face higher rent burdens, higher incarceration rates and lower levels of education, among other findings, according to a report published last month by UC Santa Cruz researchers. The researchers, Professor Chris Benner and Gabriella Alvarez, say this report underlines the need for implementing programs and policies that improve the social and economic well-being of Black residents of the Central Coast.
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February 07, 2025 - NaturePinpointing the origins of people taken from Africa for the slave trade
Anthropology Professor Vicky Oelze explained that, in the past, archaeologists who worked on ‘slave cemeteries’ in the African Diaspora could only use isotope ratios and genetic analysis to identify that an individual must have been born and raised somewhere on the African continent. “Now, with strontium isotopes being mapped for most of sub-Saharan Africa, we can move away from 'somewhere in Africa' and make more specific calculations of probability where a given ancestor from the African diaspora might have been kidnapped from,” she says. -
February 03, 2025 - Science NewsAn African strontium map sheds light on the origins of enslaved people
Anthropology Professor Vicky Oelze and colleagues spent more than a decade amassing nearly 900 environmental samples from 24 African countries and combined those measurements with other published data to create a strontium map of sub-Saharan Africa and have demonstrated how it can be used to shed light on the transatlantic slave trade. -
February 09, 2025 - The IndependentScientists have some novel ideas to save the ice caps. Here are the most out-of-box suggestions
While theories are abundant in glacial engineering, making them a reality would prove difficult. It would take decades to make the necessary measurements to understand what it would actually take to perform such interventions, Slawek Tulaczyk, a glaciologist at UC Santa Cruz, pointed out.
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February 06, 2025 - Live Science'Impossible' black holes detected by James Webb telescope may finally have an explanation - if this ultra-rare form of matter exists
"The dark matter self-interaction is a necessary component because the dark matter particles need a way to scatter off one another, much stronger than just gravitational interactions," said study co-author Grant Roberts, a doctoral student at the University of California, Santa Cruz. "This scatter causes the dark matter to bunch up in the very inner central regions of the galaxy, which allows them to collapse into supermassive black hole seeds."
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February 05, 2025 - ScienceTrump orders cause chaos at science agencies
“Our country is hobbling ourselves by canceling these programs,” says cell biologist Needhi Bhalla of the University of California, Santa Cruz. These undergraduates, graduate students, and postdocs “bring important, unique, and novel insights and breadth to solving challenging, scientific problems,” she adds.
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February 06, 2025 - STATResearchers 'stunned' after HHMI abruptly cancels program to make science more inclusive
The Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the nation’s largest private funder of biomedical research, this week abruptly ended a $60 million program aimed at improving the retention of a diverse student body in undergraduate science and engineering programs. “There is a chance for layoffs to occur at the end of this calendar year. If the university can’t find some cash to support staff members, that’s a concern” said Grant Hartzog, a molecular biologist at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
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February 06, 2025 - KSBWUC Santa Cruz alumna wins Grammy for ‘Best Folk Album’ again
Gillian Welch, along with her partner David Rawlings, won for their album “Woodland” at the 67th Annual Grammy Awards on Feb. The album is a blend of Appalachian folk, bluegrass, and Americana. -
February 07, 2025 - The Guardian‘This is Black hair’: technological advances are making waves in animation
UC Santa Cruz professor and researcher A.M. Darke co-authored a study on animating Black hair so it more accurately represents coils. Black hair has historically been overlooked in the field of animation. This new research paves the way for better representation and changes the course of animation. -
February 06, 2025 - KIONUCSC alumna wins second Grammy award for Best Folk Album
An alumna from UC Santa Cruz, Gillian Welch, was the recipient of the Best Folk Album award with musical partner David Rawlings at the 67th Annual Grammy Awards on February 2. They won the award for their “Woodland!” album. Welch graduated from Porter College in fine arts, class of 1990.
