UCSC in the News
May
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May 16, 2024 - The Conversation
You should call House members ‘representatives,’ because that’s what they are − not ‘congressmen’ or ‘congresswomen’
Politics Department Professor and Chair Daniel Wirls wrote an article for The Conversation explaining that the gender-neutral term "representative" is actually the most constitutionally correct way to refer to members of the U.S. House of Representatives. -
May 19, 2024 - The Verge
Two students find security bug that could let millions do laundry for free
The Verge reports that two UCSC engineering students discovered a security vulnerability in internet-connected laundry machines that could allow millions to do laundry for free. Additional coverage in Tech Crunch. -
May 21, 2024 - EarthSky
Scientists discover a nitroplast, the 1st of its kind
The discovery of the organelle involved a bit of luck and decades of work. In 1998, Jonathan Zehr, a UC Santa Cruz distinguished professor of marine sciences, found a short DNA sequence of what appeared to be from an unknown nitrogen-fixing cyanobacterium in Pacific Ocean seawater. Zehr and colleagues spent years studying the mystery organism, which they called UCYN-A. -
May 16, 2024 - Reuters
Sea otters get more prey and reduce tooth damage using tools
The frequency of tool-use behavior varies, with some otters doing it more than 90% of the time when feeding and others rarely or never, according to study co-author Rita Mehta, a University of California, Santa Cruz functional and comparative biologist. "Females need the calories. They are smaller than males, and pregnant or nursing females have elevated caloric demands. Tool-using females were shown to consume a greater proportion of very large prey to help them meet their caloric needs," Mehta said. -
May 18, 2024 - Mercury News
Capitola Wharf, wrecked in huge winter storms, set to reopen after $10 million upgrade
"There’s been a long history of construction and destruction at the Capitola Wharf," said Gary Griggs, a professor of Earth sciences at UC Santa Cruz. "It’s sort of like the Big Sur Highway." -
May 14, 2024 - Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News
Platelet Pathway More Traveled with Age, Leads to Excessive Clotting
Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News covered Camilla Forsberg's lab's discovery of a secondary population of platelet cells that lead to excessive clotting. -
May 09, 2024 - New York Times
Tuna Crabs, Neither Tuna Nor Crabs, Are Swarming Near San Diego
Megan Cimino, an assistant researcher at the Institute of Marine Sciences at the University of California, Santa Cruz, quoted. While the link between tuna crab aggregations and El Niño isn’t exactly clear cut, “when we think about climate change, the first thing to come to mind might be warming temperatures, but climate change can result in more variable ocean conditions” as well, Dr. Cimino said.
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May 03, 2024 - Los Angeles Times
As dismantling of largest dam begins on Klamath River, activists see ‘new beginning’
Environmental Studies Ph.D. student Brook Thompson, a Yurok tribe member, spoke with the Los Angeles Times about her activism for dam removal along the Klamath River and how it feels to now see the river's largest dam being dismantled. -
May 07, 2024 - NASA
How NASA’s Roman Mission Will Hunt for Primordial Black Holes
“Detecting a population of Earth-mass primordial black holes would be an incredible step for both astronomy and particle physics because these objects can’t be formed by any known physical process,” said William DeRocco, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California Santa Cruz. -
May 07, 2024 - Drug Discovery News
A new Goldilocks drug class: macrocyclic peptides
Based on the clinical trial data so far, other macrocyclic peptide researchers are excited about MK-0616’s potential and what it means for future macrocyclic peptide drugs. “What it does show is the incredible potency that you can get with these larger compounds against undruggable targets that have previously been impossible to inhibit with small molecules,” said Scott Lokey, a chemist at the University of California, Santa Cruz who was not involved with developing MK-0616.
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May 06, 2024 - SF Gate
California's historic piers are deteriorating. Should we save them?
UC Santa Cruz professor and director for the UCSC Center for Coastal Climate Resilience Michael Beck told SFGATE that decisions like this may feel right at the time, but "if you really want it to be around for that time period, then we should take those costs now. … But as costs balloon over time, UCSC’s Beck said, the question of whether to save these beautiful relics of the past will become harder and harder for community leaders to answer.
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May 03, 2024 - Mercury News
Peregrine falcon webcam up and running on Alcatraz Island
“A lot of people are surprised to find out that a prey bird like this, a symbol of wilderness, can be living in urban areas and doing so well,” said Zeka Glucs, director of the Predatory Bird Research Group at UC Santa Cruz. “People really fall in love with them.”
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May 03, 2024 - Mercury News
Our brains are growing. Will that help prevent dementia?
Distinguished Professor of Biomolecular Engineering David Haussler's research on human genomic evolution was mentioned in a Mercury News story on the effects of the increasing size of human brains.
April
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April 26, 2024 - Santa Cruz Sentinel
Right Livelihood Conference features activists from around globe
The Santa Cruz Sentinel covered the Right Livelihood International Conference at UC Santa Cruz, which brought together global leaders of social and environmental justice movements. -
April 29, 2024 - Financial Express
Pivoting India’s growth strategy
Distinguished Professor of Economics Nirvikar Singh wrote an op-ed for Financial Express about how India can foster greater export competitiveness to accelerate and broaden the dynamics of industrial growth. -
April 18, 2024 - Associated Press
What we know about the shooting of an Uber driver in Ohio and the scam surrounding it
Anthony Pratkanis, an emeritus psychology professor, spoke to the Associated Press about the increasing prevalence of so-called "grandparent scams" in the past decade and explained how these scams typically work. -
April 30, 2024 - Space.com
NASA's TESS exoplanet hunter may have spotted its 1st rogue planet
"Definitely a ten out of ten excitement from me," William DeRocco, team co-leader and a researcher at the University of California Santa Cruz, told Space.com. "I'm used to looking for dark matter, where the odds of actually seeing anything are wildly low, so the potential of discovering something like a rogue world drifting in the darkness of interstellar space is just incredible."
