Media Coverage
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‘It was a matter of time’: Pacifica Pier’s future uncertain as emergency repairs begin
“Anything we put in the water is going to fail over time,” said Gary Griggs, professor of earth and planetary sciences at UC Santa Cruz. “Pacifica, if it was (built) in ’73 and that’s now 50 years ago, it was a matter of time.”
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AWS rolls the dice for faster, more efficient networking
RNG began taking shape three years ago when Seshadhri Comandur, an Amazon Scholar and professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz, answered an internal Slack message from Ratul Mahajan, a fellow Amazon Scholar, datacenter networking expert, and professor at the University of Washington, who was looking for an expert on graph theory and routing.
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The next AI safety fight may actually be about DNA
“[Gene synthesis] companies have to agree to have their order screened not just against a list of sequences but by an AI that people agree is smart enough to recognize and thwart an adversary who’s trying to build a deadly pathogen,” David Haussler, the scientific director of the UC Santa Cruz Genomics Institute.
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Where Did Earth Get Its Oceans? Maybe It Made Them Itself.
Other scientists agree that some amount of water could have formed on Earth — but perhaps not nearly enough to produce its oceans. “I’d say it’s certainly possible that some water could be generated by reaction with hydrogen early on,” said Quentin Williams, an experimental geophysicist at the University of California, Santa Cruz. “How much…
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Why your kid is obsessed with squishy toys
There’s still little definitive research on the benefits or drawbacks of fidgeting for kids, said Katherine Isbister, a professor of computational media at UC Santa Cruz who studies fidgeting. But many people with ADHD or autism say that playing with an object can help them relax or concentrate.
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El Niño Is Here. Here’s What It Could Mean for the Bay Area This Winter
But because the Bay Area sits on the northernmost edge of the wet zone, intense rainfall is less guaranteed than in Southern California. Still, experts said human-caused climate change may be changing that equation. “What that means for California is it’s basically supercharged in the atmosphere,” said Patrick Barnard, research director for the UC Santa…
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Seymour Marine Discovery Center to open first new exhibit in 15 years
See More HQ is the center’s bilingual interactive “control room,” bringing real-time UC Santa Cruz coastal research to the public. Also in Lookout Santa Cruz.
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Lovers Point Beach closure extended after dead whale washes ashore
A coordinated response is now underway following the stranding of the deceased humpback whale, led by the Marine Mammal Stranding Network at UC Santa Cruz’s Long Marine Laboratory and Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, in partnership with the City of Pacific Grove, Stanford University’s Hopkins Marine Station, NOAA Fisheries and other local partners.
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How Mangroves And Wetlands Can Help Protect Coastal Communities From Storms
Michael Beck, director of the Center for Coastal Climate Resilience, joined FOX Weather to explain how coastal communities can strengthen their defenses against storms through natural infrastructure. New visualization tools show how mangroves, wetlands and other coastal ecosystems can help reduce flooding and lessen the impacts of extreme weather.
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The Magic of Seabird Colonies, and One Scientist’s Unique Way to Mitigate the Crises They Face
I was feeling down about it, but luckily, I had an upcoming call with Aspen Ellis. Ellis is a PhD candidate at the University of California Santa Cruz (UCSC) who has studied seabirds for more than a decade. When I mentioned this issue, she knew it all too well.
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Yosemite National Park’s permissive new fishing policies spark controversy
Devon Pearse, an ecology professor at UC Santa Cruz and lead scientist at the California nonprofit Friends of the River who has previously studied Yosemite’s trout, told SFGATE that he’s skeptical the decision was based on science, and suspects instead it was likely politically motivated. In recent weeks, President Donald Trump signed an executive order…
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CZU Lightning Complex fires weren’t first of its kind, UC Santa Cruz researchers say
As factors including climate change increase fire risk, collective land management and risk mitigation will be key to avoiding massive fires, said UCSC professor of anthropology Andrew Mathews, who led the research team.