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Diamond-based detectors may help unlock safer fusion reactors
At UC Santa Cruz, physicists have secured $555,000 to develop a next-generation monitoring system for future fusion plants. Their approach relies on an unlikely hero, artificial diamonds engineered to detect the nuclear “burn” products released during fusion reactions.
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UC Santa Cruz takes audiences under the sea with ‘SpongeBob Musical’
Professor Rebecca Wear said the idea to perform “The SpongeBob Musical” came from conversations she had with fellow professor Pamela Rodriguez-Montero about doing an intergenerational production she could bring her son to. Additional coverage in Good Times.
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New directory helps donors navigate the complex world of global reforestation
Researchers from the University of California Santa Cruz evaluated groups across four categories: permanence, ecological, social and financial, each backed by scientific literature on best practices. Karen Holl, a professor at UC Santa Cruz and reforestation expert, told Mongabay. “There was really no standardized way to answer that question.” So how can a tree investor…
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An Ocean View, Pollution Included: Scientists at Rio Theatre Warn of Microplastics
UCSC adjunct and environmental toxicologist Dr. Myra Finkelstein spoke of her research on Midway Atoll in the South Pacific, which revealed dangerous amounts of plastic in the eggs and digestive tracts of seabirds such as albatross. “There is also a lot of evidence that humans are also ingesting microplastics,” she said.
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Large Carnivores Are Helping To Balance Ecosystems, But It’s Complicated
The study, led by Christopher Wilmers, a professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz, looked at the findings of more than 170 papers to clarify what we know about the ecological impacts of large carnivore recovery in North America and what mysteries remain.
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If another country tested nuclear weapons, here’s how we’d know
Seismologist Thorne Lay of the University of California, Santa Cruz has been involved with nuclear monitoring research for decades. Science News spoke with Lay to clarify what we know about nuclear testing around the globe.
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‘I never want to leave’: What it’s like to live on this S.F. island that’s full of young people
“Treasure Island is an example of the really critical tradeoffs that the housing shortage has forced cities like San Francisco to reckon with,” said Patrick Barnard, research director at UC Santa Cruz’s Center for Coastal Climate Resilience.
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Benjamin Breen: How AI is changing higher education
Associate Professor of History Benjamin Breen contributed an op-ed about the impact of AI on learning and teaching practices, including essay assignments, in the latest issue of The Chronicle of HIgher Education.
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Scientists conduct groundbreaking study in Calif.’s Death Valley National Park
The study’s authors have “showed record-breaking heat tolerance,” Michael Loik, an environmental studies professor and agronomist at UC Santa Cruz who was not involved in this study, told SFGATE.
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Gina Athena Ulysse: rethinking images of Haiti through the lens of photographer Leonore Mau
Humanities Professor Gina Athena Ulysse, an artist and cultural anthropologist, collaborated on the conceptual development of Out of Focus, an exhibition that reexamines how German photographer Leonore Mau’s images of Haiti are presented and interpreted. Drawing on her expertise in Haitian culture and postcolonial critique, Ulysse helped shape the show’s critical framework.