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April 30, 2024 - New Scientist
How could we make a solar eclipse happen every day?
In this episode of Dead Planets Society, hosts Leah Crane and Chelsea Whyte are joined by astronomer Bruce Macintosh at the University of California, Santa Cruz, in their attempts to fix this problem and conjure up a total solar eclipse that is accessible to all.
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April 23, 2024 - The Independent
Two lifeforms merge into one organism for first time in a billion years
“The first time we think it happened, it gave rise to all complex life,” said Tyler Coale, a postdoctoral researcher at University of California, Santa Cruz, who led the research on one of two recent studies that uncovered the phenomenon. “Everything more complicated than a bacterial cell owes its existence to that event. A billion years ago or so, it happened again with the chloroplast, and that gave us plants.” -
April 23, 2024 - Smithsonian
Bioluminescence First Evolved in Animals at Least 540 Million Years Ago
Bioluminescence first evolved in animals at least 540 million years ago in a group of marine invertebrates called octocorals, according to the results of a new study from scientists with the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, and UC Santa Cruz's Steven Haddock. -
April 25, 2024 - New York Times
What Will Happen to West Cliff Drive in Santa Cruz?
Gary Griggs, a professor of earth sciences who has taught at the University of California, Santa Cruz, since the 1960s, said that the conversation around West Cliff Drive reflected the realities of “living on the California coast and having developed right up to the edge.”
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April 30, 2024 - Technology Networks
Advances in Liquid Biopsies: Improving Sensitivity and Earlier Detection
Associate Professor of Biomolecular Engineering Daniel Kim was featured in a Technology Networks story on advances in liquid biopsy technology for cancer detection, his area of expertise. -
April 28, 2024 - San Francisco Chronicle
Isaac Julien’s SFMOMA installation sets scene for most successful Art Bash ever
Distinguished professor from UC Santa Cruz Isaac Julian premiered an installation at the SFMOMA as part of the museums Art Bash. -
April 19, 2024 - Seattle Times
A celebrity seal was moved 125 miles away in B.C. He showed up again days later.
Roxanne Beltran, an ecology and biology professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz, said many elephant seals travel to locations where they feel comfortable — typically their birthplaces — when they begin molting around April. She said it’s still a mystery how elephant seals know how to get back there. “Something about [Emerson’s] past experiences have informed his decision to stay, and whether that’s the amount of space or the amount of food … he seems to have found a place that he likes,” Beltran said.
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April 17, 2024 - Los Angeles Times
We can’t stop Highway 1 from crumbling into the sea. Here’s why
The same features that give the Central California coastline its majestic views also make it volatile. As Gary Griggs, a professor of earth sciences at UC Santa Cruz, explained, that is mainly because California is young—in a geological sense—and still settling in.
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April 16, 2024 - Forbes
Space Experts Debate How To De-Escalate Russian Threats Of Orbital War
“Any kind of space warfare will put all satellites at risk,” astrophysicist Joel Primack, a professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz, said in an interview. “The SpaceX Starlink satellites orbit at an altitude of about 550 km. That’s high enough that if they were targeted, the debris would remain in orbit for centuries.”
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April 05, 2024 - National Institutes of Health Newsroom
NIBIB-led program has helped innovators pursue commercialization for a decade, three medtech participants share their experiences
Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering Shiva Abbaszadeh's pathway to commercializing her x-ray detector technology was featured in an article about the anniversary of the The National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering's Concept to Clinic: Commercializing Innovation (C3i) program. -
April 17, 2024 - Genome Web
Nanopore-Based Single-Molecule Detection Tech Shows Promise for Viral Load Tracking
Genome Web reports on technology developed by UCSC Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering Holger Schmidt for detecting COVID-19 and the Zika virus. -
April 13, 2024 - The Guardian
The photographer who captured Black San Francisco in the 1960s: ‘We wouldn’t have seen it without him’
UC Santa Cruz Professor Emeritus Lewis Watts comments on collection of photos capturing people of color in San Francisco in the 1960s. -
April 08, 2024 - Architectural Digest
The 64 Prettiest College Campuses in America
Architectural Digest names UC Santa Cruz amongst the prettiest college campuses in the United States. -
April 04, 2024 - MIT Technology Review
The hard lessons of Harvard’s failed geoengineering experiment
Environmental Studies Professor Sikina Jinnah, who co-chaired the Advisory Committee for Harvard's proposed SCoPEX solar geoengineering experiment, told MIT Technology Review that the need for early public engagement in future research proposals is one of the major take-home lessons from the project. -
April 09, 2024 - KALW
Confirmation Bias In Policing And The American Nightmare
Distinguished Professor of Psychology Craig Haney joined KALW radio show Your Legal Rights for a discussion of confirmation bias in prosecution. -
April 10, 2024 - San Francisco Public Press
Overdose Deaths Swell Among SF’s Maya Residents, Highlighting Urgent Need for Culturally Competent Drug Health Services
The San Francisco Public Press covered research by Global and Community Health core faculty member and Assistant Professor of Latin American and Latino Studies Carlos Martinez that showed most Latinx and Indigenous people in San Francisco who consumed drugs had very little knowledge of risks associated with those substances. -
April 11, 2024 - Monterey County Weekly
Local kelp forests continue to die off. Can they be saved? Divers say yes, but scientists and regulators want more answers.
