Sunday Reads: Restoring salmon diversity; UCSC’s bulwarks against AI

Salmon survival: Betting on the right fish

By studying salmon bones, scientists have uncovered that for thousands of years, Chinook salmon returned to California rivers at a range of ages. Today, habitat loss, overharvesting and conventional hatcheries have narrowed the age diversity of returning fish, a critical factor in efforts to save the species in Santa Cruz County and beyond. They are working with tribal partners to restore that diversity, protecting wild stocks and the rhythms that keep rivers alive. Read more from Cassidy Beach.

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OPINION: UCSC’s college system and core courses are humanities’ best defense

UC Santa Cruz historian Kiva Silver is worried about the future of the university’s college system and the core courses at UCSC. He believes the courses, usually taken in students’ first year on campus, are essential to preserving a human-centered liberal arts education as a bulwark against artificial intelligence. The courses, he writes, should not be sacrificed as the campus works to overcome a structural deficit of about $87 million. The courses and living-learning communities are part of UCSC’s original 10-college system and, he argues, foster critical thinking, belonging and the type of intellectual community that has always nurtured humanity. If students never ask “who am I?”, he writes, how will they be able to differentiate themselves from machines? Read Silver’s Community Voices op-ed here.

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IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

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