What's Current in

Letters and Science

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

Read Article

A young man places a small orange box of electronics near a bush on the seashore with
Photo Credit
Elena Zhukova
There’s a cacophony of acoustic signals below the range of human hearing, many quite intense, that you can pick up with the right “ears.”

Scientists tune in to the surf’s hidden signals
student researcher peering into microscope
Photo Credit
Matt Perko
A cancer researcher at UCSB investigates the potential for macrophages to selectively 'eat' solid tumor cells

Town hall highlights impact of federal budget cuts on research
photograph of hands bound by the cord of a video game controller
Photo Credit
iStock/knoppper

Video game addiction in teens likely stems from preexisting mental health issues
scientists use robotics
Photo Credit
Juan Manuel Urueña Vargas

NSF renews $19.8M for UCSB and UCLA to lead U.S. innovation in AI-driven biomaterials
In Focus placeholder

Scholars in Department of Spanish and Portuguese awarded for lifetime achievements
Gary Horowitz in blue collared shirt on blue background.
Photo Credit
Jeff Liang
Gary Horowitz

Gary Horowitz awarded Dirac Medal for contributions to theoretical physics
photo of orbital lesions in a child's skull
Photo Credit
Dead Men Tell Tales, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license
Orbital lesions (cribra orbitalia) in a young child from the medieval site of Helgeandsholmen, Stockholm, Sweden

Cranial lesions are signs of compromised immune function
A turbid river flows down from the mountains through a mixed woodland. Gravel, cobbles, and boulders line the river channel. Clouds obscure the very peaks of the mountains above the trees.
Photo Credit
Sergey Kuznetsov via iStock
Rivers wash mountains to the sea. How quickly they do this has major implications for natural hazards and fundamental Earth science.

Years after an earthquake, rivers still carry the mountains downstream
In Focus placeholder

Book on transformation of queer nightlife shortlisted for prestigious award
Five sliced bagels are linked in a chain on a yellow background.
Photo Credit
Matt Perko
Linking single sugars into short-chain carbohydrates, called oligosaccharides, has proven surprisingly difficult.

New method to synthesize carbohydrates could pave the way to biomedical advances
artists rendering of fragmented comet approaching Earth

Destructive cosmic airbursts likely more common than previously believed
an African American man at a computer while holding a medicine bottle

Better access to technology can help African Americans bridge the healthcare gap
Subscribe to Letters and Science