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Letters and Science

Aerial view of Lake Tefé during a severe drought, when its waters are low.
Photo Credit
Miguel Monteiro
Severe drought and heat in the central amazon turned Lake Tefé into a shallow spa, killing fish and endangered river dolphins.

Hotter than your average spa: Rising temps in Amazon lakes sound alarm over climate change

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college age woman of Taiwanese descent sits in studio with branches and canvas
Photo Credit
Debra Herrick
Meiya Sidney '25, College of Creative Studies and art honors

Artist explores Taiwanese heritage and memory though ceramics
Women in bright colored dresses on stage with a blue background
Photo Credit
Luca Meyers
A play about young women on the cusp of their teenage years, “Dance Nation” portrays their conflicting impulses to stand out and blend in.

UCSB stages ‘Dance Nation,’ a play about ambition, competition and coming of age
white woman sits at desk with tablet, on desk is robotic arm, coiled clay vessels and computer screen, crochet dress on mannequin at side
Photo Credit
Matt Perko
“You can think of this as the next step in personal computing,” said UCSB professor Jennifer Jacobs, whose research explores more intuitive, responsive digital fabrication systems.

Making automation more human through innovative fabrication tools
concept illustration of amino acid chains that form proteins
De novo protein design involves sequencing amino acids to produce proteins with the desired structures and functions

Enzymes from scratch
illustration of neurons and chemical signaling

Hormone cycles shape the structure and function of key memory regions in the brain
Painting of a comet traveling through night sky full of stars
Rose Schlossberg, "Comet C/2023 A3 Tsuchinstan-ATLAS," 2024

MFA exhibition explores time, space and transformation
A sweaty child on a playground.
Photo Credit
Yaoinlove via iStock
Children are more sensitive to heat than adults, and chronic overheating can affect their experience and engagement at school.

Heat exposure in California schools prompts multi-campus research project
computer screens on desk with abstract images and woman's head from behind
Photo Credit
Photo illustration by Matt Perko with abstract visuals by Iason Paterakis and Nefeli Manoudaki; Original photo by SCARECROW artworks, Unsplash
AI-generated visuals designed by UCSB researchers help ease the psychological toll of isolation for scientists living and working in Antarctica.

New frontiers for well-being in Antarctica and isolated spaces
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Design justice scholar Sasha Costanza-Chock to speak at Center for Black Studies Research
a scuba diver floating near a colony of soft corals in Fiji
Photo Credit
Melody Jue
A scuba diver pictured with a colony of soft corals in Fiji, 2020

‘Coralations’ Q&A with author Melody Jue
Joan Dudney with hiking gear in the mountains.
Photo Credit
Courtesy Image
Joan Dudney studies the impacts of global change on forests to develop science-based management strategies.

Ecologist Joan Dudney studies forest change in a warming world
people in India working on top of large bags of waste
Photo Credit
Dana Kornberg
Workers in India's waste economy

Race and caste capitalism: Who gets access to status and wealth?
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