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UCSC psychology professor finds national narratives in the Middle East overwhelm best intentions for understanding.

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"Inventing the Future of Games," a day-long symposium in Silicon Valley sponsored by the UC Santa Cruz Center for Games and Playable Media, will gather some of the brightest minds of academia and industry to explore the possibilities of the next decade of gaming innovation and technology.

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The seventh and last international centennial event celebrating the birth of renowned American writer and composer Paul Bowles will take place at UC Santa Cruz, Feb. 4–6. Conceived by a UCSC music lecturer and inheritor of Bowles' musical estate, the 3-day event will include rare music, film, art, and academic conference.

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A young Hawaiian monk seal is providing researchers at UC Santa Cruz a rare opportunity to study the physiology of this critically endangered species.

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In the most comprehensive study of animal evolution ever attempted, an international consortium of scientists plans to assemble a genomic zoo--a collection of DNA sequences for 10,000 vertebrate species, approximately one for every vertebrate genus.

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One of the top physics students in Mexico is spending this summer studying astrophysics at UC Santa Cruz as the first winner of the John Bahcall Award, established by UCSC astrophysicist Enrico Ramirez-Ruiz to honor his mentor.

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A Cancer Genomics Browser developed by researchers at UC Santa Cruz provides a new way to visualize and analyze data from studies aimed at improving cancer treatment by unraveling the complex genetic roots of the disease.

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Last winter, government agencies killed one third of Yellowstone National Park's bison herd due to concerns about the possible spread of a livestock disease to cattle that graze in areas around the park. Such drastic measures may be unnecessary, however, according to researchers who have assessed the risk of disease transmission from Yellowstone bison to cattle.

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Students at UC Santa Cruz majoring in computer game design--an interdisciplinary program that provides a rigorous background in the technical, artistic, and narrative elements of creating interactive computer games--are the lucky beneficiaries of a settlement reached in a class action lawsuit involving video gaming employees at Sony.

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From polling and party politics to taxes and global warming, the following experts at the University of California, Santa Cruz, are available to discuss the hot topics this election season.

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Wildlife biologist Glenn Stewart is both pleased and amused at the huge popularity of the webcams he has set up to allow people to watch peregrine falcons in action.

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What kind of injury is an insult? What is its role in social and legal life? In his new book, Sticks and Stones: The Philosophy of Insults, Humanities Professor Jerome Neu examines how notions of insult shape our beliefs about character, honor, free speech, social interaction, and law.

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Countries around the world are embracing the jury system in a wave of judicial reform that is democratizing jurisprudence in nations as diverse as South Korea, Mexico, and Japan, according to UC Santa Cruz jury expert Hiroshi Fukurai.

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Like a marketer's dream come true, Americans have responded to environmental hazards by shopping, as if buying bottled water and organic vegetables will protect them and their loved ones, but "buying green" offers little real defense, says sociologist Andrew Szasz.

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A massive project to map a distant region of the Universe in multiple wavelengths--from x-rays through ultraviolet, visible, infrared, and radio waves--is releasing its data this week to both fellow scientists and the general public. It is the first data release from the AEGIS survey and the first release of multiwavelength data to take advantage of the capabilities of Google Sky.

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The online reference site Wikipedia enjoys immense popularity despite nagging doubts about the reliability of entries written by its all-volunteer team. A new program developed at the University of California, Santa Cruz, aims to help with the problem by color-coding an entry's individual phrases based on contributors' past performance.

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A team of researchers has documented major changes in the behavior, ecology, and geographic range of the northern fur seal over the past 1,500 years using a combination of techniques from archaeology, biochemistry, and ecology. Among their findings is evidence of reproductive behavior in the past that is not seen in modern populations of northern fur seals.

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The University of California, Santa Cruz, received $157,000 from the Sunlight Foundation to support an online, open-source archive of U.S. House and Senate proceedings created by two graduate students--part of grants totaling $267,000 the foundation has distributed to advance transparency and openness in Congress.

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HP has joined UC Santa Cruz and NASA in a new venture focused on developing revolutionary science breakthroughs in the coming decades. As the first industry affiliate of the Bio-Info-Nano Research and Development Institute (BIN-RDI), a collaborative venture led by UCSC at its Silicon Valley Center, HP will play a key role in establishing the institute's policies and priorities.

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Tattooing"¦piercing"¦anorexia"¦self-cutting"¦plastic surgery"¦body-building"¦the use of life extension technologies: A new book coedited by UC Santa Cruz professors explores our fascination with altering our bodies, offering a fresh perspective on the widespread and dramatic changes that have taken place over the past two decades in attitudes about the body.

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Graduate students in history at UC Santa Cruz have developed a new globalized model curriculum for college-level survey courses in U.S. history. Under the direction of UC Santa Cruz history professor and UC Presidential Chair Edmund Burke III, four UCSC graduate students recently introduced the new curriculum through a panel titled "Globalizing the U.S. History Survey" presented at the 15th annual summer conference of the World History Association in Long Beach.

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Quantum mechanics, one of the most successful theories in all of science, says some strange things about the fundamental nature of the world. In a new book, Quantum Enigma: Physics Encounters Consciousness, physicists Bruce Rosenblum and Fred Kuttner present a clear exposition and entertaining discussion of the baffling mysteries of quantum physics.

