Media Coverage
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Climate change could create “zombie forests”
New research from UC Santa Cruz shows climate change is a greater threat to California’s native trees than previously thought. The study estimates in the next 30 years some species may lose as much as half of their habitat. Lead author Blair McLaughlin says the rising temperatures and droughts that come with climate change increase…
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Community sensors provide Pajaro Valley with air quality info
Javier Gonzaléz-Rocha, a Watsonville native and applied mathematics professor at UC Santa Cruz, is developing a network of drones and small sensors that can be attached to homes. He uses data collected from these monitors to try and paint a clearer picture of the air quality in the Pajaro Valley, as data that appears on…
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Talking Talmud On Tik Tok
Nathaniel Deutsch, professor of Jewish studies, was quoted in a story about Shalom Landau, a 48-year-old Hasidic rabbi in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn who has become an unlikely star on Instagram and Tik Tok.
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Gas spikes and geopolitics: Why the ‘Lithium Valley’ dream is charging back to life
When UC Santa Cruz Professor of Sociology Chris Benner and Manuel Pastor published Charging Forward in late 2024, they envisioned a steady, policy-driven climb toward a green energy future. They didn’t account for a legislative “sledgehammer” followed by a global oil shock.
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‘Chasing Whales’ film features UCSC ocean sciences research
“Chasing Whales” is a short documentary that follows a team of scientists in Antarctica, including UC Santa Cruz Professor Ari Friedlaender, as they come face to face with the whales they study—only to find the whales looking back. In a region with few marine protections, the team hopes their groundbreaking data can help drive new…
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The Novelist Reimagining the Japanese American Internment
The New Yorker staff writer Hua Hsu wrote an in-depth laudatory review of Emeritus Professor of Literature and Creative Writing Karen Tei Yamashita’s new book Questions 27 & 28, which “opens an inquiry into how the story of the past gets made.”
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AI doom warnings are getting louder. Are they realistic?
Researchers who fear existential risk often cite the pace of progress in AI development as evidence that we are moving towards a worrying level of capability. AI systems are doing things that seemed impossible a decade ago, says Anthony Aguirre, a cosmologist at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and executive director of the Future…
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Birds and monkeys in the Amazon share information via ‘internet of the forest’
UC Santa Cruz Assistant Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Ari Martínez discusses his recently published study that shows how, when some animals spot a predator, they issue a warning cry that is picked up by others and spread through the rainforest canopy.
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Five overlooked films you must watch
A group of experts experts including the directors Charles Burnett and Ava DuVernay recommended Distinguished Professor of The Arts and History of Consciousness Isaac Julien’s 2008 film “Derek” as one of the five best movies not enough people have seen.
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New 3D map of Universe could solve dark energy mystery
“Some people have been working on this for decades, so it’s just amazing to see it come to completion,” DESI co-spokesperson Alexie Leauthaud of the University of California, Santa Cruz, told Ars. “Anyone who does science knows that you rarely achieve more than you proposed you would. And you never achieve more on time. DESI…
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Fewer teens are applying for California’s nonbinary driver’s licenses
Phillip Hammack, a psychology professor and director of the Sexual & Gender Diversity Laboratory at UC Santa Cruz(opens in new tab), said these policy shifts may explain the decline in nonbinary identification among California teens.
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Fog is a vital water resource. Could it disappear in a warming world?
For millions living in the most populous U.S. state, the fog spawned where a cold ocean meets a Sun-warmed coast is like “natural air conditioning,” says Peter Weiss-Penzias, an atmospheric chemist at the University of California (UC), Santa Cruz.