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University of California, Santa Barbara

UCSB is one of only 61 institutions elected to membership in the prestigious Association of American Universities. And the Newsweek guide to America’s best colleges has named UCSB one of the country’s “hottest colleges” twice in the past decade.

In addition to five Nobel Laureates, UCSB’s faculty includes many elected members or fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (25), the National Academy of Sciences (32), the National Academy of Engineering (25), and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (60). Three UCSB professors also have been named MacArthur Fellows by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

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Displaying 1 - 20 of 115 articles

Circular irrigation for growing hay and alfalfa near Corcoran, Calif. − a water-intensive system that relies on groundwater pumping. George Rose/Getty Images

Humans are depleting groundwater worldwide, but there are ways to replenish it

Rapid and accelerating groundwater level declines are widespread in dry climates where groundwater is used for irrigation. But some communities have found ways to turn things around.
A priest and Catholic worshippers pray in front of an image of ‘Sangre de Cristo,’ burned in a fire on July 2020, at the Metropolitan Cathedral in Managua. Oswaldo Rivas/AFP via Getty Images

Nicaragua released imprisoned priests, but repression is unlikely to relent – and the Catholic Church remains a target

When President Daniel Ortega returned to power in 2006, church figures supported him. Violent repression after the 2018 protests has soured the relationship and made clergy targets for intimidation.
Bulldozed land at the planned site of a controversial police training facility, with Atlanta in the distance. Cheney Orr/AFP via Getty Images

A First Amendment battle looms in Georgia, where the state is framing opposition to a police training complex as a criminal conspiracy

This isn’t the first time that US authorities have criminalized civil disobedience or framed grassroots organizing as a conspiracy.
O interior do detector externo LZ, a máquina supersensível que um dia poderá detectar a matéria escura. Matt Kapust, SURF

Matéria escura: longe de entender, perto de comprovar

Para detectar matéria escura, é preciso um detector ultrassensível e um local ultra silencioso. Nos EUA, esse lugar fica mais de um quilômetro debaixo da terra, na Dakota do Sul
The inside of the LZ outer detector. The LZ is a super sensitive machine that may one day detect a dark matter particle. Matt Kapust, SURF

Researchers dig deep underground in hopes of finally observing dark matter

To detect dark matter, you need to build an ultra-sensitive detector and put it somewhere ultra-quiet. For one physics collaboration, that place is almost a mile under Lead, S.D.
Who did the honors: clergy, a justice of the peace or just a friend? More and more weddings are performed by someone ordained online. Klaus Vedfelt/DigitalVision via Getty Images

Just about anybody in America can officiate a wedding, thanks to the internet – and one determined preacher

A professor who has researched the Universal Life Church unpacks why many couples now prefer to hand-pick loved ones to perform their ceremonies.
Uber wealthy couples are rather traditional when it comes to who works and who doesn’t. EXTREME-PHOTOGRAPHER/E+ via Getty Images

Most super rich couples have breadwinning husbands and stay-at-home wives, contrasting sharply with everyone else

While most heterosexual couples are dual-earners, super rich couples continue to have gender-traditional arrangements in which the man is the sole breadwinner.
People line up to pay their respects before the funeral of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, on July 12, 2022, at Zojoji Temple in Tokyo. AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko

Shinto religion has long been entangled with Japan’s politics – and Shinzo Abe was associated with many of its groups

A scholar of Japanese religion explains the connections that Japan’s political parties have with several religious groups and how religion is tied in with the legacy of Shinzo Abe.
In this photograph, former President Donald Trump appears on a video screen above members of the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol. Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

Former Oath Keeper reveals racist, antisemitic beliefs of white nationalist group – and their plans to start a civil war

A former Oath Keepers member testified during a congressional hearing that it was time to stop mincing words about the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol: ‘It was an armed revolution.’
Evolutionary psychology may explain why magical thinking is so central to love. Viva Luna Studios via Unsplash

Why does love feel magical? It’s an evolutionary advantage

It’s not logical to believe your relationship is “meant to be.” But believing in destined love may have evolved as a way to keep couples together long enough to reproduce and raise children.

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