February 14, 2019
New Director Assumes Helm of Kavli ENSI: Peidong Yang to direct the Kavli Energy NanoScience Institute
Peidong Yang assumes the role of Director of the Kavli Energy NanoScience Institute (ENSI).
February 14, 2019
Greener Days Ahead for Carbon Fuels
Researchers discover copper has potential as a catalyst for turning carbon dioxide into sustainable chemicals and fuels without any wasteful byproducts, creating a green alternative to present-day chemical manufacturing
February 14, 2019
Writing slavery back into American business history
Caitlin Rosenthal, an assistant professor of history at UC Berkeley, has brought history into fresh focus with her new book, Accounting for Slavery: Masters and Management, which examines how white owners of enslaved black people were early innovators of many business practices and terms we use today.
February 11, 2019
U.S. patent office indicates it will issue third CRISPR patent to UC
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has issued a notice of allowance for a University of California patent application covering systems and methods for using single molecule guide RNAs that, when combined with the Cas9 protein, create more efficient and effective ways for scientists to target and edit genes.
February 11, 2019
Literally Switching Strategies to Handle the Internet Data Flood
Cloud applications and the ever-increasing demand by large enterprises to transmit and analyze “big data” are stretching the capacity of even the largest data center servers. A new optical, or photonic, switch capable of record-breaking speed is an alternative to the traditional switch bottleneck.
February 7, 2019
Uranus and Neptune are more interesting than we thought, new images show
NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has snapped the latest weather pictures of our solar system’s frigid outer planets, and UC Berkeley astronomers have jumped in to interpret them.
February 4, 2019
Gasp! First audio map of oohs, aahs and uh-ohs spans 24 emotions
Ooh, surprise! Those spontaneous sounds we make to express everything from elation (woohoo) to embarrassment (oops) say a lot more about what we’re feeling than previously understood, according to new UC Berkeley research.
February 4, 2019
Scientists find new and smaller CRISPR gene editor: CasX
In a mere seven years, Cas9 has shown itself to be a formidable gene editor, employed in humans, plants, animals and bacteria to quickly and accurately cut and splice DNA, transforming biology and opening new avenues for treating disease.
But a new kid on the block, CasX, may give Cas9 a run for its money.
January 31, 2019
New 3D printer uses rays of light to shape objects, transform product design
A new 3D printer uses light to transform gooey liquids into complex solid objects in only a matter of minutes.
January 30, 2019
Discovery could help improve cystic fibrosis treatment
Researchers exploring the effects of a long-standing treatment for cystic fibrosis have discovered a potential new target for drugs to treat the disease, which has no cure and typically cuts decades off the lives of patients.
January 29, 2019
Whopping big viruses prey on human gut bacteria
Viruses plague bacteria just as viruses like influenza plague humans.
Some of the largest of these so-called bacteriophages have now been found in the human gut, where they periodically devastate bacteria just as seasonal outbreaks of flu lay humans low, according to a new study led by UC Berkeley scientists.
January 29, 2019
New Cannabis Research Center to explore environmental, social impacts of legalization
UC Berkeley’s new Cannabis Research Center, announced today by a multidisciplinary team of faculty, will explore how cannabis production impacts the environment and society, and how these impacts will evolve under new regulations set in place by legalization.
January 28, 2019
Sleep loss heightens pain sensitivity, dulls brain’s painkilling response
When we’re in pain, we have a hard time sleeping. But how does poor sleep affect pain? For the first time, UC Berkeley scientists have answered that question by identifying neural glitches in the sleep-deprived brain that can intensify and prolong the agony of sickness and injury.
January 22, 2019
Prior dengue infection could protect children from Zika symptoms
Prior infection with the dengue virus could protect children from the symptoms of Zika, finds a new study led by researchers at UC Berkeley and the University of Michigan.
January 21, 2019
Mouse studies question ‘inhibition’ theory of autism
A detailed study of four mouse models of autism challenges the most common assumption about what goes wrong in brain circuits to cause disease symptoms.
