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Letters and Science

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illustration of swimming microbes on dark background
Microbes are responsible for much of carbon sequestration in the ocean

The mystery of the missing deep ocean carbon fixers

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Walter Capps speaking from a podium
Walter Capps on the campaign trail, 1996
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Diverse group of students listening to a lecture in a modern lecture hall
Photo Credit
Elena Zhukova
UC Santa Barbara students attend a lecture in the Interactive Learning Pavilion
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A pyramid of concept cards underpins a basilica on a laptop screen. Behind the computer is a more abstract pyramid of concepts floating above the desk.
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An illustration by Midjourney with the prompt: “A computer with clouds of equations and symbols.”
What an artificial intelligence displays on the screen reflects its internal representation of the world, which may be quite different than our own.

The mind of the machine
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NSF director at the Engineering Sciences Building
Photo Credit
Matt Perko
NSF Director Sethuraman Panchanathan speaking at the Engineering Sciences Building
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UC Santa Barbara Graduate Fellows group photo illustration
Hamzah Baig, Marcell Cadney, Marissa Gionet-Gonzales, Julio Orellana and Tessa Cookmeyer
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Two male dancers perform on a blackened stage
Photo Credit
Jeff Liang
A scene from Santa Barbara Dance Theater's 2023 show, “The Ties that Bind/Los lazos que unen.”
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Giuliana Perrone photographed in black and white outdoors in sunlight
Photo Credit
Matt Perko
Giuliana Perrone, October 2023
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The head of a California red-legged frog peers out from lily pads
Photo Credit
Gary M. Fellers/USGS
California red-legged frog (Rana draytonii) surfaces in a pond in Point Reyes National Seashore, Calif.

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Graham Feyl and Sylvia Faichney
Photo Credit
Debra Herrick
Graham Feyl and Sylvia Faichney