by Stephen Tung | May 31, 2012 | Posts
After seeing the alarming video of the Minnesota I-35 bridge collapse in class today, I’m reminded from my recent reporting on the flattening of the Golden Gate Bridge 25 years ago on how flexible numbers can be. Searching for a simple detail revealed how much...
by Meghan D. Rosen | May 15, 2012 | Posts
Two quarters ago, David Cohn—the web whiz and crowd-funded journalism advocate who invented Spot.us—left the SciCom class of 2012 with a note-worthy nugget of internet advice. “It’s cheaper and easier to try something,” he said, “than to debate about whether or not to...
by Erin Loury | May 10, 2012 | Posts
Ah, the signs of spring. The sun is out, the rain has stopped (for now)—and sudden oak death is on the move. This invasive, fungus-like tree killer, which is related to the Irish potato blight, moves in fits and spurts with bouts of warm spring rains. Every spring for...
by Beth Marie Mole | May 8, 2012 | Posts
When my mom said she was headed to the doctor for a sore knee last month, I didn’t think much of it. I figured she probably just twisted it doing yard work or something. But, when she called back to say her swollen knee was Lyme arthritis, she had my attention. And I...
by Helen H. Shen | May 2, 2012 | Posts
How dangerous is unpasteurized milk? Many health-conscious consumers want to know. The answer depends on how you look at the numbers. In March, CDC scientists published a study in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases that tried to quantify this risk by analyzing...
by Beth Marie Mole | Apr 26, 2012 | Posts
The first mutant frog the kids found probably seemed like a sad fluke. The poor Northern Leopard Frog had one normal hind leg and one frail, fleshless one. But, then the class, which was out on a nature walk in 1995, found another misshapen frog—this one with only one...
by Tanya Lewis | Apr 24, 2012 | Posts
San Jose is a bustling city of just under a million inhabitants. Yet only 25 miles to its east, on the tranquil summit of Mount Hamilton, astronomers cast their view skyward at the Lick Observatory. I visited the observatory, which is operated by the University of...
by Erin Loury | Apr 20, 2012 | Posts
A volunteer placed a translucent, blue marble in my hand as I walked through the door. Everyone else in the darkened auditorium held a similar token. Ocean-philes of one kind or another, we were gathering at the Monterey Institute of International Studies for the...
by Sarah Jane Keller | Apr 17, 2012 | Posts
I’ve heard that Santa Cruz might be weird. I live in the redwoods above the city and maybe it’s a little strange here too. Sunset Magazine called Boulder Creek, just up the road, “absurdly rural.” In a search for the absurd, I considered visiting the nearby...
by Amy E. West | Apr 14, 2012 | Posts
With recent news of washing machines spilling microplastics into waterways, a greenwashing lawsuit involving plastic water bottle companies, and bans on plastic bags, plastics are everywhere. Literally. They are crammed under our cupboards, spilling from trashcans,...
by Marissa Fessenden | Apr 11, 2012 | Posts
When I learned to fold a paper crane out of a piece of paper, I thought I had mastered one of the coolest tricks ever. The crane was the most difficult pattern in my little origami book. But origami is more than paper birds, cups and frogs. It is an art form and a way...
by Daniela F. Hernandez | Apr 10, 2012 | Posts
Today, I received an email asking what I found most valuable about the UCSC Science Communication program. I could say the internships have given me fantastic on-the-job training; the instructors have made my writing tighter and livelier; I’ve had the...