January 18, 2019
Robert Alter sets a new literary tone with his translation of the Hebrew Bible
Over the last 24 years, Robert Alter has balanced his work on the modern novel with time spent translating the Old Testament in a way that strikes him as “rhythmic.”
January 17, 2019
David Zilberman awarded Wolf Prize in Agriculture
David Zilberman, a professor of agricultural and resource economics at UC Berkeley, has been awarded the 2019 Wolf Prize in Agriculture in recognition of his work developing economic models for fundamental problems in agriculture, economics, and policy.
January 17, 2019
Thanks to rapid, 3D imaging, anyone can tour the fly brain
A new fly-through of the fly brain allows anyone to whizz past neurons and visit any of the 40 million synapses where neurons touch neuron. It’s a super-resolution view of the complex network connections in the insect’s brain that underlie behaviors ranging from feeding to mating.
January 17, 2019
Saturn hasn’t always had rings
One of the last acts of NASA’s Cassini spacecraft before its death plunge into Saturn’s hydrogen and helium atmosphere was to coast between the planet and its rings and let them tug it around, essentially acting as a gravity probe.
January 16, 2019
Professor John Hartwig awarded the 2019 Wolf Prize in Chemistry
John F. Hartwig from University of California at Berkeley and Stephen L. Buchwald from MIT, awarded the 2019 Wolf Prize for Chemistry for the development of efficient transition-metal catalysts that have revolutionized drug manufacturing, leading to a breakthrough in molecule and synthetics design.
January 16, 2019
‘Ambidextrous’ robots can learn to pick up anything
From spoons to stuffed animals, humans learn early in life how to pick up objects that have a variety of shapes, textures and sizes. A new machine-learning algorithm developed by engineers at UC Berkeley can teach robots to grasp and carry items with similar dexterity.
January 10, 2019
Who benefits from the solar energy revolution?
Not everyone is benefiting equally from the availability of new solar energy technologies, a new study by researchers at UC Berkeley and Tufts University shows.
January 10, 2019
Recorded sounds that plagued U.S. diplomats in Cuba just crickets hard at work
UC Berkeley integrative biology Ph.D. student Alexander Stubbs and colleague determined that a mysterious noise reported by U.S. diplomats stationed in Cuba plagued by resulting hearing loss and other medical symptoms was not from sonic attacks as feared, but was produced by the Indies short-tailed cricket (Anurogryllus celerinictus).
January 10, 2019
Giving Cas9 an ‘on’ switch for better control of CRISPR gene editing
UC Berkeley researchers have now made CRISPR-Cas9 even more versatile by giving it an “on” switch, allowing users to keep the Cas9 gene editor turned off in all cells except its designated target.
January 10, 2019
Oceans are warming even faster than previously thought
Heat trapped by greenhouse gases is raising ocean temperatures faster than previously thought; further evidence that earlier claims of a slowdown or “hiatus” in global warming over the past 15 years were unfounded.
January 9, 2019
Drug sponge could minimize side effects of cancer treatment
With the help of sponges inserted in the bloodstream to absorb excess drugs, doctors are hoping to prevent the dangerous side effects of toxic chemotherapy agents or even deliver higher doses to knock back tumors, like liver cancer, that don’t respond to more benign treatments.
January 9, 2019
Minority Ph.D. students in STEM fare better with clear expectations, acceptance
Women and underrepresented minorities in STEM fields are more likely to advance professionally, publish more research and secure postdoctoral and faculty positions if their institutional culture is welcoming and sets clear expectations, according to a study of hundreds of Ph.D. students at four top-tier California research universities.
January 8, 2019
Teachers fare better with existing pensions than 401(k)s, study shows
For the vast majority of teachers, existing pensions provide a higher, more secure retirement income than a cost-equivalent 401(k)-style plan. And pensions keep teachers in classrooms, according to a new study from UC Berkeley and the National Institute on Retirement Security.
January 7, 2019
Efforts to lift children and families could fit California’s budget, new study says
Awarding parents more time with newborns and easing access to preschool could fit within Gov. Gavin Newsom’s first state budget, according to UC Berkeley researchers.
