Thank you Andrew Olander and Shaheen @ssikandar.bsky.social for inviting me to visit the MCD Biology Department at @ucsantacruz.bsky.social! I love the insightful comments at my talk and the engaging conversations throughout. Hopefully I can come back, and maybe even get to see a real banana slug!

Can a species ‘de-evolve’? Beth Shapiro, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at University of California, Santa Cruz, said she finds the term to be a great way to engage more people in the concept of evolution. www.cnn.com/2025/10/30/s...

Your Giving Day gifts made a real difference—almost 2M+ in donations by 8k donors—supporting students, research, and programs that keep UC Santa Cruz moving forward. Here’s to 10 years of generosity, community, & impact 💛

It’s Giving Day at UC Santa Cruz! 🎉 You have 24 hours to make an impact and support scholarships, research, student orgs, & more. Every gift adds up + unlocks bonus funding 💙✨#give2ucsc Give now: bit.ly/43NYt6O

6,000+ exoplanets and counting—just this year. This Thursday, Nov. 6, hear from Natalie Batalha, UC Santa Cruz’s director of astrobiology & former NASA Kepler scientist, on the search for life beyond Earth. 🌌 Free talk, hybrid format, and open to all. More info here: events.ucsc.edu/event/59th-f...

Ocean sciences prof Andrew Moore @ucsantacruz.bsky.social receives AGU’s Edward A. Flinn III Award for “unselfish cooperation in research,” for decades of work w/ peers @rutgersu.bsky.social on one of the world’s most widely used community ocean models 🌊 Read more: news.ucsc.edu/2025/10/moor...

The LMB was saddened to hear of the death of #LMBAlumni Bill Scott, who was a postdoc at the LMB working with Aaron Klug from 1993-1996. During this time he won the LMB’s postdoctoral prize for outstanding research. Read more about Bill from @ucsantacruz.bsky.social: news.ucsc.edu/2025/10/in-m...

🎉 @curiossorg.bsky.social members from @ucsantacruz.bsky.social #OSPO & the #UnitedNations are collaborating on the next #RebootTheEarth #hackathon to tackle wildfire detection, response and impact solutions through #OpenSource collaboration. 📆 Nov 7-8 ℹ️ bit.ly/43Bsrec #AcademicOSPOs #AcademicSky

Ari Friedlaender, an ecologist and professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz, who monitors whale migrations, said it could be that changing ocean conditions may be pushing the whales’ prey closer to shore: insideclimatenews.org/news/2410202...

Some scholars at UC Santa Cruz are exploring what scares us and why. Michael Chemers, with the Center of Monster Studies at UC Santa Cruz explained how researchers are looking at monsters all throughout history. Watch now: www.ktvu.com/video/1732134

UC Santa Cruz innovations have been named among TIME’s Best Inventions of 2025!🚀✨

Today’s undergraduate STEM majors are tomorrow’s K-12 teachers, and Cal Teach is preparing them to transform how students see science, math, and their own potential. 🌱 This #GivingDay, your gift helps fund scholarships & training for future math + science educators: give.ucsc.edu/giving-day-2...

Over the past 60 years, marine biologists at UC Santa Cruz have studied the behavior of northern elephant seals that journey to nearby Año Nuevo Natural Reserve with help from the National Science Foundation. 🦭 Image credit: Dan Costa; photos taken under research permit NMFS 23188

" @ucsantacruz.bsky.social research has changed the world—whether it’s proving that commercial strawberry agriculture can be done organically, peering deep into space to understand our universe, or documenting the dehumanizing effects of solitary confinement." news.ucsc.edu/2025/10/from...

