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UC Santa Barbara
@ucsantabarbara.bsky.social
Official Bluesky of #UCSB 🎓 A top-ranked public university where beauty meets brilliance 💛 ucsb.edu
With two species of endangered river dolphins turning up dead, a team including #UCSB researchers has been documenting the unprecedented high water temps in the Amazon's freshwater lakes.

The extreme droughts there in recent years are a warning: https://ow.ly/Yq3A50XqAlf
Hotter than your average spa: Rising temps in Amazon lakes sound alarm over climate change
A drought in the central Amazon cooked region's lakes. Water reached 104º F in Lake Tefé, killing river dolphins. UCSB scientists contributed to an international study of the causes and consequences.
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November 13, 2025 at 5:01 PM
Traffic & creative freedom, urban sprawl & self-expression.

The UCSB AD&A Museum exhibition "Big Bang Beat L.A." highlights the 1970s L.A. Environmental Communications collective. The photos are a historical record & a meditation on L.A.'s environmental vulnerability: https://ow.ly/yYgW50XotoP
Big Bang Beat L.A.: Environmental Communications and the city as canvas
UC Santa Barbara’s Art, Design & Architecture Museum revisits the visionary 1970s collective Environmental Communications, whose multi-media documentation of Los Angeles reimagined the city as a living ecosystem — and reshaped how we see the built environment today.
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November 12, 2025 at 5:01 PM
A treasure trove of rare and historic American music—including songs by Memphis Minnie, the Carter Family, Blind Willie Johnson, and more—is now freely available to the public thanks to a new collaboration between the UC Santa Barbara Library and Dust-to-Digital Foundation https://ow.ly/J8Bg50Xpuf2
Vast collection of historic American music released via UCSB Library partnership with Dust-to-Digital Foundation
Thousands of rare and uniquely American songs from the Jazz Age and the Great Depression are available for free listening thanks to a partnership between UCSB and the Dust-to-Digital Foundation.
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November 10, 2025 at 4:31 PM
#UCSB has proven it helps students take steps in the right direction 🔝 We're ranked as the No. 19 Best National University for Social Mobility 🏆

Full story: https://ow.ly/pzyy50Xm9XS
November 8, 2025 at 5:00 PM
#UCSB professor Omar Saleh has spent decades studying polymer behavior, conducting experiments to better understand coacervates. He estimates his lab is 1 of 10 labs globally conducting nanoscale measurements of microgel polymers with custom-built machinery 💡

Full story https://ow.ly/GbZf50XmPoL
From charged polymers to life-saving innovations
Materials scientist Omar Saleh’s NSF-funded research explores how charged polymers could power next-generation adhesives and drug delivery systems.
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November 6, 2025 at 8:00 PM
UCSB professor Michael Gurven's new book, "Seven Decades: How We Evolved to Live Longer," examines anatomic and societal aspects of aging. He believes being "old" is less about age than the ability to fend for one’s self and one’s community 🤲

Full story https://ow.ly/KPay50XmMsn
Michael Gurven reframes aging as evolutionary success
By redefining aging as an evolutionary achievement, Gurven challenges a youth-obsessed culture to see the later decades of life as vital to our collective survival
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November 5, 2025 at 5:02 PM
Civil rights lawyer Sherrilyn Ifill hosts a talk this week as part of #UCSB Arts & Lectures' Justice for All initiative.

Ifill has dedicated decades to fighting for justice and challenges audiences to imagine a democracy that fulfills its founding ideals.

Full story: https://ow.ly/Q6Qr50Xm8ZT
Civil rights lawyer Sherrilyn Ifill reimagines democracy in talk for UCSB Arts & Lectures
In “Reimagining a New American Democracy,” Ifill explores themes including the 14th Amendment, the power of civic participation and the essential role of higher education in shaping engaged citizens.
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November 4, 2025 at 5:01 PM
UC Santa Barbara is advancing its efforts to return Native American ancestors and cultural items, with a comprehensive repatriation program and a goal of completing this work responsibly and transparently by 2028: https://ow.ly/vzh650XlUl0
UCSB outlines progress and goals for Native American repatriation
The campus established a dedicated Repatriation Office in 2024 to oversee compliance with federal and state laws and to coordinate closely with Native Nations. The office is charged with summarizing collections, reporting campus holdings to state and federal Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) offices, facilitating consultation and ensuring that tribes have the information they need to guide decisions about their heritage and cultural belongings.
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November 3, 2025 at 10:00 PM
The Halloween witch is one of the most enduring images in Western pop culture. But #UCSB's Jane Ward argues that the fear she represents is much deeper 🧙

In the book "The Witch Studies Reader," Ward and co-author Soma Chaudhuri present feminist witch studies: https://ow.ly/M0Q350XiIUu
How feminist witch studies redefine magic and power
Witchcraft has long been dismissed as superstition or spectacle — but a new interdisciplinary field reframes it as feminist resistance. In The Witch Studies Reader (Duke University Press, 2025), scholars Jane Ward and Soma Chaudhuri introduce feminist witch studies, exploring how witchcraft functions as a site of power, persecution and decolonial critique. Centering voices from the Global South, the book challenges dominant narratives and examines how witches — real and imagined — confront systems of gendered and colonial control.
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October 31, 2025 at 4:02 PM
Happy Halloween from #UCSB 🎃
October 31, 2025 at 2:00 AM
#UCSB researchers have demonstrated a new dimension for spin qubits in diamond 💎 This breakthrough enables the realization of a metrological quantum advantage in the solid state, marking an important step toward the next generation of quantum technologies: https://ow.ly/aNKN50XjXoZ
A new dimension for spin qubits in diamond
In groundbreaking work with physicist Ania Jayich, newly minted Ph.D. Lillian Hughes demonstrates how two-dimensional arrays of spin qubits in diamond can be entangled to achieve a metrological quantum advantage — a key advance toward next-generation quantum technologies.
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October 30, 2025 at 4:02 PM
National Internet Day throwback to the dawn of the Internet, Oct. 29, 1969: #UCSB was one of the first four nodes of the original ARPANET, along with UCLA, Stanford, and University of Utah.