January 2, 2019
New year brings accolades to history department
A “bumper crop” of prestigious awards, prizes and honors will be presented Wednesday, Jan. 3 in Chicago to UC Berkeley faculty members by the American Historical Association, the nation’s most important professional association for historians.
December 31, 2018
Wireless ‘pacemaker for the brain’ could be new standard treatment for neurological disorders
A new neurostimulator developed by engineers at UC Berkeley can listen to and stimulate electric current in the brain at the same time, potentially delivering fine-tuned treatments to patients with diseases like epilepsy and Parkinson’s. The device, named the WAND, works like a “pacemaker for the brain,” monitoring the brain’s electrical activity and delivering electrical stimulation if it detects something amiss.
December 21, 2018
Advancement of artificial intelligence opens health data privacy to attack
Advances in artificial intelligence have created new threats to the privacy of health data. A new UC Berkeley study suggests current laws and regulations are nowhere near sufficient to keep an individual’s health status private in the face of AI development.
December 13, 2018
Evidence supporting EPA’s obligation to regulate greenhouse gases stronger than ever
Sixteen prominent climate scientists argue that there is more reason than ever for the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate greenhouse gases, at the same time some politicians are pushing the EPA to reverse its 2009 decision to do so.
December 13, 2018
Researchers use jiggly Jell-O to make powerful new hydrogen fuel catalyst
A cheap and effective new catalyst developed by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, can generate hydrogen fuel from water just as efficiently as platinum, currently the best — but also most expensive — water-splitting catalyst out there.
December 10, 2018
Social interactions among gut microbes shape our lives
When it comes to the gut, it’s not which microbes you have but how they interact that appears to affect health. This insight comes from a recent study of fruit fly gut microbes that explored the puzzling results of a UC Berkeley study from 91 years ago.
December 10, 2018
Dopamine’s yin-yang personality: It’s an upper and a downer
For decades, psychologists have viewed the neurotransmitter dopamine as a double-edged sword: released in the brain as a reward to train us to seek out pleasurable experiences, but also a “drug” the constant pursuit of which leads to addiction.
December 6, 2018
Acrobatic geckos can even race on water’s surface
Geckos are renowned for their acrobatic feats on land and in the air, but a new discovery that they can also run on water puts them in the superhero category, says a University of California, Berkeley, biologist.
December 3, 2018
Hang in there. As couples age, humor replaces bickering
Honeymoon long over? Hang in there. A new UC Berkeley study shows those prickly disagreements that can mark the early and middle years of marriage mellow with age as conflicts give way to humor and acceptance.
December 3, 2018
Prenatal exposure to chemicals in personal care products may speed puberty in girls
Girls exposed to chemicals commonly found in toothpaste, makeup, soap and other personal care products before birth may hit puberty earlier, according to a new longitudinal study led by researchers at UC Berkeley.
December 3, 2018
New quantum materials could take computers beyond the semiconductor era
Researchers from Intel Corp. and UC Berkeley are looking beyond current transistor technology and preparing the way for a new type of memory and logic circuit that could someday be in every computer on the planet.
November 28, 2018
Fire + water: Restoring natural fire to California’s mountains
Frequent, moderate-intensity burns in California forests don’t just reduce the risk of catastrophic fire. They also serve an ecological role by promoting biodiversity and the regeneration of fire-adapted native plants.
November 27, 2018
Three faculty members elected AAAS fellows
Three senior UC Berkeley faculty members have been elected fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the nation’s largest scientific organization: Allen Goldstein, Sung-Hou Kim and Katherine Yelick.
November 27, 2018
Study: State healthcare gains will fade without increased effort
Roughly 12 percent of Californians could be without health insurance by 2020 if California fails to enact a new state healthcare mandate, expand coverage to low-income Californians or use government money to make healthcare more affordable.
November 21, 2018
What magnetic fields can tell us about life on other planets
Every school kid knows that Earth has a magnetic field – it’s what makes compasses align north-south and lets us navigate the oceans. It also protects the atmosphere, and thus life, from the sun’s powerful wind. But what about other Earth-like planets in the galaxy? Do they also have magnetic fields to protect emerging life? A new analysis say they do have a magnetic field, but one generated in a totally novel way.
