News Article
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UCSC professor seeks to reconnect mathematics to its intellectual roots
Anthony Tromba has loved mathematics since he was a child, and it bothers him that the field seems to be losing its appeal to students. Tromba, professor and chair of mathematics at the University of California, Santa Cruz, said that when he was an undergraduate in the 1960s there were nearly six times as many…
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Seymour Center at Long Marine Lab offers tours in Spanish
The Seymour Marine Discovery Center has initiated a series of Spanish-language tours of the popular science education center, located at UC Santa Cruz’s Long Marine Laboratory. The tours are led by a trained docent who is fluent in Spanish. They include visits to the blue whale skeleton and other exhibits, as well as a look…
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Astronomers reveal the first detailed maps of galaxy distribution in the early universe
Peering back in time more than 7 billion years, a team of astronomers using a powerful new spectrograph at the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii has obtained the first maps showing the distribution of galaxies in the early universe. The maps show the clustering of galaxies into a variety of large-scale structures, including long…
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UC Santa Cruz professor lauded for work to preserve Bengali films
The Cultural Association of Bengal has honored UC Santa Cruz associate professor of history Dilip K. Basu with a Distinguished Service Award for his efforts to preserve classic Bengali films. The award was presented at the North American Bengali Conference held at the Long Beach Convention Center in Los Angeles. Basu has worked during the…
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Summer programs draw scholars from around the world
Scholars from around the world are getting a cram course in American academia this summer from UC Santa Cruz Extension’s English Language and International Programs department. Whether it’s Egyptian teachers, Fulbright Scholars, or professionals participating in the Humphrey Fellows program, UCSC is drawing an international clientele. A group of 25 teachers from Egypt have just…
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Three UC Santa Cruz faculty awarded Presidental Chairs
Three faculty members at the University of California, Santa Cruz-history professor Edmund Burke, III, psychology professor Barbara Rogoff, and literature professor Helene Moglen-have been appointed to Presidential Chairs on the Santa Cruz campus. UCSC Chancellor M.R.C. Greenwood made the appointments, which extend from July 1, 2003, through June 30, 2006. Annual support for each chair…
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Community artists create new UCSC art award
In the mid-1970s, Peter Thomas was introduced to the art of making books by William Everson, then the newly hired poet laureate for Kresge College at UC Santa Cruz. As one of Everson’s crew of five students, he would help turn out “fine press” works of literature on an old Ben Franklin-style platen press. Student…
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Study shows lead-based paint is poisoning albatross chicks at Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge
Lead-based paint from deteriorating buildings still poses a hazard to wildlife on Midway Atoll, despite extensive environmental remediation efforts undertaken as part of the conversion of the site from a military base to a national wildlife refuge. A new study by researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, shows that Laysan albatross chicks in…
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New book by UCSC lecturer reveals qualities shared by world’s most successful musicians
What makes the great musicians great? That’s the very first sentence and the premise of The Mastery of Music, a new book by UC Santa Cruz lecturer Barry Green. Drawing from more than 120 personal interviews with revered performers such as Dave Brubeck, Bobby McFerrin, Christopher Parkening, Doc Severinsen, and Joshua Bell, Green discusses 10…
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UCSC acquires new teaching tool for opera students
UC Santa Cruz opera students may find preparing for their roles a bit easier in the future thanks to a new teaching tool just donated to the campus library. Opera Practice Perfect is a comprehensive audio catalog of 209 CDs, including 20 operas in both complete versions and broken into operatic roles, and 15 discs…
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UCSC scientists part of team decoding gamma-ray burst mystery
Scientists have pieced together the key elements of a gamma-ray burst, from star death to dramatic black hole birth, thanks to a March 29 explosion considered the “Rosetta stone” of such bursts. The results are described in the June 19 issue of Nature, in an article coauthored by Stan Woosley, professor and chair of astronomy…
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Cooperation between unrelated male lizards adds a new wrinkle to evolutionary theory
Blue-throated lizards that help each other achieve reproductive success are also helping scientists understand how social cooperation evolved. Most examples of cooperative behavior in animals involve cooperation between genetically related individuals, which is explained by the theory of “kin selection.” Now, researchers have described an example of cooperation between genetically similar but unrelated members of…