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February 04, 2025 - The San Jose Mercury News
Ancient alphabetic writing unearthed by UC Santa Cruz professor remains a mystery
The San Jose Mercury News ran a feature story about UC Santa Cruz History Professor Elaine Sullivan, a renowned Egyptologist. When she was a graduate student, she unearthed artifacts in Syria marked with an an ancient alphabetic script whose meaning still remains a mystery. The artifacts are 500 years older than the earliest alphabetic inscriptions from Egypt or Israel.
January
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January 23, 2025 - The ParajonianMonterey County declares emergency
Assistant Professor of Applied Mathematics Javier Gonzalez-Rocha was quoted in a story from The Parajonian about the lack of air-quality sensors in the Pajaro Valley. -
January 30, 2025 - MongabayLures that attract seed-dispersing bats could aid tropical reforestation
Environmental Studies Professor Karen Holl commented on new research, saying that reforestation impacts from attracting seed dispersing bats will depend upon whether or not the dispersed seeds actually germinate and contribute a lot to forest regrowth. Instead of bat lures, Holl recommends planting forest islands, which offer habitat and attract seed dispersing animals over time, contributing to forest recovery. -
January 29, 2025 - ForbesUnion Popularity Hits 70%, But Trump’s NLRB Move Threatens Labor
New evidence suggests younger workers are more attuned to the benefits of unionization. Researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz did a deep dive in their January 2025 "Union-Curious Young Workers in Santa Cruz County" — the first in a planned series of reports — which reported 44% of young workers in Santa Cruz County would join a union if given the opportunity, 37% are union-curious, and only 19% would not join a union. -
January 27, 2025 - Financial Express
AI and jobs in India
Distinguished Professor of Economics Nirvikar Singh wrote an opinion article about how acceleration of advances in AI demonstrates that the range of productive jobs and the skills needed for them in the future is much broader than what has fueled India’s growth so far. -
January 27, 2025 - HuffPostInside Trump’s Yearslong War With A Fish
“He’s seen an opportunity to weigh in on an issue where cities, by and large, have one strong opinion, and rural regions have a different one,” said Brent Haddad, a professor of environmental studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz. “In California, the cities are mostly Democratic voters. In the rural regions are mostly Republican voters. And so it’s just an opportunity to throw red meat to Republican voters in California, but it doesn’t advance policy or help the economy or rural people one bit.”
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January 26, 2025 - The Guardian
Should Los Angeles be in such a rush to rebuild after the devastating wildfires?
Miriam Greenberg, sociologist at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and the co-director of the Center for Critical Urban and Environmental Studies at UC Santa Cruz, is currently leading a research project called Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) Research for Resilience: Addressing California’s Climate, Conservation and Housing Crises. "What we often see in the aftermath of the disaster is uneven redevelopment," Greenberg said. "There’s major differences for those who are documented and undocumented, who have different access to aid, as well as for homeowners vs renters, and those with often vastly different levels of insurance."
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January 17, 2025 - CBS Bay AreaContra Costa GOP members head to President-elect Trump's inauguration
"It's a very interesting time in American politics. I think we're going through what they call a realignment, which is when both parties are redefining themselves. And they'll probably hold onto whatever definitions come out of the Trump era for the next 30 or 40 years," said Nolan Higdon, a lecturer of history and media studies at UC Santa Cruz.
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January 31, 2025 - New York TimesA Spotted Hyena Turns Up in Egypt After a 5,000 Absence
While Dr. Nagy said the hyena sighting left him in “disbelief,” Christine Wilkinson, a carnivore ecologist and hyena specialist at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and the California Academy of Sciences, wasn’t fazed in the slightest. “To be honest with you, spotted hyenas cannot surprise me,” she said. “They are just incredibly behaviorally flexible animals that can make it work in all different circumstances.”