When divers, scientists and others started noticing kelp forests dying off around the Monterey Peninsula in 2015 and earlier, many were alarmed. But Mark Carr, a marine ecology professor at UC Santa Cruz who’s considered one of the foremost experts on kelp forests, wasn’t one of them. “It’s been 10 years now, and frankly people like me, marine ecologists, said, ‘Calm down, kelp will come back. Kelp comes and goes,’” Carr says. “We were wrong.”
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April 11, 2024 - NewScientist
A bacterium has evolved into a new cellular structure inside algae
In the 3.5 billion years since life first evolved on Earth, it was thought that once-free-living bacteria had merged with other organisms on just three occasions, making this an exceedingly rare evolutionary event. Now, a fourth example has been found, in a single-celled alga common in the oceans. Tyler Coale at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and his colleagues have now shown that this bacterium has evolved into a new cellular structure, or organelle. It is the first known nitrogen-fixing organelle, or nitroplast, says Coale, and could be the key to the success of these algae.
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April 08, 2024 - NECN
Professor returns to childhood home to watch solar eclipse
Robert Irion, emeritus director of the UC Santa Cruz Science Communication Program, featured in TV news report by NBC affiliate NECN. "When I saw the pathway of the 2024 eclipse, and realized it was going through my hometown, I knew instantly—at that moment—that I wanted to back in this spot to watch the eclipse because it would mean so much to me personally to be back here where it all started and set the stage for my whole career." -
April 10, 2024 - Chronicle of Higher Education
What Does an A Really Mean?
"While within a given course an A may be tied to consistent criteria, across courses and especially across institutions, it’s what people in my field of literary studies would call an 'arbitrary signifier.' That is, it means whatever the individual faculty member says it means. Much too often — though not always — in the postsecondary sector, it means 'showing evidence of prior educational privilege.'" — Jody Greene, associate campus provost for academic success at the University of California, Santa Cruz. -
April 01, 2024 - The Guardian
California’s Highway 1 road conditions will only get riskier, experts say
“We have been lucky,” said Dr. Gary Griggs, a coastal erosion expert at University of California, Santa Cruz, of the safety record along the most rugged stretches of this road. Fast-moving debris flows and the underground churn that chews through the concrete can cause fatalities if cars are caught in the erosion. “Almost a century since it was built and it has been slide after slide after slide,” he added. “Nothing is ever going to change that, and, with these climate change indicators, it will probably get worse.”
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April 08, 2024 - SFGate
UC Santa Cruz’s Deep Read Brings ‘Trust’ To International Community
The University of California Santa Cruz's The Deep Read, now in its fifth year, is focusing on Hernan Diaz's "Trust" this spring, culminating with an appearance by the Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist in May. Sponsored by the university's Humanities Institute, the free program, in which readers dig deep into a text over a series of four weeks with guidance from UC Santa Cruz scholars, attracts people from all over the world.
March
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March 29, 2024 - Financial Express
Happiness in India: India’s economic growth over time does not show up in improved happiness score and ranking
In and opinion article for Financial Express, Distinguished Professor of Economics Nirvikar Singh discusses some of the possible reasons why India's happiness ranking is lower than would be implied by its GDP per capita. -
March 31, 2024 - The Mirror
Arizona declares Pluto 'official state planet' despite being relegated to dwarf status
"It's a big elliptical hole in the ground, so the extra weight must be hiding somewhere beneath the surface. And an ocean is a natural way to get that," said lead author Francis Nimmo, from the University of California, Santa Cruz.
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March 13, 2024 - CBC
Can't make sense of record-breaking weather? Take a trip to Art Souterrain
Festival Art Souterrain, a contemporary art exhibition, will feature micha cárdenas' immersive installation, The Probability Engine: Permafrost and Ice. This project lets you see what would happen if Canada's boreal permafrost melted away. Additional coverage in La Presse. -
March 26, 2024 - Axios
Luar, Willy Chavarría among Latinos rising in fashion
Edward Salazar Celis, a doctoral student in Latin American and Latino studies, spoke with Axios about the history of Latino and Latin American fashion design. -
March 15, 2024 - Bon Appétit
How Tanghulu Went From a Chinese Street Snack to a Colorful Controversy
Culinary magazine Bon Appétit spoke with Anthropology Professor Nancy Chen about the history and medicinal uses for traditional Tanghulu skewers made from hawthorn. -
March 13, 2024 - Scientific American
Successful reforestation is keeping the Eastern U.S. cooler
For an article about the positive impacts of reforestation, Scientific American interviewed Environmental Studies Professor Karen Holl to clarify under which conditions reforestation campaigns are appropriate and most likely to provide benefits. -
March 11, 2024 - Santa Cruz Sentinel
By running again, Biden gambling with American democracy
Professor and Chair of Politics Daniel Wirls wrote an opinion column for the Santa Cruz Sentinel about the Democratic Party's 2024 election strategy. -
March 11, 2024 - Santa Cruz Sentinel
TEDxSantaCruz announces speakers for first conference in five years
Economics Professor Galina Hale and Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies Natalia Ocampo-Peñuela are among the selected speakers for an upcoming TEDxSanta Cruz event, which will also feature UCSC alumni and a current graduate student. -
March 13, 2024 - New York Times
Dozens of Artists, 3 Critics: Who’s Afraid of the Whitney Biennial 2024?
University of California, Santa Cruz Arts and Humanities Professor Sir Isaac Julien’s masterful video and sculpture installation is a highlight of the show. It remakes the dialogue between the Harlem Renaissance philosopher Alain Locke and the collector-philanthropist Albert C. Barnes, and there is an absorbing discussion of how Europeans and Americans viewed African sculpture — and the responses of Black versus white artists and collectors to such objects.
