Over the past 150 years, humans have shrunk the West Coast’s wetland habitats, introduced invasive species and exploited animals. This has taken a toll on the region’s only native freshwater turtle—western pond turtles. Today, the San Francisco Zoo helps give these reptiles a fighting chance by raising hatchling western pond turtles until they’re big enough to survive on their own.

People here in Santa Cruz are part of a growing field called community or citizen science. For the region’s amateur fossil collectors, their finds might just help paleontologists figure out what life was like millions of years ago right here on the central coast. A new study examined how many vertebrate specimens collected in Santa Cruz County by amateurs ended up in museums and academic research—and it turns out, it’s a pretty substantial amount.

For years, scientists have sought after the blueprints for human life—the entirety of our DNA—called a genome. Now, a collaborative endeavor co-led by UC Santa Cruz’s Karen Miga finished sequencing an entire human genome. Because of this work, Time Magazine has named her one of the 100 most influential people of 2022.

California’s wildfire season grows worse every year, forcing landowners and institutions to come up with creative ways to prevent fires. At UC Santa Cruz, they’re trying a new approach… goats. Hundreds of hungry goats are at the university right now. And they’re munching on overgrown plants to reduce the amount of fire fuel on campus.

You might be surprised to hear that a rainbow of sponges and corals lives on the ocean floor. And it turns out that a state law designed to protect and monitor fish off of California’s coast also provides safe havens for still and silent creatures.