"Data shows that expansion of those who participate in academic science produces better science that has a wider impact." From a new research-backed defense of DEI programs published today by Needhi Bhalla @ucsantacruz.bsky.social and peers @ucsdmedschool.bsky.social and @uofmass.bsky.social 👏🏾👏🏼👏

The Class of 2024 is already leaving its mark! From public service and research labs to tech, communications, and venture capital, Slugs are making an impact across California and beyond. Read their stories in Life Beyond the Redwoods: bit.ly/4mIEgpU

Behind each new research advancement or insight at UC Santa Cruz is a passionate, dedicated team that made it all happen. Get to know five of our researchers who are committed to making the world a better place. ⬇️

Need proof that the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History is worth preserving? Here are century-old fish preserved in essentially rum–a sweet twist that kept their DNA intact 🧬 What that DNA is telling us today is surprising even the most seasoned scientists: news.ucsc.edu/2025/10/rum-...

In the wake of Jane Goodall’s passing last week, many of our researchers here at UC Santa Cruz shared fond memories of Goodall and appreciation for her role as a champion of the natural world. Hear from a few faculty members who have been and will continue to be inspired by her legacy ⬇️

🔬Our 8-foot-tall cryoEM microscope is one of only 232 in the world—helping researchers fight influenza, RSV & more. Through global partnerships, we’re breaking down cost + distance barriers so scientists everywhere can accelerate discovery. 🌍✨ bit.ly/4nz9ml4 @ucsantacruz.bsky.social

For more than 50 years, we've been a national leader in supporting farmers + shaping food systems, but cuts to USDA funding & federal settlement demands against the University of California could impact our ability to continue leading research, education, & service work that benefits all Americans.

UC Santa Cruz has earned the Seal of Excelencia recertification, which recognizes our intentional campuswide efforts to serve Latiné and all students through undergraduate and graduate education, affordability and resources and faculty support.

Gonzalo Respighi Grasso, a doctoral candidate in economics at the University of California, Santa Cruz, has made rent control the focus of his research. He cites a 2019 paper that looked at the effects of implementing rent control in San Francisco in 1994. bit.ly/3Kwnsoz

🌊🌍 This Friday, Oct 3, at the Seymour Center, the NEXTies: Earth + Sea honors the environmental pioneers who’ve made Santa Cruz a leader in climate resilience, including amazing UC Santa Cruz faculty and staff. Don’t miss it! 🎟️ seymourcenter.ucsc.edu/calendar_eve...

🌫️ UC Santa Cruz researchers Peter Weiss-Penzias and Eyal Rahav have recently been awarded a $737k grant from the Heising-Simons Foundation to find out what’s really in the fog that rolls across California’s coast and how a warming climate might affect it. Learn more: bit.ly/42cycyu

A team of #BaskinEngineering researchers at @ucsantacruz.bsky.social is using #AI and #bioelectronics to speed up wound healing! Their #WearableTech device tracks healing stages and delivers personalized treatment—speeding healing by ~25% in preclinical trials! 🤯

Together with the Rubin lab @ucsantacruz.bsky.social , we found a surprise: E2F1 drives cells from G0 through the full cell cycle by activating many genes without altering chromatin accessibility! Brilliant work by first author Gerrald Lodewijk, now on the faculty job market,an exceptional scientist

Finishing a Ph.D. on slavery in early American or Atlantic history this year? Consider applying for the University of California's President's Postdoc program. I'd love to sponsor at applicant if working with me @ucsantacruz.bsky.social might be a good fit! ppfp.ucop.edu/info/how-to-...

Gregg Macey @ucirvinelaw.bsky.social to speak at the Campo-Sano Climate Action Conference @ucsantacruz.bsky.social on October 4, 2025. Program: farmworkerhealth.ucsc.edu/events/2025/...

A new laboratory study in AGU Advances finds that shaking accounts for only 1 to 8 percent of the energy released in an earthquake, while up to a whopping 98 percent of that energy dissipates as heat. 🥵

New + returning Slugs checked out all the amazing #BaskinEngineering clubs and orgs we have to offer. Excited to see how you'll make your mark this year! @ucsantacruz.bsky.social

Rebecca London spends a lot of time observing school play yards. While doing so, the community-engaged researcher and professor of sociology has seen students engaged in the best of what recess can offer—cooperation, healthy competition, and negotiation—and the worst, like bullying and boredom.

