Science & Tech

October 6, 2016

Learning Patterns: A Look Into Freshman Seminars

By Kelly Shi

The announcement of the 2016 Nobel Prize awards will be broadcast this week internationally to an audience of billions. The discussion of its history will be presented to a much smaller audience in one of UC Santa Barbar...

September 29, 2016

UCSB Professor Receives $10 Million To Establish Benioff Ocean Initiative

By Kirstie Allen

The Benioff Ocean Initiative (BOI) is a foundation focused on helping universities understand the pressing problems the world’s oceans face. The BOI aims to find solutions resulting in cleaner and healthier oceans.

September 29, 2016

Polymer Brush Growing Made Easier and Faster

By Dana Jessen

A team led by Christian Pester and Craig J. Hawker of the Materials Research Laboratory at UCSB has recently invented a new process called sequential stop-flow photopatterning to create complex micron-sized, polymer brus...

September 22, 2016

Competition Begets Life-Saving Innovation

By Stephanie Pernett

UCSB alumnus participates in a competition with the goal of inventing a device that relays danger.

September 14, 2016

Cosmic Watch Brings Space Exploration to Smartphones

By Stephanie Pernett

The stars and planets above us may now be easier to spot with the development of a new app, Cosmic Watch, that turns your smartphone into an interactive 3D astronomical time device. Serving as a modern astronomical instr...

September 14, 2016

De-extinction: Not Just Science Fiction Anymore

By Dana Jessen

As the intriguing phenomenon of de-extinction becomes less like science fiction, UCSB ecologists have published a list of basic criteria to ensure de-extinction is as beneficial and sustainable as possible.

August 31, 2016

Chemistry 101: The Classic Potato + Iodine = Blue/Black Experiment Finally Has an Explanation

By Dana Jessen

An exciting collaboration between the Chemistry Department and the Materials Research Laboratory at UCSB has unexpectedly solved a 200 year-old chemistry enigma.

August 25, 2016

50 Years of Education, Innovation and Technology

By Stephanie Pernett

An interdisciplinary culture of innovation committed to developing new technology in ways that benefit the world, the UCSB College of Engineering has proven itself as one of the most successful public research institutio...

August 25, 2016

What Came First: The Venus Table or the Feathered Serpent?

By Dana Jessen

Gerardo Aldana, a professor in the Chicana and Chicano Studies and Anthropology Departments at UCSB, presents a new interpretation of the Venus Table, which tracks the observable phases of the planet, in the Maya book, T...

August 5, 2016

Socratic Application Allows Students To Post Homework Questions, Get Answers

By Stephanie Pernett

Socratic, a website dedicated to being an "open resource" to help students learn, launched and application this year which turns one's smartphone into a digital tutor, prompting users to take a photo of the problem that ...

July 29, 2016

Little Bites, Big Consequences

By Emily Ohara

A UCSB marine biology professor examines the apparently detrimental relationship between parrotfish and coral.

July 21, 2016

UCSB Researchers Find Similarities in Chaos and Entanglement

By Stephanie Pernett

Hearing the word "physics" evokes images of Isaac Newton sitting below a tree and coming up with his three laws of motion. Other images include heat transfer in thermodynamics and magnets; all things we can see happening...

June 23, 2016

Desalination Plant To Reopen Next Fall

By Stephanie Pernett, Karan Maitra

After 23 years of inactivity, Santa Barbara City Council decided to reopen the Charles E. Meyer Desalination plant in order to relieve a stage-three drought.

May 26, 2016

Is There Anybody Out There?

By Karan Maitra

Famed astronomer Carl Sagan once said “The universe is a pretty big place. If it’s just us, seems like an awful waste of space.”

May 26, 2016

Environmental Conference Cuts Travel Emissions, Fosters Communication

By Andrea Adams

The virtual conference, titled “Climate Change: Views from the Humanities,” features over 50 speakers contributing pre-recorded talks about diverse topics such as ecopsychology, art and poetry, fossil fuels and clima...

May 19, 2016

Cancer Research To Improve Pregnancy Medication

By Karan Maitra

A UCSB professor is working with researchers internationally to create a drug that will assist in pregnancy placenta complications; the drug’s similarities to drugs used as cancer medication are surprisingly comparable...