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March 23, 2024 - Santa Cruz Sentinel
New succulent species named by UC Santa Cruz botanist
Emeritus Director of Research at the UC Santa Cruz Arboretum & Botanic Garden Stephen McCabe has helped name yet another succulent species in the genus Dudleya, called Dudleya chasmophyta, or the crevice-loving Dudleya, which is found exclusively on a cliff band in Orange County. Additional coverage in the East Bay Times and Mercury News. -
March 26, 2024 - San Francisco Chronicle
Rare screening of Talking Heads concert film coming to Santa Cruz
UC Santa Cruz partnered with San Francisco’s Noise Pop Industries for unique showing of the remastered version of the Talking Heads concert-movie "Stop Making Sense" -
March 26, 2024 - EarthSky
Does Jupiter’s moon Europa have a habitable ocean, or not?
Francis Nimmo, a planetary scientist at the University of California, Santa Cruz, noted that our own moon is still seismically active, even though models suggested it shouldn’t be. He said: "The moon is one place where we know we have tidally driven quakes." -
March 22, 2024 - Santa Cruz Local
Proposed fishing bans spark debate in Santa Cruz County
UC Santa Cruz ecologist Mark Carr completed some of the analyses of how Marine Protected Areas have impacted the Central Coast over the past decade. Carr said fishing bans might help kelp forests in Southern California, but won’t have the same impact in Monterey Bay. -
March 20, 2024 - Scientific American
Planet-Eating Stars Are Surprisingly Common, New Study Suggests
The circumstantial evidence tentatively suggests that 8 percent (or more) of all stars likely to be planet-devourers, says Ricardo Yarza, an astrophysicist at the University of California, Santa Cruz. But “estimating this rate is quite challenging.” -
March 21, 2024 - Fast Company
California is wrestling with electricity prices. An income-based, fixed-charge rate structure might be the best solution
Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering Yihsu Chen offers his perspective on how the California electricity market can be made as efficient and equitable as possible in the face of the rise of small-scale solar. Also published in The Conversation. -
March 20, 2024 - Smithsonian
Why Did Seals and Sea Lions Never Commit to a Life Fully at Sea?
Finding and uncovering fossil pinnipeds in the first place is a challenging task. “Some creatures are more likely to enter the fossil record than others,” says University of California, Santa Cruz, paleontologist Ana Valenzuela Toro, “and pinnipeds have an unusual amphibious lifestyle that exposes them to very different processes depending on where they die.” -
March 19, 2024 - KQED
Marin County Approves Contract to Prepare for Rising Seas and Extreme Storms
Creating a new department to tackle sea-level rise, however, will be complex, and Gary Griggs, a distinguished professor of sciences at UC Santa Cruz, said putting the onus on one agency to prepare for sea-level rise could be shortsighted. “I’m a little cautious of a whole new department,” he said, especially when staff in existing programs and departments can work together to plan for sea-level rise. The real question he asked is, “How can you bring those people together?” -
March 19, 2024 - Scientific American
Orion’s Twin Rogue Planets Inexplicably Blaze with Intense Radio Waves
“The Orion Nebula is just so far away that I would never have expected there to be detectable radio emission,” says Melodie Kao, a planetary radio expert at the University of California, Santa Cruz, who was not part of the team. -
March 02, 2024 - PBS
Can science save the northern white rhino from extinction and even bring back the dodo?
"Identical copies of things are never going to happen. But that's not the way evolution works anyway. If we think about de-extinction in a logical, ethical, ecologically sustainable way, it can't be this purist ideal of what the extinction means. Instead, it has to be this creation of something new that's adapted for the habitat of today," Shapiro said. -
March 06, 2024 - The Conversation
Sharks, turtles and other sea creatures face greater risk from industrial fishing than previously thought
Examining five years of data from fishing vessel location devices and the habitats of 14 large marine species, including seabirds, sharks, turtles, sea lions and tunas, we found that our estimates of risk to these animals increased by nearly 25% when we accounted for the presence of dark vessels. -
March 19, 2024 - Yahoo Finance
Beth Shapiro Joins Colossal as Chief Science Officer
Colossal Biosciences, the world’s first de-extinction company, today announced that UC Santa Cruz professor Beth Shapiro, internationally renowned evolutionary molecular biologist, leader in paleogenomics, and ancient DNA expert, has joined as Chief Science Officer. -
March 16, 2024 - earth.com
Is there enough prey for beluga whale survival?
“We consider the balance between calories in and calories out (that is metabolic balance) a key factor for survival in beluga whales,” explained Terrie Williams, lead researcher from the University of California, Santa Cruz. “It is the basis of understanding the biological machinery that drives large mammals.” -
March 10, 2024 - KTVU 2
Golden State Warriors hold STEAM Fest for students
KTVU's coverage of the Golden State Warriors' annual STEAM fest highlighted UCSC's demonstration table at the event. -
March 06, 2024 - Los Angeles Times
UC applications rise for fall 2024, with gains in diversity and transfer applicants
UC Santa Cruz emailed about 500,000 potential transfer students last fall to congratulate them on their educational journeys and offer help in course planning, financial aid issues and other support, said Michelle Whittingham, associate vice chancellor of enrollment management. The number of transfer applications overall grew to 12,218 — a 9.6% increase — for fall 2024 while those for first-year seats increased to 71,697, a 4.2% rise. “Seeing the resiliency of the students as those transfer numbers start to recover is really exciting,” Whittingham said. -
March 08, 2024 - Washington Post
Honduran ex-president convicted of helping send tons of cocaine to U.S.
