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.
Bella DePaulo, University of California, Santa Barbara
Single people are often thought of as insecure, self-centered and sad. But one social scientist spent the past 20 years studying them – and found that they're a boon to communities across the country.
Wind turbines require massive structures that are polluting to produce and can harm ecosystems, but these impacts compare favorably with those of fossil alternatives.
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Edgar Hertwich, Yale University; Anders Arvesen, Norwegian University of Science and Technology; Sangwon Suh, University of California, Santa Barbara, and Thomas Gibon, Norwegian University of Science and Technology
No energy source is perfect, but solar and wind have a much lower health and environmental footprint than fossil fuels, a study finds. Biopower, though, is a mixed bag.
Bald eagles are the best-known example of a successful recovery under the Endangered Species Act.
Jerry McFarland/Flickr
Peter Alagona, University of California, Santa Barbara and Kevin C. Brown, University of California, Santa Barbara
Critics say the Endangered Species Act does not work because only about 1 percent of protected species have officially "recovered." Two biologists explain why recovery is so hard to define.
State conservation officials from Florida and Georgia work in 2014 to remove a heavy length of fishing rope from a right whale’s mouth.
FL Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission/Flickr
Matt Burgess, University of California, Santa Barbara and Rob Williams, University of St Andrews
A new US seafood import rule requires supplier countries to control accidental bycatch of whales, seals and other marine mammals – showing that global trade and conservation can reinforce each other.
EPA personnel collect water samples along the Louisiana coast after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
Eric Vance, US EPA/Flickr
President-elect Donald Trump has pledged to decimate the Environmental Protection Agency. But a political scientist predicts that while EPA will face budget cuts, the agency isn't going anywhere.
Why aren’t there as many female tenured professors?
Sarah
Many research universities have adopted 'family-friendly' tenure rules to help women balance family and career. However, men, not women, seem to benefit from having the extra time.
Fields showing little signs of plant emergence at a late stage of the season, indicating a near total crop loss in Zimbabwe.
Chris Funk
A combination of factors – pollution, disease and overfishing – is harming corals but scientists have found clues to effective treatment by studying corals' microbiome.
Soy fields in Brazilian Amazon rainforest.
Frontpage/www.Shutterstock.com
As Brazil struggles through a political and economic crisis, its soybean farmers are thriving. Their growing clout could trigger new deforestation and undercut the nation's climate change pledges.
Des résidents de Porter Ranch brandissent des pancartes demandant l’arrêt de la fuite, le 9 janvier 2015.
Danny Moloshok/Reuters
L’envoyée spéciale pour le changement climatique de l’ONU et ancienne présidente de l’Irlande répond aux questions de six experts de The Conversation sur les négociations en cours à la COP21.
Robinson: ‘Climate change is a threat multiplier.’
James Akena/Reuters
Sarah Thebaud, University of California, Santa Barbara
Women in countries with better access to policies like paid leave and subsidized child care are more likely to start a business oriented toward growth and job creation.
Justin Trudeau displaced Stephen Harper, an avowed friend of the fossil fuel industry, as Canada’s prime minister.
Chris Wattie/Reuters
Two politicians known to oppose action on climate change – Canada's Stephen Harper and Australia's Tony Abbott – have been displaced. What does this say about climate as a voter issue?
The combination of local fishing rights with adjacent marine reserves creates incentives to avoid overfishing and could improve nearshore, small-scale fisheries around the world.
Peter Alagona, University of California, Santa Barbara
The Endangered Species Act may stave off extinction for the Delta smelt in California, but will it help this threatened fish – or any other at-risk species – recover and thrive again?
Dean of the Bren School of Environmental Science & Management and Principal Investigator for the Sustainable Fisheries Group, University of California, Santa Barbara