November 19, 2018
To predict the future, the brain has two clocks
That moment when you step on the gas pedal a split second before the light changes, or when you tap your toes even before the first piano note of Camila Cabello’s “Havana” is struck. That’s anticipatory timing. New research shows the neural networks supporting each of these timekeepers are split between two different parts of the brain.
November 19, 2018
As climate and land-use change accelerate, so must efforts to preserve state’s plants
As the IPCC warns that we have only 12 years to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by nearly half or risk significantly greater impacts from climate change, UC Berkeley scientists are charting the best course to save California’s native plants from these human threats.
November 18, 2018
Tracking down a star that disappeared 65 million years ago
Astronomers may finally have tracked down the type of star that explodes with a distinctive but unusual signature: They show no evidence of hydrogen and helium, by far the most abundant elements in the universe.
November 16, 2018
Freeze-frame microscopy captures molecule’s ‘lock-and-load’ on DNA
Pushing the limits of cryo-electron microscopy, University of California, Berkeley, scientists have captured freeze-frames of the changing shape of a huge molecule, one of the body’s key molecular machines, as it locks onto DNA and loads the machinery for reading the genetic code.
November 15, 2018
Playing high school football changes the teenage brain
A single season of high school football may be enough to cause microscopic changes in the structure of the brain, according to a new study by researchers at UC Berkeley, Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
November 13, 2018
Mortgage algorithms perpetuate racial bias in lending, study finds
Both online and face-to-face mortgage lenders charge higher interest rates to black and Latino borrowers, costing those homebuyers up to half a billion dollars more in interest every year than white borrowers with comparable credit scores.
November 13, 2018
Rare fossil bird deepens mystery of avian extinctions
During the late Cretaceous period, more than 65 million years ago, hundreds of different species of birds flitted around the dinosaurs and through the forests as abundantly as they flit about our woods and fields today. But after the cataclysm that wiped out most of the dinosaurs, only one group of birds remained: the ancestors of the birds we see today. Why did only one family survive the mass extinction?
November 8, 2018
To get students on financial aid, tell them they belong in college
Telling low-income California high school students that they “belong” in college makes them more more likely to apply for the financial aid needed to attend college.
November 7, 2018
Skin-like sensor maps blood-oxygen levels anywhere in the body
A new flexible sensor developed by engineers at UC Berkeley can map blood-oxygen levels over large areas of skin, tissue and organs, potentially giving doctors a new way to monitor healing wounds in real time.
November 6, 2018
Chronically anxious? Deep sleep may take the edge off
Extreme angst is on the rise nationally and globally, especially among teens and millennials. Among other factors, preliminary findings from UC Berkeley sleep researchers point to a chronic lack of deep restorative sleep.
November 2, 2018
Turning cars into robot traffic managers
Self-driving cars may one day do more than just get us from point A to point B. By adjusting their speed and position while they merge they could also help reduce the bottlenecks and random slowdowns on busy thoroughfares like the Bay Bridge, getting us where we’re going faster and more efficiently than if we all drove ourselves.
October 31, 2018
Research initiative launched on health in working families
A new research hub based at UC Berkeley’s Institute for Research on Labor and Employment (IRLE) and the Institute for Women’s Policy Research in Washington, D.C., will explore the health effects of income and workplace policies.
October 30, 2018
Patent awarded for DNA-targeting complex at heart of CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing
The University of California announced today that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has granted U.S. Patent Number 10,113,167, covering unique RNA guides that, when combined with the Cas9 protein, are effective at homing in on and editing genes.
October 30, 2018
Popular meal-kit companies may be creating low-wage, dead-end jobs, study finds
Meal kits make cooking easier for millions of busy families and time-starved professionals. But a new study suggests that the workers filling boxes with pre-portioned ingredients and recipe cards are struggling with low wages, unaffordable benefits, unpredictable schedules, inconsistent wage increase policies, risk of injuries and recurrent problems with timely payment.
October 29, 2018
Thermal ‘earmuffs’ protect cell phone batteries from extreme temperatures
New research may soon make it more practical to use battery-powered vehicles and devices in extreme temperatures.
