UC Santa Cruz News

Four Earth-sized planets detected orbiting the nearest sun-like star

Four Earth-sized planets orbit the nearest sun-like star, tau Ceti, which is about 12 light years away and visible to the naked eye, astronomers say.

WiFi signals can measure heart rate

Engineers prove their technique is effective even with the lowest-cost WiFi devices

Human brains are preconfigured with instructions for understanding the world

Assistant Professor of Biomolecular Engineering Tal Sharf's lab used organoids to make fundamental discoveries about human brain development.

Self-driving cars will "cruise" to avoid paying to park

If you think traffic in city centers is bad now, just wait until self-driving cars emerge on the scene, cruising around to avoid paying hefty downtown parking fees.

Researchers run high-performing LLM on the energy needed to power a lightbulb

UC Santa Cruz researchers show that it is possible to eliminate the most computationally expensive element of running large language models, called matrix multiplication, while maintaining performance.

Astronomers make history in a split second with localization of fast radio burst

Comb jellies proven to be the sibling group to all other animals

New research proves comb jellies are a unique lineage or “sibling group” whose ancestors diverged before the common ancestor of all other animals.

The case against plant consciousness

Botanist Lincoln Taiz and colleagues argue against the suggestion that plants have neurobiology or consciousness.