The most widely adopted measure for assessing the state of the world?s oceans and fisheries led to inaccurate conclusions in nearly half the ecosystems where it was applied, according to new analysis by an international team. The team was led by a fisheries scientist at the University of Washington, and evolved from a working group organized by the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis.
    The findings appeared in a recent issue of the journal Nature.

New Book Expands Knowledge of the Broadside Genre

Ballads and Broadsides in Britain, 1500-1800 (Ashgate, 2010), a new book edited by Patricia Fumerton, professor of English and director of the campus?s English Broadside Ballad Archive, offers an unprecedented perspective on the development and cultural practice of popular print in early modern Britain.
    A popular form of communication, broadside ballads were set to popular folk tunes and sung on street corners and other public places. Copies of the lyrics ? commonly known as broadsides because they were printed on one side of a single broad sheet of paper ? were distributed by the singers and posted for viewing just about anywhere, including bookstalls, alehouses, and private residences.

Geologists Develop New Timeline for Fossil Record

Beginning roughly 542 million years ago, a profusion of animals with shells and skeletons began to appear in the fossil record. So many life forms appeared during this time that it is often referred to as the ?Cambrian Explosion.?
    UCSB geologists and a team of co-authors have proposed a rethinking of the timeline of these early animal appearances. Their findings are published in a recent issue of the Geological Society of America Bulletin.
    ?We found that, with improved dating and correlation of rock sequences, the short burst of appearances goes away.? said Susannah Porter, associate professor of earth science. ?Instead, appearances of the earliest skeleton-forming animals were drawn out over more than 20 million years.?

Philosopher Examines Concept of Moral Knowledge

How do we know right from wrong? Do we even have moral knowledge? Moral epistemology studies these and related questions about our understanding of virtue and vice.
    In his new book, Moral Epistemology (Routledge, 2010), Aaron Zimmerman argues that our belief in moral knowledge can survive skeptical challenges. He also draws on a rich range of examples, from Plato?s Meno and Dickens?s David Copperfield to Bernard Madoff and Saddam Hussein

Research Collaboration Focuses on Age-Related Macular Degeneration

An international collaboration between UCSB, the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California, and several other research institutions, is bringing together leaders in the fields of stem cell biology, basic science, and ophthalmology to develop a treatment for blindness caused by age-related macular degeneration.
    ?Scientists in the Center for Stem Cell Biology and Engineering and the Center for the Study of Macular Degeneration are excited to provide the basic research that will allow translation of stem cell research to the clinic,? said Dennis Clegg, professor of molecular, cellular, and developmental biology, and co-director of the Center for Stem Cell Biology and Engineering. Both centers are part of the Neuroscience Research Institute.

New Species Named for UCSB Scientists

A new species of worm ?? the Carcinonemertes kurisi?? has been named for Armand Kuris, professor of zoology in the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology. The new species is a tiny, parasitic worm that makes its home in the shallow waters of sandy beaches from Northern California to Baja California. It was named by Patricia S. Sadeghian, a former student of Kuris, in a recent article in the Journal of Natural History.
    Also, a new species of sea slug has been named for Jeff Goddard, project scientist with the Marine Science Institute. He found the new species of nudibranch while working in the tide pools at Carpinteria Reef. Terrence M. Gosliner, an authority on the taxonomy of sea slugs at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, named the new sea slug ? Flabellina goddardi ? after Goddard in a recent online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Communication Scholar Analyzes Organizational Routines

Within any organization, people experience challenges and frustration while trying to accomplish normal activities. Following standard procedures, they often become enmeshed in what Ronald Rice calls ?unusual routines.? In his new book, Organizations and Unusual Routines: A Systems Analysis of Dysfunctional Feedback Processes (Cambridge University Press, 2010), Rice, the Arthur N. Rupe Professor of the Social Effects of Mass Communication, provides a new vocabulary for identifying, understanding, and dealing with this pervasive organizational phenomenon.