It’s been nearly a month since the latest fleet of e-bikes hit the roadways of Santa Cruz, including around UCSC. Lookout’s Wallace Baine took to the streets for a primer on what you should know about our new transportation option.
UC Santa Cruz
Posted inEnvironment
With bat baby season upon us, UCSC prof explains how to spot them and why they matter
Bats have come back to the Bay Area from winter migrations and are raising young all around the region. Winifred Frick, chief scientist at Bat Conservation International and an ecology and evolutionary biology research professor at UC Santa Cruz, tells Lookout how and where to find bats — and when you might catch a glimpse of a baby bat getting a flying lesson.
Posted inEducation
Joint Cabrillo College-UCSC student housing project in limbo after changes to state budget
What had been expected to be a $111 million state grant to cover Cabrillo College’s portion of a $181.7 million joint 624-bed development at the Aptos campus became bonds issued by the school with state support. That, the school’s president says, has left Cabrillo leaders in a “very uncomfortable space to move forward [with the project] right now.”
Posted inPolitics & Policy
As Santa Cruz tries bike-share again, officials foresee a smoother ride this time around
With more than 400 bikes and 800 docks up and running around Santa Cruz and the UCSC campus, and plans to expand around the county by next year, the bike-share deal with Wisconsin-based BCycle is “leaps and bounds” better than the previous arrangement with Jump that petered out in 2020.
Posted inEducation
As the fight against RSV adds vaccines, UCSC researcher is on the cutting edge
Respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, raged last winter, contributing to a “tripledemic” where cases of flu, COVID-19 and RSV all flooded the nation’s hospitals at once. UC Santa Cruz professor Rebecca DuBois is deep into vaccine research even as a CDC committee recommended a pair of immunizations this week. DuBois works at the molecular scale, and her research is action-packed and futuristic-sounding.
Posted inLatest News
Rare $1,000 African tree grape plant stolen from UCSC arboretum ‘a real loss,’ says nursery manager
Earlier this week, a rare and hard-to-replace plant was stolen from the UC Santa Cruz Arboretum’s collection. Nursery manager and propagator Linda McNally said it was likely stolen by a “succulent enthusiast” who knew of its value, and she lamented its loss.
Posted inLatest News
Student Lookout: Graduation, Juneteenth, tasty pastries and revisiting a cult classic
College is often branded as a time for young adults to engage in self-discovery. While a series of campus strikes, power…
Posted inEducation
UCSC Class of ’23: Strikes, storms, pandemic made for turbulent four years, but some are grateful for the experience
College is often branded as a time for young adults to engage in self-discovery. While a series of campus strikes, power outages and a pandemic meant that this year’s UC Santa Cruz graduating class might not have received the romanticized ideal of college life, many say the experience was nonetheless a positive one.
Posted inEducation
She studies slug sex by the seashore: UCSC researcher works to unlock secrets of banana slug sex
Banana slugs are embedded in Santa Cruz culture, but few know about the creatures’ secretive, sultry sex lives — or the local banana slug “rancher” documenting what slugs do under cover of night. Janet Leonard, an ethologist at UCSC, has built a career on understanding the mysterious sexual world of hermaphrodites, with a 20-year focus on West Coast banana slugs. She’s part of a long line of puzzled slug researchers. As Henry Pilsbry and E.G. Vanatta wrote in 1896, “he who attempts the identification of a West Coast slug to-day is not only a bold man but also one probably doomed to a miserable failure.”