UC Santa Cruz Science

💫 Wednesday night's new moon bodes well for a dark sky and summer's brightest meteor shower over California. Peak Perseids are expected to start at 11 p.m. and last till dawn on Thursday. University of California Observatories Director Bruce Macintosh spoke to SFGATE reporter Anna FitzGerald Guth:

🌃 No need to go far to see the streaks – just enough distance to be away from city lights.
👀 Lie down and be patient – give your eyes 30 mins. to adjust.
⛔ Lick Observatory is still closed to visitors due to ongoing repairs from last year's severe Christmas storm.

"It’s everybody’s best chance to actually see little meteors, big meteors, fireballs streaking across the sky," Macintosh says.

Get out there, be safe, and enjoy ✨ 🤩 ✨

How to catch the summer's brightest meteor shower over the Bay Area California experts explain the Perseid meteor shower.

💥 Myth busted: Modern bison don't actually have significant cattle ancestry! 🦬

While North American bison are one of conservation’s greatest comeback stories—rebounding from just a few hundred in the early 1900s to hundreds of thousands today—headcount alone doesn't tell the whole story.

A new study led by researchers at UC Santa Cruz and featured on the cover of Science Magazine analyzed 20,000+ years of ancient DNA to map the species' genetic history. The findings show that while bison have preserved essential genetic diversity, past management practices left them fragmented in isolated herds.

Using this new genomic blueprint, conservationists now have a roadmap to reconnect herds and restore the genetic flow bison relied on for millennia. 🧬✨

Read the full story here: https://news.ucsc.edu/2026/08/bison-conservation-genomics/

New UC Santa Cruz research is challenging what we know about aging cells.

Scientists have known for years that the stem cells that go on to become blood cells show significant signs of aging that sometimes lead to leukemia, excessive blood clotting and other diseases.

Research led by Professor of Biomolecular Engineering Camilla Forsberg and UC Santa Cruz Science Biochemistry Ph.D. graduate Jenna Myers found that many blood cells produced by aging stem cells remain remarkably unaffected.

These surprising findings suggest “parent” cells may act as a buffer to protect the blood from the effects of aging.

This work offers new insights into how blood cells are produced and helps confirm the safety of accepting bone marrow transplants from older donors.

Learn more with the link in comments.

It's birds versus bees! 🐝

🌺New research led by Kathleen Kay, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at UC Santa Cruz, looked deep into why tropical mountain flowers evolved to attract hummingbirds over bees. She debunked a decades-old myth that it was because high altitudes are too cold and wet for bees; instead, it turns out that hummingbirds are simply better at moving pollen!

These plants are actively evolving, and over generations, the flowers will change shapes, colors, and scents—to favor hummingbirds over bees. It’s an amazing example of adaptation, proving that massive evolutionary change (which can result in entirely new plant species!) happens without any major environmental changes.

🔬🌿 To learn why hummingbirds are the better pollinators, check the full article: https://news.ucsc.edu/2026/06/flowers-evolve-for-best-pollinators/

The best pollinators can drive evolutionary changes in flowers, new study finds Researchers find hummingbirds to be better pollinators of mountain flowers than bees, prompting the plants to adopt traits that favor the fast, feathered carriers over the fuzzy, buzzy ones

The results are in, and the chapter of SEEDS took FIRST PLACE in the Ecological Society of America’s national Bioblitz competition! 🥇🌲 🥳

In an around-the-clock 24-hour sprint, over 100 UC Santa Cruz students and community partners came together to log over 5,715 biodiversity observations across over 1,374 different species right here in Santa Cruz. The competition helps the public learn about local natural spaces by empowering participants to better understand and protect biodiversity.

From hunting for fungi in the campus forests and tracking down reptiles on the coastal bluffs, to carpooling at 10 p.m. to scope out sea slugs under the harbor—nature truly is everywhere we look. 🌊🍄🦎

📊 The final breakdown of species observed:
Plants: 53.82% 🌿
Insects: 10.75% 🐞
Fungi: 9.12% 🍄‍🟫
(And zero surprise: our very own campus mascot was the most observed species!)

A big shoutout to everyone who participated, and to our amazing campus partners (Herpetology Club, Norris Center for Natural History, Submerged Slugs, Ornithology Club, and Plant Sciences Club) for teaming up to make this win possible. We blew the competition out of the water!

This Friday is International Day for Biological Diversity, and to celebrate the BioBlitz win, SEEDS is hosting a celebratory party... Come get your free burrito! 🌯🎈Details on the instagram.