“How is it possible the U.S. government did not know this stuff was going on?” said Dana Frank, a historian and Honduras expert at the University of California at Santa Cruz. “They chose to look the other way.” -
March 05, 2024 - Democracy Now
U.S.-Backed Fmr. Honduran Pres. Juan Orlando Hernández on Trial in NY for Drug Trafficking
Dana Frank, professor emerita of history at UC Santa Cruz, was interviewed by Democracy Now about the trial against former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, who is accused of turning the Central American country into a narco-state.
February
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February 28, 2024 - Pittsburgh City Paper
Near-total isolation of juvenile girls at the ACJ raises concerns of illegal solitary confinement
Pittsburgh City Paper interviewed Psychology Professor Craig Haney about the increased risks of solitary confinement for juveniles. -
February 27, 2024 - Los Angeles Times
How the ‘Mob Wife’ aesthetic can help us think about Latinidad
The Los Angeles Times interviewed Professor of Latin American and Latino Studies Catherine Ramírez for perspective on how the "mob aesthetic" trend compares to historical aesthetics of excess within Latinx communities. -
February 28, 2024 - Vox
Should Big Pharma pay poor countries for finding new diseases?
Vox discussed research by Politics Professor and Global and Community Health Program Co-Director Matt Sparke on how the COVID pandemic demonstrated that prioritizing intellectual property rights above all else entrenches global inequalities in access to medications and treatments. -
February 26, 2024 - The Guardian
‘It was the perfect storm’: the fatal crash that changed criminal justice in San Francisco
Politics Professor Anjuli Verma spoke with The Guardian about how a New Year's Eve car crash in San Francisco fueled fears about crime in the city. -
February 26, 2024 - Jacobin
Tax Ivy League Endowments, and Fund Public Higher Ed
Jacobin Magazine cited research by Economics Professor George Bulman, which found that colleges and universities with larger endowments do provide more financial aid, but they also enroll fewer low-income students and students of color. As their endowment wealth helps them become higher ranked, they become more selective, rather than increasing the size or diversity of their student bodies, the research found. -
February 27, 2024 - Sierra
A Tale of Two Sea Level Rise Solutions
Environmental Studies Ph.D. student Amanda Stoltz spoke with Sierra about climate gentrification. "Not only are lower-income and BIPOC communities already bearing the brunt of the climate crisis, but also rising real estate prices may continue to push those communities out of climate-safe neighborhoods and into areas more at risk," she said. -
February 20, 2024 - KAZU
California Faculty Association members vote to approve tentative agreement
UC Santa Cruz graduate student Sarah Mason, who works with the Center for Labor and Community spoke with KAZU to explain the process of ratifying union labor agreements. -
February 21, 2024 - NPR
Former president of Honduras is on trial, facing charges that he ran a 'narco state'
University of California, Santa Cruz Research Professor and Professor Emerita of History Dana Frank was quoted in an NPR segment this week about former president of Honduras Juan Orlando Hernández, whose trial begins in New York, as he stands accused of overseeing a "narco state." -
February 12, 2024 - PBS Newshour
Landmark report details how human activities can disrupt animal migrations
When whales migrate from polar waters toward the equator, they help move nutrients to parts of the ocean that typically don’t have a lot to spare, said Daniel Costa, director of the Institute of Marine Sciences at the University of California, Santa Cruz. As they travel, whales release urea as waste, a source of nitrogen that’s useful to other members of the marine ecosystem. -
February 07, 2023 - The Hill
California’s record rainfall leads to mudslides, sewage spills
Co-author Pete Raimondi, a marine ecologist at the University of California, Santa Cruz, stressed the importance of locating “areas where kelp can persist on its own.” Doing so, he added, could help identify where kelp restoration efforts have the best chance at success. -
February 07, 2024 - New York Times
A Two-Ton Lifeguard That Saved a Young Pup
Researchers have observed elephant seals for more than 40 years and had never seen a male rescue a pup like this before. “It’s completely out of the ordinary,” said Daniel Costa, an ecologist at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Since this is the first time anyone has seen anything like this from elephant seals, Costa suspects it was a rare one-off behavior. -
February 07, 2024 - Scientific American
Saturn's 'Death Star' Moon May Hide a Massive, Shockingly Young Ocean
The finding that Mimas has an ocean is intriguing—but that ocean’s inferred youth is what has sent ripples through the scientific community. “The implications give one pause because they’re very surprising,” says Francis Nimmo, a planetary scientist at the University of California, Santa Cruz, who was not involved with the new study. -
January 01, 2020 - KTVA
Underwater forests focus of new study in Alaska
From fish to crabs, Alaska’s kelp forests are home to a rich diversity of marine life. How these underwater forests are impacted by climate change, which are expected to make the ocean warmer and more acidic, is the focus of of a new study by Lauren Bell from the University of California, Santa Cruz. -
February 01, 2024 - CBC
Sea otters have a big appetite - and that could help marshes handle climate change
"They eat a lot. They eat about a quarter to a third of their body weight every single day," explained Tim Tinker, a research ecologist at the University of California at Santa Cruz, and one of the study's Canadian co-authors. "And so whatever they're eating, they're going to have big impacts." -
February 04, 2024 - CNN
‘Save the Whales’ was a shining success. Now can humpbacks save us from ourselves?
