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Letters and Science

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Four adults in farmers clothes, their faces lit, look up at a foreboding figure in a mask
Photo Credit
Jeff Liang
The allegory that is 'Animal Farm' examines the perils of unchecked power and privilege, the use of words as a political weapon, and revolutions that erode into regimes not unlike those they overthrew.

UCSB theater students take on Orwell’s ‘Animal Farm,’ a fable that still bites

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A line of clouts stretches from the tropical Pacific to western North America where it becomes a massive storm.
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Stuart Rankin via Flickr (CC BY-NC 2.0)
The Pineapple Express — an atmospheric river originating in the tropical Pacific — walloped western North America in February 2017. These systems are becoming more frequent at higher latitudes, leaving mid latitudes drier.
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green and purple objects
Photo Credit
Fangzhou ZhaoI, Van de Walle group
Concept illustration of non-radiative recombination, in which electron-hole interaction at a defect in the atomic structure results in heat, rather than light, being emitted. Jim Speck will use his Vannevar Bush Award to advance understanding of the physics of such interactions.
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Yellow silhouettes of a large female and small male mosquito facing away from each other.
Photo Credit
Matt Perko
If a male mosquito can’t hear a female, it’s as though she doesn’t exist.
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black and white photo of four african american men wearing striped prison uniforms in the late 1800s
Image from "Slavery by Another Name" documentary
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two scientists in green vests talking to each other
Photo Credit
Mapping Alzheimer's Productions
Colombian neuroscientist Francisco Lopera, left, and UCSB neuroscientist Kenneth S. Kosik
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A close-up view of fluorescent coral.
Photo Credit
Anemone via AdobeStock
Coral underpin ecosystems as vibrant as they are. But these iconic animals face many challenges in the 21st century.
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side by side photos of ferret and penguin
Ferrets are among the vertebrates that get the most tumors, while black footed penguins get the fewest
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Black man grey beard
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Courtesy
Percival Everett, author of "James" (Doubleday 2024)
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cyanotype
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Courtesy
Hương Ngô, detail, "Bestouan 5/12/18"