Assistant Professor of Computer Science and Engineering Ram Sundara Raman said there is a troubling lack of transparency and oversight in Flock’s data practices, raising concerns about encryption, AI training, internal oversight, and potential for leaks or unauthorized sharing. bit.ly/420ActC

The forest, the ocean, and a community of Slugs 💛 What more could you ask for? Welcome to a new year at UC Santa Cruz!

This past Thursday, Assistant Professor of Biomolecular Engineering Karen Miga and Ph.D. student Krizia Chambers were in Washington, D.C, representing UC Santa Cruz at the Rally for Medical Research.

“There’s a kind of improbability, unpredictability to popular cultural fads that are in excess of whatever aesthetic or material components they possess,” said Chris Connery, emeritus professor of literature & History of Consciousness. www.zocalopublicsquare.org/labubu-anti-...

UC Santa Cruz Psychology Professor Craig Haney emphasized that many detainee suicide attempts, and suicidal thoughts, were the result “of their circumstances, a reaction to an otherwise very despairing situation,” he said.“People are frustrated and afraid,” he added. bit.ly/4nB0rPr

Pascal Michaillat, professor of economics at the University of California, Santa Cruz and a research associate at the NBER, estimates a 71 % probability that the US economy was already in recession in May, as quoted in this article.

U.S. News & World Report Rankings are in! 💫 U.S. News & World Report Rankings are in! 💫 U.S. News & World Report Rankings are in! 💫 See all the rankings here: bit.ly/46h42v1

UC Santa Cruz scientists built a new model to decode “steam worlds”—hot, water-rich exoplanets -- revealing how exotic water shapes planets, helps interpret JWST data, and brings us closer to finding life. ✨ 🌌💧 bit.ly/460tDs9 #science #astronomy #exoplanet #scicomm @jameswebbdiscovery.com

Great to have you @lofgren.house.gov!

Throwing it back to Diesel (our tiniest 2025 graduate) for International Dog Day. What a gud boi. 🐶 🐶

Big news from UC Santa Cruz! Together with The Conservation Fund, UCSC is protecting 200+ acres of sensitive habitat next to our residential campus. This land will serve as a living laboratory for research and conservation. www.youtube.com/watch?v=txwq...

We are saddened to hear about the passing of Tom Lehrer, who, in addition to being “the most brilliant song satirist ever recorded," was a member of our mathematics faculty for 29 years. His classes were cherished, and, of course, often musical. He will be missed deeply. bit.ly/45eABt9

🦭🧬 After nearly going extinct, northern elephant seals bounced back, but lost almost all genetic variation. Now, thanks to a new tool out of @ucsantacruz.bsky.social, we can trace family lines for species with low genetic diversity and improve conservation strategies. 📄: doi.org/10.1111/acv....

🥼 🩺 BIG news Slugs! We're teaming up with UC Davis to launch a brand-new medical education program on the Central Coast called PRIME Central Coast, a program that will train future doctors in the region, for the region. Just over here continuing to grow our health pipeline! bit.ly/4eS3sb0

YES CHEF! Congrats to UC Santa Cruz alumna Emily Brubaker, who won the first season of ‘Yes, Chef!’ against 11 other professional chefs! The series was co-hosted and judged by Martha Stewart and José Andrés. In addition to bragging rights, Brubaker walks off set with $250k. bit.ly/3GgU83L

Which path did you take at UC Santa Cruz?

Happy 25th to the UCSC Genome Project! 🧬 🧬🧬

A jellyfish with 28 eyes? 👀 UCSC scientists sequenced the genome of Bougainvillia cf. muscus, revealing how jellyfish evolved vision independently, possibly multiple times, and providing new insights into sight and regeneration. bit.ly/3GhzH6L #science #genomics #genome #STEM #academia