CNN followed an international team of whale experts throughout 2023, from Ari Friedlaender’s lab at the University of California at Santa Cruz to humpback breeding grounds off the Pacific coast of Colombia, and their feeding grounds at the bottom of the world. While Friedlaender has been collecting whale data for more than 25 years, his work found new relevance after a team of economists from the International Monetary Fund estimated a single baleen whale provides about $2 million worth of Earth services, both in life and death. -
February 02, 2024 - AP News
Rising seas and frequent storms are battering California's piers, threatening the iconic landmarks
“We are very much in a changed environment,” said Mike Beck, director of the Center for Coastal Climate Resilience at the University of California, Santa Cruz. “And we’re not going to be able to rebuild back in the same places and in the same ways that we did before. We’re going to have to think more clearly about how we design and where we put these.” Beck was the main expert quoted in the piece and was also featured in the accompanying video. -
February 15, 2024 - Popular Science
When planting trees is bad for the planet
Popular Science reached out to Environmental Studies Professor Karen Holl for her perspective on a new study about the risks of planting trees in places where they wouldn't grow naturally. -
February 13, 2024 - King City Rustler
New study focuses on ‘Building an Inclusive Economy’ in Monterey Bay region
The King City Rustler covered the release of a new report developed by UC Santa Cruz's Institute for Social Transformation that shares indicators for tracking inclusive economic development. “Accurate data is important for grounding discussions about challenges and opportunities we face in the region,” said Chris Benner, faculty director of the institute. -
February 10, 2024 - The New York Times
For Gen Z, an Age-Old Question: Who Pays for Dates?
The New York Times interviewed Distinguished Psychology Professor Campbell Leaper about his 2016 research that found an association among men between the idea that men should pay for dates and hostile views toward women. -
February 01, 2024 - Santa Cruz Sentinel
Boulder Creek resident’s film on aging, staying active to air on KQED Plus
The Santa Cruz Sentinel covered the release of an upcoming documentary featuring UC Santa Cruz Professor Emeritus of Sociology John Brown Childs. -
February 13, 2024 - New Scientist
People who are blind can navigate indoors with a phone in their pocket
The New Scientist featured Professor of Computer Science and Engineering Roberto Manduchi's research on creating apps that allow visually impaired people to navigate with their phones while the device is in their pocket. -
February 01, 2024 - Science
Racing extinction: Can science act fast enough to save large, endangered mammals?
How can we speed up the process of saving large mammals? After four decades of conducting ecophysiological research on large marine and terrestrial carnivores, UC Santa Cruz Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Terrie Williams' team has found that a laboratory-to-zoo-to-field approach is one effective way to quickly gain critical knowledge about what different species need to survive. -
February 12, 2024 - The Wall Street Journal
‘Tripping on Utopia’ Review: LSD and the Cold War
The Wall Street Journal praised Associate Professor of History Benjamin Breen's new book, Tripping On Utopia, in a review that was published this week, calling attention to the way Breen "narrates the rise and fall of LSD through the lives of Margaret Mead, who became the leading American anthropologist of her era, and her third husband, Gregory Bateson, the British-born dilettante who became a pioneer of the Californian state of mind." -
February 12, 2024 - The Architectural Review
Iwona Buczkowska and Angela Davis named winners of the 2024 Jane Drew and Ada Louise Huxtable Prizes
The Architectural Review ran a detailed feature story about University of California, Santa Cruz Distinguished Emerita Professor Angela Davis, who taught in both the History of Consciousness and Feminist Studies departments. Davis won this year's Ada Louise Huxtable Prize for Contribution to Architecture.
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February 07, 2024 - PBS NOVA
Easter Island Origins
Assistant Professor of Biomolecular Engineering Alexander Ioannidis discusses the genomic evidence used to trace the origins of the people of Easter Island. Ioannidis came to UC Santa Cruz after doing this research at Stanford University.
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January 22, 2024 - Mercury News
Lick Observatory: Unraveling cosmic mysteries from an otherworldly ‘little town’
Piper Walker, 22, an astrophysics major at UC Santa Cruz, collaborates remotely with researchers at Lick Observatory. Walker, from her Santa Cruz bedroom, even helped identify her first quasar. -
January 26, 2024 - Los Angeles Daily News
Boeing to extract badly tainted soil from ‘burn pit’ at Santa Susana Field
Dan Hirsch, former director of the Program on Environmental and Nuclear Policy at the University of California, Santa Cruz, spent decades advocating for the cleanup of the Santa Susana Field Lab, known as one of the most contaminated fields in the U.S. Along with other activists, Hirsch worried that weak toxic clean-up standards set by the California Department of Toxic Substances Control for the burn pit — and for the entire Santa Susana Field Lab area — would allow Boeing to preserve, rather than clean up, the area’s toxic contamination. -
January 17, 2024 - Hindustan Times
American Dream: Haryana youngsters queue up big time on the US border
Hindustan Times interviewed Distinguished Professor of Economics Nirvikar Singh about the economic factors driving migration to the United States from the state of Haryana in India. -
January 31, 2024 - KPBS
Tips for parents to encourage kids to play outside
Sociology Professor Rebecca London shared tips with KPBS about how parents can encourage children's play. Parents can model different kinds of play for their children and should follow their children's natural interests, London says. -
January 30, 2024 - Financial Express
Lessons from China’s EV success
Distinguished Professor of Economics Nirvikar Singh wrote an opinion article for Financial Express about lessons India could learn from China's success with manufacturing and selling electric vehicles. -
January 29, 2024 - KPBS
The way kids play has quietly transformed. Here’s why that matters
Sociology Professor Rebecca London spoke with KPBS about her research on the benefits of free play for children's development. -
January 22, 2024 - KALW
Yurok, Klamath & Karuk Native tribes celebrate historic dam removals
Environmental Studies Ph.D. student Brook Thompson, a member of the Yurok and Karuk tribes, joined KALW's Your Call radio show to discuss the removal of the Klamath River dam. -
January 19, 2024 - National Geographic
Why your dog helps you relax more than your friends do
Assistant Teaching Professor of Psychology Hannah Raila spoke with National Geographic about her recent research that documented how people who interacted with their dogs after a stressful experience had a greater boost in mood and a greater reduction in anxiety than those who tried to destress by coloring or just through the passage of time. -
January 30, 2024 - KPBS
For the first time, California law will protect students’ right to recess
KPBS spoke with Sociology Professor Rebecca London about a new state law and her research on the importance of recess. -
January 24, 2024 - The New Yorker
When America First Dropped Acid
In her detailed book review in this week's issue of The New Yorker, Margaret Talbot praised University of California, Santa Cruz Associate Professor of History Benjamin Breen for "an eye for the telling detail, and a gift for introducing even walk-on characters with brio" in his new book, Tripping On Utopia: Margaret Mead, the Cold War, and the Troubled Birth of Psychedelic Science.
