Science & Tech

Memristor Technology Brings Us One Step Closer to a Robotic World

The dawn of free-thinking robots may soon be upon us. Researchers at UC Santa Barbara and Stony Brook University have developed an artificial neural circuit that emulates the electrical design of the ...
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Ecstasy: What It is Doing to Your Brain

In the past few years, the rate of people in the United States using some form of methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) — better known as Ecstasy or Molly — has skyrocketed. Psychiatrists have begu...
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Project 8 Scientists Detect Frequency of Radiation for Individual Electron

A team of 27 scientists from six American and German institutions has, for the first time, achieved the task of detecting the frequency of radiation of a lone, orbiting electron. The group’s researc...
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Michael Pollan: Sustainable Living for Personal and Environmental Health

Last week, UCSB students and Santa Barbara residents joined in conversation with Michael Pollan, one of the leading voices on the relationship between food and western society, at the Granada Theater ...
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Quick Hacks to Speed Up Your Slow MacBook

A slow, aging MacBook makes any task that much more difficult, especially if you have an important deadline right around the corner. And instead of enjoying a relaxing evening with Netflix, most of yo...
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The Biological Value of Silver Nanoparticles

Materialistically, society perceives the element silver second only to gold, however silver wins the favor of engineers, who take advantage of its unique conduction properties of heat and electrical c...
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TEDx: Spreading Ideas to the New and the Next

UCSB students and faculty assembled in Isla Vista’s Embarcadero Hall on Saturday, April 11 for an afternoon of innovation and inspiration with TEDx. Technology, Entertainment and Design (TED) is a n...
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UCSB Named Greenest Public University in the Nation

In addition to being a top 10 school in terms of research impact (as per the annual CWTS Leiden ranking system in 2013) and being named No. 2 party school in the country by the Princeton Review the fo...
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Overthinking May Be Slowing Down Your Learning Rate

With midterms fast approaching, students are looking for the most efficient method possible to learn and retain information. As the saying goes, working smarter instead of working harder may give the ...
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Tech Talk: Affordable Hack to Avoid Expensive Cell Phone Plan

A year ago, my cell phone bill was $100 a month — which was incredibly expensive for a college student on a budget. Factor in the total cost for the entire year and my wallet was running dry. Luckil...
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Anticipating Effects of Global Warming on Marine Biodiversity

Hidden in its depths, the Santa Barbara basin contains a trove of ancient marine specimens, providing a glimpse at how marine biodiversity changes over geological ages. A recent study published by the...
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Costs and Benefits of Omega-3 Fatty Acids

Over the past couple of years, omega-3 fatty acids have received profound media attention due to their wide range of health benefits. Although they serve as a powerful source of nutrition, excess omeg...
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This Week in Science

Sometimes, you can only find out what something is by clarifying what it is not. Astronomers are studying dark matter in a similar conceit — observing how the elusive substance behaves during collis...
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Researchers Discover Deep Sea Microbes Using Self-Mutation to Survive in Extreme Environments

Hundreds to thousands of meters below sea level there exist unique single-celled microorganisms from the domain Archaea. Many Archaea are biology’s adrenaline junkies flourishing in Earth’s extrem...
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Researchers Probe Conformations of Protein Involved in Alzheimer’s Disease

UC Santa Barbara researchers recently studied the biophysics of the regulation and aggregation of Tau, a protein critical in regulating several intracellular functions and believed to play a role in t...
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