October 29, 2018
Berkeley computer theorists show path to verifying that quantum beats classical
As multiple research groups around the world race to build a scalable quantum computer questions remain about how the achievement of quantum supremacy will be verified.
October 25, 2018
CRISPR opens door to new type of medicine: ‘genome surgery’
UC San Francisco doctors working closely with UC Berkeley scientists plan to edit genomes to correct rare genetic mutations and slow or halt progression of their diseases. Within a few years we may see the first patients benefiting from CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing.
October 23, 2018
Lion conservation efforts severely underfunded, study shows
Lion conservation is at a tipping point. After dropping 43 percent over the past two decades – to about 20,000 – the populations of these big cats are in decline, but could still bounce back with proper protections.
October 19, 2018
New Packard Fellow leverages time crystals to improve quantum measurement
Two years ago, Norman Yao made a big splash by showing physicists how to create a unique material — a time crystal — that reimagines the idea of flashy diamonds and emeralds. That breakthrough helped Yao garner a fellowship from the Packard Foundation.
October 18, 2018
Smallest life forms have smallest working CRISPR system
An ancient group of microbes that contains some of the smallest life forms on Earth also has the smallest CRISPR gene-editing machinery discovered to date.
October 18, 2018
Bring the wild back into farmlands to protect diversity, researchers say
Retaining a bit of the wild in our working lands – including farmland, rangeland and forests – may be key to preserving biodiversity in the face of climate change.
October 18, 2018
Doudna receives Medal of Honor from American Cancer Society
The American Cancer Society will bestow its highest honor, the Medal of Honor, on Jennifer Doudna and four others. The medal is awarded to distinguished individuals who have made valuable contributions in the fight against cancer through basic research, clinical research and cancer control.
October 18, 2018
To track how students ace the LSAT, watch their eyes
Previous research has found that training for law school admission exams boosted brain connections that sharpen reasoning skills. Today, they’ve taken a major step closer to understanding how practicing the LSAT makes students smarter. They’re watching their eyes.
October 17, 2018
National Academy of Medicine elects three faculty members to its ranks
Hector Rodriguez, John Kuriyan and Barbara Meyer are newly elected members of the National Academy of Medicine.
October 15, 2018
Solar power could electrify sub-Saharan Africa
Solar energy could be the key to providing low-cost, highly reliable energy to the roughly 600 million people in sub-Saharan Africa who currently live without power.
October 15, 2018
New test rapidly identifies antibiotic-resistant ‘superbugs’
The technique could help doctors prescribe the right antibiotics fast.
October 9, 2018
Randy Katz: The 2018 Nobel Prizes and use-inspired research
Vice Chancellor Randy Katz writes about the 2018 recipients of the Nobel Prize with deep roots to UC Berkeley. Jim Allison, honored with the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, performed his award-winning research as director of Berkeley’s Cancer Research Laboratory. Frances Arnold, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, conducted her doctoral work here under the guidance of Professor Emeritus Harvey Blanch. And Paul Romer, a professor at Berkeley in the 1990s, won the Nobel Prize in Economics.
October 9, 2018
Xu, Titov receive million-dollar New Innovator awards
Two young faculty members — assistant professors Ke Xu of chemistry and Denis Titov of molecular and cell biology — were among 89 recipients of “high-risk, high-reward” grants announced last week by the National Institutes of Health.
October 8, 2018
Earthquake early warning milestone: ShakeAlert rolled out to entire Bay Area
UC Berkeley partners with ShakeAlert, the United States Geological Survey Earthquake Early Warning System to run first test drill on BART trains.
October 8, 2018
Clean Water Act dramatically cut pollution in U.S. waterways
The 1972 Clean Water Act has driven significant improvements in U.S. water quality, according to the first comprehensive study of water pollution over the past several decades, by researchers at UC Berkeley and Iowa State University.
October 5, 2018
Harvesting solar fuels through a bacterium’s unusual appetite for gold
When fed gold nanoclusters, the bacterium Moorella thermoacetica is transformed into a hybrid artificial photosynthesis system that converts sunlight and carbon dioxide into useful chemicals for solar fuels.