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January 30, 2025 - Earth.com
Climate change is constantly reshuffling Earth's species
The study, led by Malin Pinsky, an associate professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at UC Santa Cruz, highlights how rising and falling temperatures lead to rapid shifts in species composition. The researchers found that as temperature fluctuations accelerate, ecosystems struggle to maintain stability. “It’s like shuffling a deck of cards, and temperature change now is shuffling that deck faster and faster,” said Pinsky. “The worry is that eventually you start to lose some cards.”
Additional coverage in La Repubblica.
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January 30, 2025 - BBCWhich is worse for wildlife, wind farms or oil drilling?
Aspen Ellis, a seabird biologist at University of California, Santa Cruz, spent a decade doing field work on remote islands off the coast of the United States. She often lived for months amongst thousands of birds, becoming so immersed in their ways that she even learned to tell which predators were nearby from the birds' calls. But as she added her observations to 40 or 50 years of previous research on these colonies, she noticed a worrying pattern. "Again and again, I just found myself logging the impact of climate change over time," she recalls, from rising sea levels that threatened breeding colonies, to fish moving to cooler areas and leaving seabird chicks starving. "Without addressing this larger issue of climate change, the seabird conversation work we were doing wasn't sufficient to save those populations," she adds. She decided to change focus – and today, studies ways to make clean-energy offshore wind farms safer for birds.
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January 27, 2025 - Forbes
How Restoring Coral Reefs Can Save Millions In Coastal Flood Damages
“Most hazard mitigation and disaster recovery funding supports artificial infrastructure, such as seawalls, that degrade nature,” said Michael W. Beck, director of the UC Santa Cruz Center for Coastal Climate Resilience, who co-led the study. “By valuing the benefits of natural infrastructure, we level the playing field and open major new funding opportunities for reef restoration.”
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January 29, 2025 - New York Times
Lurking Inside an Asteroid: Life’s Ingredients
David Deamer, professor emeritus of biomolecular engineering, was quoted in a New York Times story on the chemistry of the early solar system. -
January 25, 2025 - Los Angeles TimesUC, a top recipient of federal research funding, is concerned about Trump pause on grant reviews
John MacMillan, UC Santa Cruz vice chancellor of research, said that even if the pause is lifted on Feb. 1, rescheduling the meetings takes time and could delay funding decisions for at least two or three months. “Particularly for our younger scientists, pausing their work and the long-term effects of that can be pretty profound.”
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January 25, 2025 - Washington Post
The dodo bird is extinct. This scientist says she can bring it back.
Beth Shapiro, the chief science officer at Colossal and professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at UC Santa Cruz, is attempting a feat straight out of science fiction: reviving the dodo, a bird that’s been extinct for more than three centuries.
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January 20, 2025 - CBS News
Environmental concerns still loom over Northern California lithium battery facility fire
The ongoing fire is raising concerns not just for the residents in the area, but also for the endangered sea otters living in the sensitive wetlands near the Vistra plant. "They're a keystone species. They help to protect the kelp beds offshore by consuming sea urchins, and they help to protect the sea beds here in the slough," said University of California, Santa Cruz researcher Lilian Carswell. "So healthy sea otters mean a healthy environment."
Carswell also interviewed by KSBW, KION, and Santa Cruz Lookout.
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January 20, 2025 - BloombergAfter the fire, should some parts of Los Angeles never rebuild?
Miriam Greenberg, a professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz, says a lot more research is needed before designing managed-retreat programs for wildfire-prone areas. But in some cases it’s much better for people to stay and rely on the knowledge of indigenous people who have kept fires away for centuries. “We need people who know how to steward those lands,” she said. -
January 18, 2025 - The Guardian
The perfect storm: why did LA’s wildfires explode out of control?
Sociology Professor Miriam Greenberg explained the housing affordability pressures that are driving people to live in areas with rising fire risk as the climate changes. “Living in dense urban areas – which are safer in relation to fire and many other climate hazards – has become out of reach for many people, so they’re moving to areas that are ones they can afford,” she said. Even in the wake of a wildfire, Greenberg says some survivors who want to get out of a high-risk area cannot move to a safer area because the rents there are too high.
