Media Coverage
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Mercury News
Protection for California mountain lions could become permanent
Chris Wilmers, a researcher at UC Santa Cruz, was one of the outside experts who reviewed the Center for Biological Diversity proposal and worked with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife to provide input on how to improve it.
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Live Science
‘System in flux’: Scientists reveal what happened when wolves and cougars returned to Yellowstone
“Yellowstone is a fascinating system because it’s got the full complement of large carnivores and migratory ungulates that North America used to have,” Chris Wilmers, a wildlife ecologist at the University of California, Santa Cruz who was not involved in the new study, told Live Science. “A lot of these species are coming back ––…
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Scienmag
How Early Pregnancy Influences Aging and Its Implications for Breast Cancer Risk
A groundbreaking study conducted by researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, sheds light on how pregnancy may serve as a critical biological intervention, fundamentally altering the aging trajectory of mammary tissue and thus reducing cancer risk later in life.
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Capital News Service
Climate action moves forward despite Trump’s policy rollbacks. Will it be enough?
In addition to making current methods of travel more efficient, changes in the transportation sector could include providing the public with better options, said Anne Criss, director of climate and sustainability initiatives at the University of California, Santa Cruz’s Baskin School of Engineering.
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Santa Cruz Sentinel
Fishing vessels as sentinels of ocean health
“We found that the location of fishing vessels accurately revealed how heat waves impact target species. The tuna mirrored the fishing vessels: shifting north and inshore during The Blob but remaining in place during the following marine heat waves.” – By Heather Welch is a marine ecologist at UC Santa Cruz who uses big data…
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The Register
Autonomous cars, drones cheerfully obey prompt injection by road sign
Researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and Johns Hopkins showed that, in simulated trials, AI systems and the large vision language models (LVLMs) underpinning them would reliably follow instructions if displayed on signs held up in their camera’s view.
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Art Review
The 10 exhibitions to see in February 2026
Acclaimed artist, filmmaker, and Distinguished Professor of The Arts and History of Consciousness Isaac Julien’s exhibition All That Changes You. Metamorphosis was featured in ArtReview’s roundup of the top ten exhibitions to see in February.
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Smithsonian Magazine
Rare Mountain Lion Standoff in San Francisco Ends Peacefully After a 30-Hour Search
“Males will often travel far out,” says Chris Wilmers, an ecologist at UC Santa Cruz and the lead researcher of the Santa Cruz Puma Project. “They’re essentially trying to find a vacant territory, and the Santa Cruz Mountains are pretty trapped in by development on all sides. They wander, and they keep going, and they…
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International Health Policies Network
Immigration Enforcement in Minnesota: Not Just a Political, also a Public Health Crisis
Politics Ph.D. student Lucia Vitale argues that immigration enforcement in Minnesota is leading to deteriorating access to health care, widespread psychological distress, and the displacement of protective responsibilities from the state onto communities themselves.
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Los Angeles Times
California’s iconic Highway 1 is fighting a losing battle against climate change. Can it survive?
“If our storm and other conditions were normal, we would expect closures and losses at some points,” said Michael Beck, director of UC Santa Cruz’s Center for Coastal Climate Resilience.
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CBS News
Mountain lion spotted in San Francisco’s Pacific Heights neighborhood captured by animal control
The Santa Cruz Puma Project was also called to help. It was founded in 2008 in partnership with UC Santa Cruz to research how mountain lions and their habitats are impacted by people and housing construction.
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Project Censored
Manufactured Borders, Manufactured Intelligence
Education department lecturer and political analyst Nolan Higdon dissects some recent news, focusing especially on AI: what can history tell us about the unintelligence of artificial intelligence, how deep fakes are crowbarring the political divide even further and deeper, the corporate capture of the classroom, and more.