October 5, 2018
Two Berkeley alums win MacArthur ‘genius’ awards
The MacArthur Foundation yesterday unveiled the 25 newest stars in its constellation of “genius” award winners, and two — computer scientist Deborah Estrin and mathematician Allan Sly — have roots at UC Berkeley.
October 5, 2018
Racial discrimination linked to higher risk of chronic illness in African American women
Less-educated African American women who report experiencing high levels of racial discrimination may face greater risk of developing chronic diseases, says a new study by UC Berkeley researchers.
October 4, 2018
Tales from 141,430 and one genomes
Analysis of the world’s largest set of genome data from pregnant women, totaling 141,431 expectant mothers from across China, has uncovered unsuspected associations between genes and birth outcomes, including the birth of twins and a woman’s age at first pregnancy.
October 4, 2018
Ghost objects in the sky
Astronomers typically study objects that are visible night after night or explode suddenly, like supernovas, but Casey Law is scouring vast amounts of data in search of bright objects that disappear, never to be seen again.
October 3, 2018
Chemistry Nobel goes to UC Berkeley Ph.D. Frances Arnold
When Frances Arnold first came to UC Berkeley as a graduate student in 1980, she was focused on biofuels — at that time a promising new technology and, for Arnold, a way to benefit humanity by weaning society off fossil fuels.
October 3, 2018
Study details how business districts target homeless people
The first major study of California’s Business Improvement Districts shows that they are increasingly targeting homeless people and excluding them from public spaces.
October 2, 2018
Black holes ruled out as universe’s missing dark matter
For one brief shining moment after the 2015 detection of gravitational waves from colliding black holes, astronomers held out hope that the universe’s mysterious dark matter might consist of a plenitude of black holes sprinkled throughout the universe.
October 1, 2018
UC Berkeley research led to Nobel Prize-winning immunotherapy
Immunologist James P. Allison today shared the 2018 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for groundbreaking work he conducted on cancer immunotherapy at UC Berkeley during his 20 years as director of the campus’s Cancer Research Laboratory.
October 1, 2018
‘Spacesuits’ protect microbes destined to live in space
Just as spacesuits help astronauts survive in inhospitable environments, newly developed “spacesuits” for bacteria allow them to survive in environments that would otherwise kill them.
September 26, 2018
CZ Biohub awards $13.7 million for new collaborative health research
The Chan Zuckerberg Biohub, a nonprofit medical research organization, announced that it is awarding $13.7 million over three years to support cutting-edge biomedical research from seven teams of scientists, physicians and engineers, with faculty members from UC Berkeley, UCSF and Stanford.
September 25, 2018
New lab-campus partnership to harness power of ‘spooky action at a distance’
A new alliance between Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and UC Berkeley will seek to harness the power of quantum coherence, known popularly as “spooky action at a distance,” to develop a variety of exciting new technologies, from quantum computers to ultra-secure ways to transmit information.
September 24, 2018
National parks bear the brunt of climate change
Human-caused climate change has exposed U.S. national parks to conditions hotter and drier than the rest of the nation, says a study that quantifies for the first time the magnitude of climate change on all 417 parks in the system.
September 24, 2018
Expanding CEO-to-worker pay gap bad for business
Companies whose CEOs earn hundreds of times their average employee’s pay are viewed as less desirable to work for, and to do business with, according to a new UC Berkeley study.
September 19, 2018
Rising housing costs are re-segregating the Bay Area, study shows
New reports from the Urban Displacement Project at UC Berkeley and the California Housing Partnership confirm that rising housing costs between 2000 and 2015 have contributed to displacement of low-income people of color and resulted in new concentrations of poverty and racial segregation in the Bay Area.
September 13, 2018
Regret is a gambler’s curse, scientists say
What goes through a gambler’s mind after she’s placed her bet? It’s not just the anticipation of a big payoff, or doubts about the wisdom of her bet. It’s also regret about previous bets, both won and lost.
September 12, 2018
Gut bacteria’s shocking secret: They produce electricity
While bacteria that produce electricity have been found in exotic environments like mines and the bottoms of lakes, scientists have missed a source closer to home: the human gut.