Learn more about world-changing UC innovations: https://ow.ly/QcCa50XjPxX
October 29, 2025 at 3:40 PM
As coal power continues its decline in the U.S., 100+ plants still have no retirement plans—which could derail national climate goals. A new #UCSB study shows how targeted, data-driven approaches could help accelerate the transition: https://ow.ly/ZhaR50Xix1m
How to retire coal, smarter and faster
UCSB researchers develop data-driven strategies to retire U.S. coal plants smarter and faster, accelerating the clean energy transition.
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October 28, 2025 at 4:02 PM
Reposted by UC Santa Barbara
Every year, TIME magazine highlights inventions that change how we live, work, play and think about what's possible. 13 of them have UC ties. www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/uc-facu...
October 23, 2025 at 6:13 PM
#UCSB faculty and alumni are behind three of TIME's Best Inventions of 2025.

From the first topological quantum chip, to compostable retail bags, to an app showing how brains change during pregnancy, #UCSB made its mark 💡

Full story: https://ow.ly/GuT750XhHXj #UniversityOfCalifornia
October 27, 2025 at 4:01 PM
Texts, emails, social media pings—and repeat. In "Digital Exhaustion: Simple Rules for Reclaiming Your Life" #UCSB's Paul Leonardi draws on decades of research to examine why our digital life is so overwhelming and what we can do to make our tools work for us.

Full story: https://ow.ly/8Aaf50XgwTx
In ‘Digital Exhaustion,’ Paul Leonardi shares how to make technology work for you
The technology management professor draws on 20 years of research to examine why our digital life is so overwhelming — and elucidate some strategies to help us stem that stress.
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October 25, 2025 at 4:01 PM
In a one-week "bioblitz," #UCSB researchers and students worked to collect and classify sea floor creatures—worms, mollusks, sponges, sea stars and others—in partnership with the Smithsonian Institution.

Full story: https://ow.ly/QarQ50XguoU
Bioblitz reveals hidden biodiversity in the Santa Barbara Channel
UCSB researchers welcome visiting taxonomists for a seafloor census in the Santa Barbara Channel
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October 24, 2025 at 4:05 PM
#UCSB research has a direct impact on your life through advancements in health, disaster management strategies & much more 🧬

From the local level to the global stage, research conducted on our campus is helping improve the present & secure the future 👉 https://ow.ly/HRZB50XgZUI
October 23, 2025 at 4:03 PM
Artist and #UCSB lecturer Kim Garcia explores how art can hold history. Her LA show "Tender Material" (through Nov. 8) layers resin and image to preserve family and culture.

Full story: https://ow.ly/mvMI50XfVCU
How artistic research preserves cultural memory and care
Artist Kim Garcia’s new LA show connects family stories with Philippine history.
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October 22, 2025 at 4:02 PM
Reposted by UC Santa Barbara
Meanwhile, on campus @ucsantabarbara.bsky.social
October 20, 2025 at 9:05 PM
We're number 1 🏆 #UCSB’s mix of ocean views, teamwork and innovation has again made it Santa Barbara County’s *Best Place to Work* in the Santa Barbara Independent's annual readers poll.

It’s the ninth straight year the campus has claimed the honor 🎉 https://ow.ly/otko50Xeq3f
October 20, 2025 at 5:00 PM
Scholars and researchers coming up through the #UCSB Bren School of Environmental Science & Management are presenting recent joint projects in their respective fields—from marine biology and agricultural practices to social justice and pollution reduction.

Full story: https://ow.ly/KPWw50XecEE
Bren School leadership program highlights mentorship and student research
Undergrad/graduate-student teams will present their research conducted this summer during the Bren Environmental Leadership fellowship program
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October 17, 2025 at 9:00 PM
With a new study, #UCSB archaeologist Douglas Kennett and collaborators show how exploring the rise and fall of Classic Maya cities can help us better understand and manage contemporary and future urban evolution.

Full story: https://ow.ly/ZXr650XcGct
Why Classic Maya cities rose and fell
New study reveals the forces that built and collapsed ancient urban centers — and how they echo in today’s urban challenges
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October 17, 2025 at 4:02 PM
The campus crowd when you win the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics 🏆 #UCSB
October 16, 2025 at 8:26 PM
Set against the backdrop of the 1960s and 1970s and the rise of the Latin American Boom, "Unfaithful: A Translator’s Memoir" by #UCSB's Suzanne Jill Levine explores how translation both carries and transforms meaning across languages 📖

Full story: https://ow.ly/8YVq50XaIUE

New memoir explores the art of translation and Latin American literature
A new book, “Unfaithful: A Translator’s Memoir” (Bloomsbury, 2025) by UC Santa Barbara’s Suzanne Jill Levine, examines this moment of cultural exchange while reflecting on her own experiences as a translator during that era.
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October 16, 2025 at 4:01 PM