Earth & Space
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Astrobiologists are searching for traces of coal and other fossil fuels to find intelligent life on exoplanets
By tracing that chain, plant biologist Lincoln Taiz at the University of California, Santa Cruz documented how coal availability governed whether biological productivity ever translated into sustained technological power.
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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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‘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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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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Joel Primack, Physicist Who Helped Explain the Cosmos, Dies at 80
A professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz, he was a key contributor to a landmark paper that laid out how the universe came to look like it does today.
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This Diminutive Reptile Plays Rock-Paper-Scissors
Dr. Sinervo, who later joined the faculty at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and who died in 2021, grew fascinated by the strange mating habits of the lizards. At the start of every breeding season, the males developed one of three colors on their throats: blue, orange or yellow. And depending on their color,…
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Wind-battered Lick Observatory rushes to shield historic telescope after dome damage
The damage threatens one of the Bay Area’s most significant scientific landmarks — a telescope that helped shape modern astronomy and still draws thousands of visitors each year to the mountaintop east of San Jose. Additional coverage in KTVU News, The Mercury News, NBC Bay Area, KSBW, SF Gate, and Lookout Santa Cruz.
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‘Super-Jupiter’ exoplanet is not so Jupiter-like, UCSC study finds
Xi Zhang, a professor of Earth and planetary science at UC Santa Cruz, has discovered that an exoplanet classed as a “super-Jupiter” has substantial differences from our solar system’s largest planet — and in fact, has much in common with Mars. Exoplanet VHS 1256b, located 40 light years away from Earth, was identified in 2015.
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First elephant seal pup of the season born in SLO County.
Supermoms account for more than half (55%) of the total pups born. Supermoms live longer, breed more frequently and raise bigger pups. Bernie LeBoeuf, now professor emeritus at UC Santa Cruz, led a research team that identified Supermoms in a 2019 scientific paper. Gingerbread’s mother chose a nice dry spot on the south beach.
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Why Brown Dwarfs May Explain the Main Differences Between Stars and Planets
The atmospheres of brown dwarfs can be surprisingly similar to those of gas giant planets, too, complete with multi-layered clouds and powerful wind-driven storms. That makes them great windows into the atmospheric processes that shape our own solar system’s giant planets, as well as the super-Jupiter exoplanets discovered outside our stellar neighborhood, according to a…
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Which fault line do you live on? An earthquake guide for California.
While both the northern and southern sections of the San Andreas fault are locked, storing up energy that needs to be released, the central part is creeping and less charged.”The true nightmare scenario is that the southern San Andreas has so much extra energy in it because it’s so overdue that it blows through the…
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Watch orcas and dolphins team up to hunt—a possible scientific first
“In nature, mutualism—where both parties benefit—is the most likely reason that you would have two disparate groups coming together,” says Ari Friedlaender, professor of ocean sciences at UC Santa Cruz, who wasn’t involved in the study. Additional coverage in Smithsonian magazine.