September 12, 2018
Stereotypes measurably influence how we treat each other
Our race, ethnicity, nationality, gender, socio-economic class and physical appearance can determine whether or not we get a break in life. But how big a role do social stereotypes really play when it comes to landing a job, loan, university spot or other opportunity?
September 10, 2018
AI helps track down mysterious cosmic radio bursts
Artificial intelligence is invading many fields, most recently astronomy and the search for intelligent life in the universe, or SETI.
September 10, 2018
Diamond dust enables low-cost, high-efficiency magnetic field detection
UC Berkeley engineers have created a device that dramatically reduces the energy needed to power magnetic field detectors, which could revolutionize how we measure the magnetic fields that flow through our electronics, our planet and even our bodies.
September 7, 2018
Enigmatic ‘lunar swirls’ linked to moon’s volcanic past
Lunar swirls, beautiful features of the moon that are found on no other body in the solar system, may be caused by the interaction some 3 billion years ago between erupting lava and the moon’s strong magnetic field.
September 6, 2018
Minimum wage hikes in six cities: big impact on pay, none on jobs
The first-ever evaluation of minimum wage increases in Chicago, the District of Columbia, Oakland, San Francisco, San Jose and Seattle reveals good news for some low-wage workers.
September 5, 2018
Blood tests reveal broad extent of Zika infection
A new study shows that nearly half of the population of Managua, Nicaragua, has been infected with the Zika virus. Previous infection with the Zika virus imparts immunity to the disease and can help quell future outbreaks.
September 4, 2018
Why we stick to false beliefs: Feedback trumps hard evidence
New findings from researchers at UC Berkeley suggest that feedback, rather than hard evidence, boosts people’s sense of certainty when learning new things or trying to tell right from wrong.
August 30, 2018
Engineered sand zaps storm water pollutants
UC Berkeley engineers have created a new way to remove contaminants from storm water, potentially addressing the needs of water-stressed communities that are searching for ways to tap the abundant and yet underused source of fresh drinking water.
August 29, 2018
Improving soil quality can slow global warming
Low-tech ways of improving soil quality on farms and rangelands worldwide could pull significant amounts of carbon out of the atmosphere and slow the pace of climate change.
August 28, 2018
Looking for water in Jupiter’s Great Red Spot
Scientists have for the first time detected water clouds deep inside Jupiter’s Great Red Spot – a centuries-old storm larger than planet Earth – allowing them to put tighter limits on the total amount of water in the planet.
August 27, 2018
UC Berkeley leads new assessment of Bay Area climate impacts
California today issued its latest assessment of the many challenges the state faces from climate change — including wildfires like those still raging throughout the state – and highlighted for the first time the regional impacts with nine deep-dive reports spearheaded by University of California scientists.
August 23, 2018
Correctional officers at high risk for depression, PTSD, suicide, survey finds
A first-of-its kind report states that California’s correctional officers are regularly exposed to traumatic events that make them more likely to grapple with depression, PTSD and suicidal thoughts.
August 22, 2018
UC system reaching an existential ‘tipping point,’ new paper concludes
After years of sagging funding and rising enrollment, the University of California system is nearing a “tipping point” where it cannot continue to grow with California’s population and labor needs without seeking new revenues and state reinvestment.
August 22, 2018
Climate change has the Arctic seeing green
As temperatures in the Arctic rise in response to climate change, vegetation has invaded areas once too frigid to support plant life.
August 21, 2018
Ecological winners and losers of California’s drought
A long-term study led by UC Berkeley and the University of Washington tracked how hundreds of species in Carrizo Plain National Monument valley fared during the historic drought that struck California from 2012 to 2015. It shows surprising winners and losers, uncovering patterns that may be relevant for climate change.
August 20, 2018
Zapping hydrogen gas with 168 lasers turns it into a metal
Bombarding hydrogen - to reproduce what happens to the gas under the intense pressures at the core of giant planets - turns it into a shiny metal.
August 16, 2018
Interactive data explorer offers in-depth look at California’s low-wage workforce
UC Berkeley's Labor Center offers an in-depth look at the people who make up California’s low-wage workforce.