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January 16, 2024 - New Zealand Herald
Lake Taupō trout subject of US-based research
UC Santa Cruz PhD student Georgia Third is studying the diet and habits of Lake Taupō's rainbow trout. "Trout in Taupo were introduced from California and I’m studying around the area that trout came from in Santa Cruz," she said. "I’m studying the trout in the ancestral population and in the introduced population. The University of California, Santa Cruz have found a few different genes that are of importance to trout over there, to whether they migrate or stay resident, and how fast they grow." -
January 19, 2024 - The New York Times
Could LSD Have Achieved World Peace? Ask Margaret Mead.
In “Tripping on Utopia,” Benjamin Breen chronicles the legendary anthropologist’s doomed effort to save the world through hallucinogens.
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January 19, 2024 - NPR
The Birth Of Psychedelic Science
You may have heard about the pioneering research of anthropologist Margaret Mead, but do you know about her work with psychedelics? Mead and her husband, Gregory Bateson, thought psychedelics might reshape humanity by expanding consciousness -
January 16, 2024 - Smithsonian Magazine
Inside Elephant Seal Pups' Race to the Depths
“We discovered that northern elephant seals appear to develop their diving capabilities more quickly than southern elephant seals, which allows them to reach deeper depths during their first oceanic migration,” says Roxanne Beltran, a physiological ecologist at the University of California, Santa Cruz. -
January 12, 2024 - BBC
7 pioneering dark matter scientists
After moving to the University of California, Santa Cruz, Sandra Faber, together with John Gallagher, wrote a hugely influential review article about dark matter for Annual Reviews of Astronomy and Astrophysics, published in 1979. By presenting all the available evidence, the two authors convinced the scientific community that dark matter was not just a figment of our imagination, but a real, major constituent of the Universe. -
January 16, 2024 - NPR
How Margaret Mead's research into utopias helped usher in the psychedelic era
UC Santa Cruz historian Benjamin Breen was interviewed in NPR's Fresh Air about his new book, "Tripping on Utopia: Margaret Mead, the Cold War, and the Troubled Birth of Psychedelic Science." The book explores the intertwined lives of two cultural anthropologists — Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson, who were married for 14 years — and the extraordinary circle of social scientists, psychoanalysts, artists and spies who gathered around them from the 1930s through the ’70s. Additional coverage of Breen's book in the LA Times and NY Post. -
January 08, 2024 - Financial Express
James Webb Telescope unveils another cosmic surprise! Challenges astrophysical assumptions with banana-like newborn galaxies
This breakthrough builds upon earlier indications from Hubble telescope observations, suggesting that ancient galaxies exhibited pickle-like shapes, as highlighted by Joel Primack, an astronomer at the University of California, Santa Cruz. -
January 09, 2024 - Santa Fe New Mexican
Report: Radioactive contaminants found on Los Alamos National Lab worker's skin
“This is not a one-off. This is a pattern,” said Dan Hirsch, retired director of environment and nuclear policy programs at the University of California, Santa Cruz. “This suggests the lab does not have sufficient controls to undertake the extraordinarily hazardous, new operations of pit production. They are having repeated contamination events, which shouldn’t be occurring.” -
January 05, 2024 - NPR
Climate change is causing massive waves along California's coast
UC Santa Cruz oceanographer Gary Griggs discusses human-caused climate change impacts on California coast on NPR's All Things Considered. Griggs says that human-caused climate change will force seas to rise in the future, making waves even bigger. -
January 09, 2024 - Inside Higher Ed
University of California system considers online degrees
“[Creative technologies] went through way more scrutiny than any in-person degree that I have witnessed,” said Jody Greene, associate campus provost for academic success at Santa Cruz. “We have a quality control built in. Why close the door to these programs when you yourself [as the academic senate] will get to decide about quality?” -
January 06, 2024 - The Atlantic
Earth Could Outlive the Sun
In 2022, Ricardo Yarza, a stellar astrophysicist at UC Santa Cruz, simulated what happens when a red giant swallows a planet. He found that if the planet starts out close enough to the star, its orbit rapidly decays. -
January 03, 2024 - Mongabay
Salmon and other migratory fish play crucial role in delivering nutrients
“If you talk to folks who handle a lot of fish — fishers or biologists that have handled fish in Alaska and other places over the last 20 to 30 years — they almost to a person will tell you the fish are smaller,” says Eric Palkovacs, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of California, Santa Cruz. -
January 08, 2024 - Inside Higher Ed
An ethnic studies requirement at the UC waylaid amid war
Christine Hong, a professor of critical race and ethnic studies and literature at UC Santa Cruz said opponents of the requirement describe the field as “dividing the world into oppressors and victims.” But she believes “it centers the critical perspectives and the modes of knowledge of peoples and communities who have historically been excluded from the project of knowledge formation.“We all have something to gain from a shared investment in justice, and justice for the broadest possible collective,” said Hong. “We all have something to gain from a structural critique of racism and colonialism.” -
January 03, 2024 - Wired
The Tantalizing Mystery of the Solar System’s Hidden Oceans
“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. -
January 05, 2024 - New York Times
The Early Universe May Have Gone Bananas
The result builds on hints from earlier observations from the Hubble telescope that the earliest galaxies were shaped like pickles, said Joel Primack, an astronomer at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and an author of the new paper. -
