Campus News

SANTA CRUZ, CA–In recent years, there has been a growing recognition in many institutions of the value in promoting ethnic, gender, and other forms of diversity. But diversity is more than a recent concern for sociologist Herman Blake, who has devoted much of his 30-year career to fostering and advancing diversity in higher education. Blake…

SANTA CRUZ, CA–The theory that RNA was the central molecule in the origin of life has received a major boost from a clever test-tube experiment, in which researchers demonstrated that RNA can execute a type of chemical reaction that is basic to all living cells. Starting with 500 trillion bits of random RNA, molecular biologists…

SANTA CRUZ, CA–A free demonstration of on-farm composting techniques will take place at the Herbert Ranch in Hollister on Wednesday, May 3, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. The demonstration is tied to a two-year effort to reduce the volume of organic materials going into increasingly overloaded landfills. Cities and counties are working with farmers…

SANTA CRUZ, CA–For a quarter century, Nancy Wexler has chased the shadow that Huntington’s disease casts upon the lives of 30,000 Americans. The hereditary disorder, which gradually robs its victims of all muscle control, puts another 150,000 people in this country at risk–including Wexler herself, whose mother, three uncles, and maternal grandfather all died from…

SANTA CRUZ, CA–Shoppers will see more variety and more plants than ever at the annual Spring Plant Sale at the University of California, Santa Cruz. The sale takes place May 6 and 7 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. More than 7,000 organically produced plants will be offered for sale this year, representing 200 different…

SANTA CRUZ, CA–Dartmouth College professor James Tatum will be the featured speaker for the Carl M. Deppe Memorial Lecture, presented annually for the past eight years at the University of California, Santa Cruz. His talk and slide show, "Homeric Maya Lin," takes place on Friday, April 28, at 4 p.m. in the Cowell College Provost’s…

What: Nash Editions partners Graham Nash and Mac Holbert will present a portfolio of prints of selected photographs by Horace Bristol to representatives from the University of California, Santa Cruz. When: Thursday, April 20, 11 a.m. Where: Pasatiempo Inn, Highway 17 and Pasatiempo Drive Summary: Graham Nash and Mac Holbert are the owners of Nash…

SANTA CRUZ, CA–The purchase of a clubhouse some 40 years ago by members of a Santa Cruz women’s organization will benefit tomorrow’s female leaders through a gift that the club has made to a University of California, Santa Cruz, scholarship program. At a luncheon held on campus March 30, the Santa Cruz Business and Professional…

SANTA CRUZ, CA–In an April talk on Victorian author Thomas Carlyle at the University of California, Santa Cruz, cultural historian Hayden White will discuss the view that history is not a reflection of facts as much as a reflection of the person writing about an event. In support of this theory, White will explore Carlyle’s…

SANTA CRUZ, CA–Physicist Onuttom Narayan, who will join the UC Santa Cruz faculty in July, is one of 100 outstanding young scientists and economists who have won prestigious fellowships from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the foundation announced last week. The fellowship is worth $30,000 per year for two years. Narayan, age 30, currently is…

SANTA CRUZ, CA–Stanley A. Cain, a leading ecologist who served as an assistant secretary in the U.S. Department of the Interior in the 1960s, died of pneumonia April 1 at the Hillhaven Extended Care nursing home in Santa Cruz. He was 92 and had suffered from Alzheimer’s disease for more than a decade. Cain most…

PACIFIC GROVE, CA–Deep in the northeast Pacific Ocean, at 2,200 meters below sea level, scientists exploring a hotsprings area along the mid-ocean ridge have found evidence that tube worms have a hand in how "black smoker chimneys" evolve. In the March 31 issue of the journal Science, researchers Terri Cook and Dr. Debra Stakes of…