HOYO NEGRO , MEXICO
“ Naia ,” a young girl who fell to her death some 13,000 years ago in Mexico ’ s Yucatan Peninsula , is shedding light on life in the Late Pleistocene era . Researchers from UC San Diego ’ s Qualcomm Institute are applying imaging methods that allow for study of her skeleton and the underwater cave site despite its depth , darkness and complexity . Through a process of “ stitching together ” photographs , a digital 3-D model gives clues to her height and weight , and suggests Naia may have given birth months before she died .
Borderlands Bonded
To promote and strengthen ties between students and researchers on both sides of the U . S ./ Mexico border , UC San Diego has joined forces with 13 institutions to form the CaliBaja Education Consortium , led by Olivia Graeve ’ 95 , professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at the Jacobs School of Engineering .
The consortium allows students to conduct research and take classes at UC San Diego and various Baja California institutions . The campuses will also work together to develop curriculums that will leverage the unique benefits of the two cities and countries .
“ This is a great experiment that is going to define the educational opportunities for students in our region , which is our home ,” says Graeve , who grew up in Tijuana and attended UC San Diego . “ We are one ; we are a community ; we have common goals . And we should never lose sight of that .”
— Ioana Patringenaru
ALL OVER THE OCEAN
Scripps Institution of Oceanography is constantly monitoring the world ’ s oceans with the help of Argo , a global array of 3,800 free-drifting floats that measure the temperature , salinity and velocity of the upper ocean . All the data is made publicly available within a few hours of collection , and visualizations are as beautiful as the ocean is large . See the data online at tritonmag . com / argo 34 TRITON | WINTER 2018