Marine scientists at UC Santa Barbara have found that disturbances to giant kelp forests have a major influence on their net primary productivity (NPP) — an indicator of an ecosystem’s health and its ...

Artificial intelligence is becoming a fixture of college life, influencing how students learn, seek advice and navigate the world. As a 2026–27 fellow of the University of California National Center ...

When Thuc-Quyen Nguyen learned she had been selected as UC Santa Barbara’s next Faculty Research Lecturer, she felt what she describes as surprise, happiness and deep honor. The award, established in ...

With CO 2 emissions continuing unabated, an increasing number of policymakers, scientists and environmentalists are considering geoengineering to avert a climate catastrophe. Such interventions could ...

Researchers at UC Santa Barbara and TU Dresden are blurring the lines between robotics and materials, with a proof-of-concept material-like collective of robots with behaviors inspired by biology. Of ...

Carbohydrate is a familiar term. It’s the bagel you had for breakfast, the bread in your sandwich, the slice of cake you’re thinking about sneaking later today. But carbs aren’t only in baked goods, ...

The Breakthrough Prize Foundation today announced physicist David J. Gross, of UC Santa Barbara’s Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, among the winners of the 2026 Breakthrough Prizes, honoring ...

Mantis shrimp are small creatures known for their superlatives. Their eyes have 12 to 16 different color receptors, versus our own three, and can detect the polarization of light. Their punches are ...

UC Santa Barbara physicists John Martinis and Michel Devoret have been awarded the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics. Selected for the honor alongside UC Berkeley physicist and former advisor John Clarke, ...

While Hollywood and Silicon Valley love the limelight, California is an agricultural powerhouse, too. Agricultural products sold in the Golden State totaled $59 billion in 2022. But rising ...

Shifting focus on a visual scene without moving our eyes — think driving, or reading a room for the reaction to your joke — is a behavior known as covert attention. We do it all the time, but little ...

According to long-standing canon in evolutionary biology, natural selection is cruelly selfish, favoring traits that help promote reproductive success. This usually means that the so-called “force” of ...