In a public-private collaboration, executive producers from MetaTools, Chief Science and Design Officer Kai Krause and Vice President of Business Development Jim Mervis, teamed with students and faculty from the University of California, Santa Barbara in creating Life in the Universe. UCSB art students, under the direction of Victoria Vesna, Associate Professor of Art and Director of the UCSB Electronic Art and Theory (EAT) Lab and Robert Nideffer, research associate, helped design content and organize images to accompany the CD-ROM’s text. A $100,000 grant from MetaTools provided new equipment in the UCSB’s EAT Lab and supported student and faculty efforts on the project.