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The University of California, Santa Cruz, has approved a new major in computer game design, the first of its kind in the UC system. The new major, leading to a B.S. degree, provides students with a rigorous background in the technical, artistic, and narrative elements of creating interactive computer games.

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In his new book, Reforming Punishment: Psychological Limits to the Pains of Imprisonment, professor Craig Haney critiques the flawed prison policies that have dominated U.S. prisons for much of the last 30 years and points the way to systemic reform.

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Researchers are enlisting seals, sea lions, and other top predators to serve as ocean sensors, outfitting them with electronic tags that send back detailed reports on oceanographic conditions. The data are proving useful information about the behavior of the animals and their environments.

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The Department of Defense has removed mention of a campus demonstration at the University of California, Santa Cruz, from the TALON database, following recent efforts by UCSC Chancellor Denice D. Denton and members of California's congressional delegation.

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Few people are aware that during the Civil War, Confederate leaders put forth a proposal to arm slaves to fight against the Union in exchange for their freedom. In his new book UC Santa Cruz history professor Bruce Levine examines this startling and provocative piece of American history.

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History professor's research questions common assumption of irresolvable conflict between Christians, Muslims, and Jews.

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How can otherwise normal, moral people participate in a process designed to take the life of another? Noted death penalty researcher Craig Haney finds the answer in a system that disengages those charged with deciding the fate of defendants.

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UC Santa Cruz will present a three-day conference exploring our culture's fascination with body modifications that range from tattooing, piercing, and cutting, to anorexia, plastic surgery, organ transplants, and life-extension technologies.

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Nationally and internationally recognized as the premier center for Dickens studies in the world and a leading site for research on 19th-century British culture -- the Dickens project at UC Santa Cruz celebrates its 25th anniversary at its annual summer "Dickens Universe" among the redwoods.

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Lubricious Transfer -- an ambitious dance experiment in live, transcontinental arts collaboration using the Internet to broadcast interactive, real-time dance performance simultaneously to audiences at UCSC and NYU. A new genre of art pushing the boundaries of the dance discipline.

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The highly regarded New Teacher Center at the University of California, Santa Cruz, has been awarded a $1.5 million contract to participate in the federal government's first major evaluation of programs that school districts offer novice teachers.

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Age-related differences appear to affect the way adults make and remember their choices in life, suggesting that older adults "accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative in their memories."

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Democracy, patriotism, family...these are words spoken with fervor these days, but what do they really mean? Shock and Awe: War on Words, explores the political meaning of words through essays, photographs, poems, and drawings by nearly 80 scholars, artists, and poets from UC Santa Cruz and around the world.

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With the presidential campaign entering its final weeks, the following experts at the University of California, Santa Cruz, are available for media interviews.

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The roots of some of today's most stubborn political obstacles lie in the history of the U.S. Senate, says political scientist Daniel Wirls of UC Santa Cruz, author of the new book, The Invention of the United States Senate.

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Sociologist Marcia Millman explores the complicated sister relationship and the familial forces that shape it in a new book.

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Two foundations established by members of the Grateful Dead have contributed funds to help preserve the archive of the late composer Lou Harrison at UC Santa Cruz.

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In the first comparative study of marijuana use in the Netherlands and the United States, researchers have found no evidence that decriminalization of marijuana leads to increased drug use.

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Thirty years after the birth of organic agriculture in California, the industry looks more than ever like the agribusiness model it set out to oppose, but an analysis suggests subsidies could restore the movement as a force for environmental and social change.

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UC Santa Cruz film professor Shelley Stamp has been named one of only two 2003 Academy Film Scholars by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The youngest scholar and second woman ever granted such an award, she will receive $25,000 to complete a book about silent film director Lois Weber.

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Mandating racially mixed juries would help ensure fair trials by discouraging race-based prosecutions, says a sociologist who found strong historical precedent in England and the United States for requiring diversity among jurors.

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Renowned science fiction writer Robert Heinlein's literary estate donated to UC Santa Cruz archive. New UC Santa Cruz Heinlein Scholar chosen to write authorized biography of visionary author.

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Whitewashing Race: The Myth of a Color-Blind Society shows the cumulative effects of inequality on blacks and the long-term positive effects of institutional discrimination on whites. It provides a compelling analysis of the institutional roots of racial disparity in the U.S.

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New collection of Paul Bowles' music criticism edited by scholar and inheritor of famed author's musical estate..

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The Cultural Association of Bengal honored a UC Santa Cruz history professor with a Distinguished Service Award for his work to preserve classic Bengali films.

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For the past three decades, women have been told that they can have it all...But a new book, coauthored by UC Santa Cruz lecturer Peggy Downes Baskin, reveals that the lives of successful female executives contradict this advice.

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UC Santa Cruz to present a major conference -- "Rethinking Anti-Semitism:The Holocaust and the Contemporary World," with prominent scholars from around the globe. Dr. Yehuda Bauer, one of the world's premier historians of the Holocaust, will be a featured guest speaker.

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On April 1, the U.S. Supreme Court hears arguments on two affirmative action cases involving the University of Michigan. The following experts are available to help journalists with coverage of the case.