January 02, 2024 - Wired
This Art Exhibition on Video Games Breaks You Out of Your Comfort Zone
A.M. Darke, exhibiting artist and associate professor of art and design for games and playable media at UC Santa Cruz, explains that one of the powerful aspects of video games is that they “invest you as a participant and an agent in those stories.” You don’t just witness or consume games, especially interactive ones. You actively make choices in the game. -
January 07, 2024 - New York Times
For Dizzy Gillespie, Queens Was the Place to Be and to Bop
“One of the really interesting things to think about as this designation is directed to the Hotel Cecil and Minton’s and to Dizzy Gillespie’s home is that it speaks to me of the ways bebop was quite famously developed in clubs like Minton’s, and especially Minton’s, but also a lot of those ideas got worked out in rehearsals that often happened in people’s homes,” said Eric Porter, a professor of history at University of California, Santa Cruz. “Whether they were rehearsing for a recording or just hanging out and thinking about music, the basement studios were really important for the development of bebop as well.” -
January 16, 2024 - Wired
A Flaw in Millions of Apple, AMD, and Qualcomm GPUs Could Expose AI Data
Assistant Professor of Computer Science and Engineering Tyler Sorensen was quoted in a Wired story on flaws present in mainstream GPUs — a discovery that was found through Sorensen's reseach. -
January 06, 2024 - SiliconValley.com
Bullfrog to become California's amphibious illegal alien
“It’s exciting to be moving forward, finally, to try to walk back the damage that’s been caused by bullfrogs,” said Erika Zavaleta, an ecology professor at UC Santa Cruz and co-chair of the California Fish and Game Commission, which sets policy for the state’s Department of Fish and Game and voted this month to start work on regulatory and legislative steps to fend off the importation and sale of the frog. -
January 05, 2024 - NBC Bay Area
Researchers find answer to mystery of dead seal pups along Northern California coast
Researchers have found an answer to a grim, whodunit-style mystery where the headless bodies of harbor seal pups were found on Northern California beaches. The answer, caught on hidden motion sensor cameras, not only ended the mystery but also showed nature taking its course: coyotes eating those seal pups. The cameras are part of UC Santa Cruz PhD student Frankie Gerraty’s research on the connection between land and sea. “One of the most interesting findings from our recent research has been that coyotes are not only scavenging mammal carcasses, but they are also, on occasion, killing seal pups as well,” Gerraty said. Additional coverage in the Mercury News. -
January 04, 2024 - Quanta Magazine
The Biggest Discoveries in Biology in 2023 | Quanta Magazine
Novel work on the circadian clock has been done in the lab of a single scientist: the biochemist Carrie Partch at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Partch is driven by a unique obsession not only with the basic steps of the clock, but also with the intricate dance that clock proteins perform as they are built and as they interact and degrade. -
January 03, 2024 - Santa Cruz Sentinel
Finding sanctuary | An iconic coastal species, the endangered black abalone
Although Big Sur boasts some of the densest populations of black abalone on the west coast, natural disasters have contributed to thousands of intertidal black abalone being buried alive in the intertidal zone. Dr. Steve Lonhart, a sanctuary research ecologist, collaborated with scientists from UC Santa Cruz, led by doctoral student Wendy Bragg, to rescue and recover black abalone that were partially or completely buried at the margins of the debris flows. -
January 02, 2024 - Los Angeles Times
California energy officials vote to extend Diablo Canyon nuclear plant operations
"Inside the aging Diablo Canyon reactors resides an astronomical quantity of radioactivity," said Daniel Hirsch, a retired director of the Program on Environmental and Nuclear Policy at UC Santa Cruz. "It only stays inside if it's constantly cooled. Any disruption in that, an earthquake or accident, can cause a meltdown releasing enough radioactivity to contaminate a substantial portion of California for generations. If you approve overturning the Diablo shutdown agreement, you risk culpability for a nuclear catastrophe," he continued. -
December 14, 2023 - KQED
How Bay Area Italians Were Treated As 'Enemy Aliens' During WWII
“A lot of people mistakenly assume that Japanese Americans were the only ones affected by national security fears,” says UC Santa Cruz historian Alice Yang, adding that Italians and Germans also had their civil liberties infringed upon. People were imprisoned for being journalists at Italian radio stations and newspapers, teaching the Italian language or simply being veterans of World War I. These activities were seen as promoting Italian pride, Yang says, and in the wartime era, that was considered subversive. -
January 09, 2024 - KPCC/ LAist
A New Research Project Aims To Give A Comprehensive Count To California’s Mountain Lion Population
Environmental Studies Professor Chris Wilmers joined the KPCC/LAist radio show "AirTalk" for a segment about his work on the latest population estimate for California's mountain lions. -
January 09, 2024 - Black Voice News
Fentanyl Crisis and Mental Health Issues Drive 2022 Increase in Deaths in Riverside County Jails
Distinguished Professor of Psychology Craig Haney spoke with Black Voice News about the mental health crisis in jails. “We don’t have a functioning, adequate public mental health system in the United States,” said Haney. “As a result, people suffering from mental health problems often end up in the criminal justice system.” -
January 08, 2024 - Smithsonian Magazine
A New Project Uses Isotopes to Pinpoint the Birthplaces of the Enslaved
Smithsonian Magazine covered research by Associate Professor of Anthropology Vicky Oelze that's using stable isotope analysis to hone in on the regions of origin for enslaved African people who were buried at the Anson Street Burial Ground in South Carolina.