Research
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SF Bay Area’s poor and minorities face disproportionate burden of exposure to environmental hazards
From African American residents of West Oakland’s diesel-choked neighborhoods to Latinos in San Francisco’s traffic-snarled Mission District, poor and minority residents of the San Francisco Bay Area get more than their share of exposure to air pollution
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Scientists offer guidelines for coping with climate change in Alaska
Coping with the devastating effects of climate change in Alaska will require institutional nimbleness and a willingness among those living at lower latitudes to “share the pain,” according to the authors of a paper published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Erika Zavaleta (Photo: Jim MacKenzie) The interdisciplinary team of…
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Digital divide leaving immigrants further behind, UC Santa Cruz study finds
The digital divide between immigrants and the native born is widening in the United States, with some immigrant groups less than half as likely to have computer access at home as nonimmigrants, according to a new study by researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Only 36 percent of Latino immigrant youth have a…
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Regional equity movement is the civil rights issue of the 21st century, say authors of Ford Foundation report
Across the country, many urban neighborhoods and entire regions are segregated as surely as if there were “whites only” signs posted. But leaders of the new “regional equity” movement are organizing to break down the divisions of race, income, education, and employment that cut off opportunity and polarize Americans. A new Ford Foundation report outlines…
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Lessons of Japan’s economic downturn offered in new book
The stagnation that plagued the Japanese economy throughout the 1990s lasted twice as long as it should have, according to the coeditor of a new book that says Japan was hobbled by weak monetary policy and its own dysfunctional financial institutions. Michael Hutchison, a leading authority on international finance and the Japanese economy, coedited Japan’s…
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Professor contributes to Katrina report documenting environmental inequities in rescue
As the next hurricane season quickly approaches, the Gulf Coast’s low-income communities of color are still left behind. For them, “days of hurt and loss are likely to become years of grief, dislocation, and displacement,” said Manuel Pastor, codirector of the Center for Justice, Tolerance, and Community at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Pastor…
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UC Santa Cruz psychology prof develops language aids for hearing-impaired and autistic children
Twenty years ago, psychology professor Dominic Massaro never dreamed his investigation of how humans comprehend language and speech would benefit hearing-impaired and autistic children. But his research into how auditory and visual cues work together to aid our comprehension of the spoken word attracted the attention of parents of children with language challenges. Eager for…
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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…
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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…
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Kids with access to a home computer are more likely to graduate, digital divide study finds
Access to a home computer increases the likelihood that children will graduate from high school, but blacks and Latinos are much less likely to have a computer at home than are whites, according to a new study by a researcher at the University of California, Santa Cruz, that also found the digital divide is even…
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Mystery Spot demonstrates power of perception, UC Santa Cruz psychologist explains
SANTA CRUZ, CA–For years, UC Santa Cruz psychology professor Bruce Bridgeman has taken college students to the Mystery Spot, a popular local tourist attraction, to demonstrate how the human brain works. Tourists flock to the Mystery Spot to enjoy the “puzzling variations in gravity, perspective, height and more,” leaving baffled and perplexed by the apparent…