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  • History professor finds powerful women’s labor movement in Latin America

    In 2001, UC Santa Cruz history professor Dana Frank was asked by the U.S. Labor Education in the Americas Project (US/LEAP), a Chicago nonprofit, to develop a union label for the U.S. banana market. Frank signed on as a consultant and traveled to Central America to attend union workshops and regional conferences. She stayed with…

  • New study highlights role of hit-and-run collisions in the formation of planets, asteroids, and meteorites

    Hit-and-run collisions between embryonic planets during a critical period in the early history of the Solar System may account for some previously unexplained properties of planets, asteroids, and meteorites, according to researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, who describe their findings in a paper to appear in the January 12 issue of the…

  • Essays about Hurricane Katrina by Wynton Marsalis and others appear in new book

    The weak federal emergency response to Hurricane Katrina fits a pattern of reduced federal government responsibility for public well-being, according to the editor of a new collection of essays about Katrina. John Brown Childs, a professor of sociology at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and editor of the new book Hurricane Katrina: Response and…

  • Large survey of galaxies yields new findings on star formation

    New findings from a large survey of galaxies suggest that star formation is largely driven by the supply of raw materials, rather than by galactic mergers that trigger sudden bursts of star formation. Stars form when clouds of gas and dust collapse under the force of gravity, and the study supports a scenario in which…

  • Universal Pictures to offer free sneak preview of alumna’s new film at UCSC on January 15

    The UCSC Alumni Association will present a free sneak preview of Universal Pictures’ new family movie, Nanny McPhee, starring Emma Thompson, Colin Firth, and Angela Lansbury on Sunday, January 15, at 2 p.m. in the Media Theater on the UCSC campus. The public is invited to attend (however space is limited, and attendees are advised…

  • New University Librarian describes vision for expanded McHenry Library at UC Santa Cruz

    Virginia Steel has her eyes on the future. As UCSC’s new University Librarian, her job is to oversee the operations of the library and manage its considerable assets. In order to do that successfully, she must think about how information is changing in terms of its formats and delivery, and make sure that the library…

  • Astrophysicists detect very high-energy gamma rays from the Milky Way

    Scientists using the Milagro Gamma-ray Observatory in New Mexico have captured evidence of radiation emitted from the plane of our home galaxy at extremely high energies. The researchers detected “TeV gamma rays”–electromagnetic radiation in the one trillion electronvolt energy range, about a trillion times more energetic than visible light–and determined that the gamma rays were…

  • Three to receive top honors from UC Santa Cruz Alumni Association

    A senior writing lecturer, an epidemiologist in the international fight against AIDS, and a staff member who helps nontraditional students thrive have been selected to receive the UCSC Alumni Association’s highest honors for the 2005-06 year. Don Rothman will receive the Distinguished Teaching Award; Cheryl Scott, the Alumni Achievement Award; and Corinne Miller, the Outstanding…

  • Unmanned submersible sheds light on an undersea volcano

    Rock samples collected last year show surprising variation in the chemistry of an undersea volcano on the Juan de Fuca Ridge near Seattle. The variation comes from the mantle, the source of the magma that erupted from the volcano to form the rocks, and may influence the microbial communities that now inhabit the volcano, said…

  • Ancient sediments show influence of southern ocean circulation on climate

    About 34 million years ago, the Earth’s climate transitioned from a “greenhouse climate” to the “icehouse climate” of today, forming a massive ice sheet on the Antarctic continent. A new study by Linda Anderson, an ocean sciences researcher at the University of California, Santa Cruz, suggests that oceanographic features in the Southern Ocean–the intensity of…

  • Soil ecologist investigates the role of plant roots in regulating carbon cycling and reducing global warming

    Soil ecologist Weixin Cheng is at the leading edge of scientific efforts to quantify the impacts of plant roots on the cycling of carbon between the atmosphere, where carbon dioxide contributes to global warming, and terrestrial ecosystems, where large amounts of carbon are stored in soil organic matter. Cheng, an associate professor of environmental studies…

  • Simulations shed light on Earth’s history of magnetic field reversals

    A new analysis of computer simulations of Earth’s magnetic field suggests that its behavior was different early in Earth’s history, resulting in greater stability and fewer reversals of the magnetic field. The findings by researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, are helping to reconcile the geologic record of magnetic field reversals with the…

Last modified: Mar 18, 2025