SLUG REPORT > Botanical tour of historic district to be given by plant experts and historian

Plant experts Angel Guerzon and Suzanne Schettler and historian Frank Perry will be offering a guided botanical tour of the Cowell Lime Works this Saturday, May 5 on the UC Santa Cruz campus. The leisurely one-mile, two-hour walk will be interspersed with snippets of information from resident experts.

“We’ll be examining the district’s garden plants and native vegetation, and learning what they tell us about the historical development of the site,” Perry says.

According to Perry, the lime works supplied lime for the building of San Francisco on the heels of the Gold Rush. Facts like these will be par for the course, along with others like “How big does a Monterey Cypress grow in 145 years?” (This answer, and others, will be provided on the tour.)

SLUG REPORT >  New database built at UCSC allows for massive data storage, allowing for leap in cancer research

A large-scale data repository has just been built at UC Santa Cruz, bringing cancer researchers one step closer to a truly comprehensive biomedical cancer research database.

Funded by the National Cancer Institute, UCSC’s new Cancer Genomics Hub will allow researchers to manage and analyze the large quantities of gathered data necessary for precision treatment of cancer. UCSC bioinformatics expert David Haussler’s team established the hub, which is in an initial “beta” release.

“By providing researchers with comprehensive catalogs of the key genomic changes in many types of cancer, these efforts will support the development of more effective ways to diagnose and treat cancer,” Haussler said in a UCSC press release.

Pinot Noir 2009

Spencer’s Restaurant in Palm Springs is a very popular dining destination—with four-star American cuisine and a “French Pacific Rim” influence. Friends had told us about it, so we headed there for dinner last month when we were staying close by in the California desert for a few days. I took along a bottle of Savannah-Chanelle Pinot Noir 2009 to write about—and because I love to introduce wines from our Santa Cruz Mountains appellation to out-of-town restaurants.

Hilarity and humanity collide at the Santa Cruz Improv Fest

For those with a basic familiarity of improvisational theater, the words “improv” and “comedy” may be so closely related as to be virtually synonymous. Due in large part to the success of the television program Whose Line is it Anyway? and the ComedySportz live improv franchise, the theater genre is commonly associated with short-form gag-sprees, chock full of puns and one-liners.

Clouds Downtown now serves a creative combination of Sunday brunch dishes, as well as three day-long happy hours

Heading downtown for brunch on a Sunday morning has always been a pleasant treat. And now you can enjoy it on Church Street, where Clouds’ Sunday brunch is served with a four-piece jazz ensemble.

Aptos Pizza is now serving weekday lunches. Located on busy Soquel Drive, oaks and redwoods of The Forest of Nisene Marks State Park create a calming view through the windows at the rear of the tiny restaurant. 

I think water pollution is the main issue. And I think we need to address it because in the near future we’re going to be out of clean water, especially since it’s radiated now. Drinking water is going to be a major issue.
Lori Unsworth
Watsonville | Retired Teacher

A Dance Flash Mob, organized by Zumba instructors Angell Estrada and Jillian Chesley, excited the crowd at the Downtown Farmers Market at 4 p.m. on Wednesday, April 25.

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