Science & Tech

April 24, 2014

Mitsubishi Extending MRL Partnership with $6 Million

By Suraj Sood

Mitsubishi Chemical Center for Advanced Materials (MC-CAM) — a UCSB entity representing the ongoing materials research alliance between Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation (Tokyo) and UCSB — has recently announced its ex...

April 24, 2014

Synthesis to Degradation: Building a Chemical Database

By Annette Kleinman

Imagine every known chemical and compound: ammonia, ethanol, pure water, diamond ­­— the list goes on. Yet every day more chemicals are discovered and registered with the American Chemical Society’s chemical list. ...

April 16, 2014

NASA’s Cassini Uncovers Lost Seas Within Saturn’s Moon Enceladus

By Suraj Sood

NASA announced last week that its Cassini spacecraft uncovered the existence of a large body of water underneath the surface of Enceladus, one of Saturn’s moons. Enceladus has been a fixation of the Cassini mission sin...

April 16, 2014

Researchers Develop Self-Regenerating Muscles That Can Survive Cobra Venom, Grow in Mice

By Morris Aguilar

Researchers at Duke University recently engineered a muscle bundle that mirrors naturally-occurring muscle — they proved it by inserting it into a mouse and watching the muscle grow through a literal window. The engine...

April 9, 2014

Snowy Plovers Cuddling Up For Start of Nesting Season

By Kaitlin Cuskey

Spring is a time of renewal, and as our university community enters a fresh spring quarter, our beach cohabitants, the Western Snowy Plover, also embark on a period of transition with the start of a new nesting season be...

April 9, 2014

There’s a Latte Ways Caffeine Can Affect You

By Priyanka Shindgikar

One-third of the world’s population consumes coffee on a regular basis. The average American drinks three cups of coffee a day. Many people — especially college students — indulge in the revitalizing magic of coffe...

April 5, 2014

Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics Hosts a “Science Cafe” Featuring Astrophysicist Matteo Cantiello Speaking on Stars

By Suraj Sood

Despite the broad and plentiful array of research abounding on the University of California, Santa Barbara campus, many do not have the opportunity to learn about these scientific explorations in an approachable setting....

March 5, 2014

Scientists Awed, Skeptical Over Mature Cell Reprogramming

By Morris Aguilar

Concerns are continuing to arise over the news that researchers from Japan recently discovered a revolutionary phenomenon in which mature differentiated cells can be reprogrammed to become pluripotent embryonic cells, wh...

March 5, 2014

Fossil Free Protests UC’s Funding of Fossil Fuel Giants

By James Perez

The past decade has presented academic institutions as leaders in addressing the issue of climate change through extensive research and education. Yet it turns out that they many academic institutions are financially inv...

February 26, 2014

KAVLI Introduces Educators to Emerging Science Concepts

By Suraj Sood

Dozens of teachers from around the country gathered at UCSB’s Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics (KITP) to participate in “The Physics of Flocking: From Cells to Crowds,” a full-day workshop for high school sc...

February 26, 2014

Looking to Slim Down? Try Skipping the Skim Milk

By Annette Kleinman

Among the endless diet fads and craze to eat healthy and stay thin, our first instinct when dieting is to grab everything off supermarket shelves that is labeled with “low-fat” or — even better — “non-fat.” A...

February 19, 2014

UCSB Researchers Develop Tool to Trace How Bodies Metabolize Drugs

By Annette Kleinman

A biomedical technology once thought impossible came to fruition thanks to University of California, Santa Barbara researchers Kevin Plaxco, a biochemistry professor, Tom Soh, a mechanical engineering professor and Scott...

February 12, 2014

UCSB Alums Among Entrepreuners Taking On Santa Barbara Technology Startup Scene

By Brigitte Naughton

From Campus Point to corner offices, these Gauchos came, saw and conquered the local job market

February 5, 2014

Physics Shout-Outs

By Brigitte Naughton

Kavli Institute Connects The University of California, Santa Barbara’s Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics (KITP) is celebrating its 35th anniversary by developing a research facility to serve as a haven for physic...

February 5, 2014

Google Glass Finds Niche in Medicine

By Morris Aguilar

The up-and-coming technological frontier features wearable tech that readily provides social media, email, phone calls and text message updates. Everyone from high-school students to physicians can have this technology a...

January 29, 2014

NFL, GE Fund UCSB Brain Injury Research

By Suraj Sood

General Electric (GE) and the National Football League (NFL) recently donated $300,000 to University of California, Santa Barbara’s Brain Imaging Center as part of the Head Health Challenge, a joint initiative by GE an...