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  • New view of distant colliding galaxies captured by Keck laser system

    For the first time, astronomers have been able to combine the deepest optical images of the universe, obtained by the Hubble Space Telescope, with equally sharp images in the near-infrared part of the spectrum using a sophisticated new laser guide star system for adaptive optics at the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii. The new…

  • An unusual RNA structure in the SARS virus offers a promising target for antiviral drugs

    Research on the genome of the virus that causes severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) has revealed an unusual molecular structure that looks like a promising target for antiviral drugs. A team of scientists at the University of California, Santa Cruz, has determined the three-dimensional shape of this structure, an intricately twisted and folded segment of…

  • $200,000 gift to UCSC establishes graduate fellowship in marine mammals

    A gift of $200,000 from Rebecca and Steve Sooy of Foster City has established an endowed fellowship fund to support graduate students studying marine mammals at the University of California, Santa Cruz. The Sooys have been volunteer docents at Año Nuevo State Reserve for many years, where they became fascinated by the northern elephant seals…

  • UC Santa Cruz professor reappointed to water quality board

    Daniel Press, a professor of environmental studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz, has been reappointed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to the Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board. Press, chair of environmental studies, recently completed a partial term to which he was appointed by former Gov. Gray Davis in 2002. His appointment to…

  • UCSC engineers develop assistive technologies for the blind

    Researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, are developing new assistive technologies for the blind based on advances in computer vision that have emerged from research in robotics. A “virtual white cane” is one of several prototype tools for the visually impaired developed by Roberto Manduchi, an assistant professor of computer engineering, and his…

  • Deep Down Things, a new book by physicist Bruce Schumm, explores the astonishing world of particle physics

    Particle physicists have developed an amazingly successful theory describing how the universe works on the most fundamental level. This theory, known as the Standard Model and hailed as one of the greatest intellectual achievements of the 20th century, is still only understood and appreciated by a limited number of people who tend to have advanced…

  • Computer analysis shows scientists could reconstruct the genome of the common ancestor of all placental mammals

    Contrary to the movie Jurassic Park, in which scientists recreate dinosaurs from ancient DNA, genetic material more than about 50 thousand years old cannot be reliably recovered. Nevertheless, a team of scientists has now demonstrated that computers could be used to reconstruct with 98 percent accuracy the DNA of a creature that lived at the…

  • UC Santa Cruz scientist endorses nitrogen management efforts

    As a soil scientist at the University of California, Santa Cruz, Marc Los Huertos helps farmers on the Central Coast manage nitrogen levels to maximize harvests and minimize pollution. Los Huertos is also part of a growing global effort to address the problem of farm-generated nitrogen pollution. Just back from the Third International Nitrogen Conference…

  • Unusual material that contracts when heated is giving up its secrets to physicists

    Most solids expand when heated, a familiar phenomenon with many practical implications. Among the rare exceptions to this rule, the compound zirconium tungstate stands out by virtue of the enormous temperature range over which it exhibits so-called “negative thermal expansion,” contracting as it heats up and expanding as it cools, and because it does so…

  • Marine biologist John Pearse to give Emeriti Faculty Lecture at UCSC on Tuesday, Nov. 23

    John Pearse, professor emeritus of ecology and evolutionary biology, will give the Emeriti Faculty Lecture at UC Santa Cruz on Tuesday, November 23. His talk, “Reproduction in Freezing Oceans: Paradigm Shifts in the 20th Century,” will begin at 7:30 p.m. in the UCSC Media Theater. This event is free and open to the public. Pearse…

  • A puzzle posed by black-headed ducks yields to persistent biologists

    Some 100 species of birds are what scientists call “obligate brood parasites”–instead of building nests and raising their own young, they lay their eggs in the nests of other species and let those birds do the hard work of parenting for them. The black-headed duck of South America is one of these, but it stands…

  • Order of Species Loss has Important Biodiversity Consequences, Grassland Study Reveals

    In a study that mimicked the natural order of species loss in a grassland ecosystem, researchers found that declining biodiversity greatly reduced resistance to invasive species and that the presence of even small numbers of rare species had profound functional effects. The results, which appear in the November 12 issue of Science, have important implications…

Last modified: Mar 18, 2025