Photo descriptions and credit:
1. Close up of students dock fouling at the Santa Cruz harbor at night. Credit: Emily Halim
2. Undergraduate Emily Halim holds up a Southern Alligator Lizard, which defensively bit her three times as she logged its observation. 3. Credit: Emily HalimObservers walk single file through a grassy field with a cloudy sky. Credit: Emily Halim
4. Students lined up on their stomachs peering over the dock at night. Credit: Abe Borker
5. Wide angle of students dock fouling at the Santa Cruz harbor at night. Credit: Emily Halim
6. Three students peer at a tree trunk in a forest. Credit: Rohini Joshi

One of the biggest threats whales face is being hit by the massive cargo ships constantly crisscrossing our oceans. For those who want to find out where these unfortunate collisions are happening and what we can do to stop it, the best place to go online is BlueCorridors.org.

The website has won a 2026 Webby Award in the Best Data Visualization category, which has been called the “Internet’s highest honor.” The awards ceremony is on Monday in NYC, when other Webby winners like Amy Poehler, Sabrina Carpenter, Bad Bunny, Google and “Stranger Things” will be celebrated.

UC Santa Cruz Ocean Science Professor Ari Friedlaender and his team were central to working with the World Wildlife Foundation to make whale migration routes and critical habitats visible and publicly accessible—in ways that support science, policy, and ocean conservation. 🐋

“At its heart, this work is about making the invisible visible and building stronger momentum to protect the key ocean areas that whales, and all of us, depend on,” said Chris Johnson, Global Lead for WWF Whale and Dolphin Conservation.

Read more at the link in our bio!

📷 Photos of humpback whales in the Monterey Bay by Logan Pallin, postdoctoral researcher in the Bio-Telemetry & Behavioral Ecology Lab. (NMFS Research Permit No. 26602)

The Multi-Agency Rocky Intertidal Network, also known as MARINe, is a consortium of research groups working together to collect data on the rocky shores of our rugged coastline. This physically complex environment is a unique ecosystem with high biological diversity, including many species that are found only in this narrow band of coastal habitat.

Over 200 rocky intertidal monitoring sites contribute to collecting this data, which is then entered into a centralized database that currently contains over three decades of research.

The MARINe intertidal research group at UC Santa Cruz is headquartered at Long Marine Lab and is led by .ucsc professor Pete Raimondi.

On April 16, join MARINe for their 25th annual public meeting at UC Santa Cruz! Tidepool lovers, marine researchers, and coastal curious folks are all invited to attend for a chance to hear about the latest intertidal ecology and cutting-edge coastal research as well as connect and learn from likeminds. 🐚🦀 Registration closes April 7th– so don’t wait. Learn more and RSVP at the link in our bio. We hope to see you there!

📷 All photos by MARINe:

🐟 ⏰ California salmon populations historically matured and spawned at a variety of ages, often between 3-5 years old. But this has shifted over time!

📉 🔬 Now, UC Santa Cruz researchers are seeing that spawning salmon are almost always 3 years old. "If there's a really bad year for that cohort of three-year-olds, you have extremely low reproduction". Understanding how this change in spawning age structure impacts current populations is one of the ways our scientists are studying salmon recovery.

🎥 🧪 This research, including an interview with FCP Director, Eric Palkovacs, was featured in a short film by UC Santa Cruz Science Communication Program and UCSC Center for Coastal Climate Resilience fellow, Cassidy Beach.

Check the video out here:

Central California Salmon Age & Recovery Salmon ancient age research and recovery efforts in California featuring the work of UC Santa Cruz professor Eric Palkovacs, whose work on the Klamath River ...

Calling all salmon lovers to save the date!🐟🗓️ On March 6, .eeb professor Eric Palkovacs will give a public lecture where he’ll share transformative, research-driven approaches to restoring the Pacific salmon populations.

The ecological and cultural keystone species is threatened on all sides by dams, over harvesting, climate change, and more. As director of UC Santa Cruz’s Institute of Marine Sciences and Fisheries Collaborative Program, Palkovacs will discuss the long-term effort to advance salmon conservation in collaboration with NOAA scientists.

This free event is in-person only, and space is limited. The evening will conclude with a Q&A moderated by Science Dean Bryan Gaensler.

Register at the link in our bio!

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Event info:

🗓️ March 6, 2026
⏰ 6:00–7:30 p.m.
📍Coastal Biology Building, Room 110, UC Santa Cruz Coastal Campus
🎟️ Free to register

This lecture is part of Science in the Neighborhood: a free public lecture series hosted quarterly by the UC Santa Cruz Science Division that brings research that matters to the local community.