A jogger found the bloodstained and filthy body of Kristopher Olinger by the side of the road one September morning in 1997. The last time anyone saw the 17-year-old from Pacific Grove, CA was at midnight, when he went out to photograph the ocean for a school project. The police investigation determined that he had…
I could learn a lot from my spit if I wanted to. Thanks to advances in DNA sequencing, I could send my spit off for personal genomic testing and find out my predicted risks for hundreds of diseases and conditions. But I haven’t. After years of studying the genetics of plants, I’m fascinated by the…
Deadly mushrooms, endangered white abalone, iPad speech therapy, resurrected passenger pigeons, mysterious dark energy, bombarded satellites, a revised theory of sexual selection and a prickly way to cure a horrible skin condition… These nine feature stories make up Science Notes 2013, written by the 2013 class of the UC Santa Cruz Science Communication Program and…
Many people squirm at the thought of picking up a live scorpion. But biologist Lauren Esposito is on a quest to find and identify every scorpion in the Caribbean.
There’s a hole in the bottom of the ocean near Japan, the deepest ever drilled for science, that leads to the heart of one of the world’s most dangerous faults. Two years ago this fault, which marks the spot where one tectonic plate grinds past another, unleashed the Tohoku earthquake and subsequent tsunami, which devastated…
Evolutionary biologist J.B.S. Haldane, alluding to the enormous number of insect species roaming the earth, is often quoted as saying, “If one could conclude as to the nature of the Creator from a study of creation, it would appear that God has an inordinate fondness for beetles.” If Haldane were still alive, he and God…
I liked music as a kid because it felt creative and spontaneous. Ideas for songs popped out of my brain and surprised me. But as I muddled through piano lessons, squinting at inky lines that read like formulas while my teacher tisked over my shoulder, I started to realize that music is about structure. Soon,…
Brandon Southall is adept at inhabiting vastly different worlds—similar to the elephant seals and sea lions he studies. While the marine mammals successfully navigate the opposing environments of land and water, Southall is a marine scientist who moves smoothly among the diverse realms of research, business, consulting, and university affiliations. His expertise in ocean acoustics—…
We’re all enjoying these days leading up to summer, with the Monterey Bay shining clear and blue. But we know these times are fleeting. Come fall, algae will start to bloom. Clear blue waves will turn brown and red, seabirds and marine mammals will get sick, and swimming advisories could be put in place….
Several recent developments have gotten me thinking about water use in California — recent water shortages and the conversations about building desalination plants. Water scarcity will be a growing problem this century, mostly due to the world’s growing population. Drought-prone California’s plans to desalinate seawater is likely to have unintended consequences in the form of…
