UC Santa Cruz Science

10/05/2026

09/21/2026

Welcome to a new school year, Slugs! 🌲🍂

To our returning students: we missed you. 💚

And to our frosh class and transfer students: welcome to UC Santa Cruz! You’ve landed somewhere pretty special — nestled among the redwoods, just up the hill from the Monterey Bay. 🌊🎢

As you start the new year, we recommend following these accounts to stay in the loop on events, resources, announcements, and all the things happening around campus:
🐌 UC Santa Cruz
🐌 UC Santa Cruz.dsas
🐌 UC Santa Cruz Admissions
🐌 UC Santa Cruz.erc

Others you’d recommend or want to shout out? Drop them in the comments 🙏

Here’s to a year of big ideas, discovery, community, growth, and plenty of time in nature. We’re so glad you’re here. 🍌🐌

09/08/2026

What if humans could regrow damaged eyes like jellyfish can? 🪼👁️

UC Santa Cruz ecology and evolutionary biology professor Aide Macias-Muñoz just received a $2M grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to investigate how jellyfish regrow their eyes.

By studying the single-cell genetics behind these complex traits, her team aims to unlock evolutionary insights that could inspire new human gene therapies for retinal degeneration and tissue repair. 🔬🧬

Learn more: https://news.ucsc.edu/2026/09/jellyfish-eyes-nih-funding/

08/11/2026

💫 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 ✨ 🤩 ✨

California experts explain the Perseid meteor shower.

08/11/2026

💥 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/

07/14/2026

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.

06/29/2026

06/10/2026

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/

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

05/20/2026

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

05/07/2026

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)