August 15, 2018
UC Berkeley startup accelerator gets a boost from venture fund
SkyDeck, UC Berkeley's accelerator and incubator, is accelerating its own growth. A new venture fund enables SkyDeck to invest $100,000 in the companies in its accelerator, and its accepting a broader and more global range of entrepreneurs, tripling its adviser group and doubling its office size.
August 14, 2018
Poor sleep triggers viral loneliness and social rejection
Poor sleep can literally kill your social life. UC Berkeley researchers have found that sleep-deprived people feel lonelier and less inclined to engage with others, avoiding close contact in much the same way as people with social anxiety.
August 13, 2018
Long-sought carbon structure joins graphene, fullerene family
he discovery of buckyballs surprised and delighted chemists in the 1980s, nanotubes jazzed physicists in the 1990s, and graphene charged up materials scientists in the 2000s, but one nanoscale carbon structure – a negatively curved surface called a schwarzite – has eluded everyone. Until now.
August 8, 2018
Blocking sunlight to cool Earth won’t reduce crop damage from global warming
While lowering Earth's temperature reduces heat stress on crops, decreased solar intensity reduces crop yield. They cancel one another.
August 8, 2018
Tying electrons down with nanoribbons
UC Berkeley scientists have discovered possible role for narrow strips of graphene, called nanoribbons, as nanoscale electron traps with potential applications in quantum computers.
August 6, 2018
Mojave birds crashed over last century due to climate change
Bird communities in the Mojave Desert straddling the California/Nevada border have collapsed over the past 100 years, most likely because of lower rainfall due to climate change.
August 6, 2018
Space probe to plunge into fiery corona of the sun
Instruments built by UC Berkeley space scientist will fly aboard the Parker Solar Probe to explore the hot atmosphere of the sun.
August 3, 2018
Handshake makes for better deals in business
Shaking hands can improve the outcome of negotiations for both sides.
July 31, 2018
Flies meet gruesome end under influence of puppeteer fungus
Carolyn Elya discovered the puppet-master on the balcony of her Berkeley apartment. It was a fungus that infects fruit flies, invading their nervous system and eating them from the inside out.
July 30, 2018
DNA repair after CRISPR cutting not at all what people thought
Despite high hopes and high investment in CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing, scientists still have a lot to learn about how it works in humans.
July 27, 2018
Five innovators join the ranks of the Bakar Fellows
Five UC Berkeley faculty innovators have been selected for the Bakar Fellows Program, which supports faculty working to apply scientific discoveries to real-world issues in the fields of engineering, computer science, chemistry and biological and physical sciences.
July 26, 2018
Fertilizer destroys plant microbiome’s ability to protect against disease
Fertilizing crops may make them more susceptible to disease
July 25, 2018
Child care, preschool remain hard to find, and stark gaps exist in California
Pre-k remains notably scarce for California families with 3-year-olds
July 23, 2018
Warming climate will likely boost suicide rates worldwide
Suicide rates likely to increase as global temperatures rise
July 17, 2018
Study shows wingspan has a correlation to athletic prowess in the NBA, MMA
Ratio of arm length to height significantly associated with elite athlete success in the NBA and mixed martial arts.
July 12, 2018
Nature is proving to be awesome medicine for PTSD
The singular sensation of awe shown to boosts one's sense of well-being
July 10, 2018
California’s cap-and-trade air quality benefits go mostly out of state
California residents not benefiting from improved air quality during first 3 years of cap-and-trade program, while other states show reductions in greenhouse gas.
July 6, 2018
Berkeley engineers develop origami electronics from cheap, foldable paper
UC Berkeley engineers have fabricated foldable electronic switches and sensors directly onto paper, along with prototype generators, supercapacitors and other electronic devices.
June 28, 2018
Odds of living to 110-plus level out — once you hit 105
Want to be a supercentenarian? The chances of reaching the ripe old age of 110 are within reach – if you survive the perilous 90s and make it to 105.
June 25, 2018
CRISPR reduces autism symptoms in mice
Scientists have used CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing to lessen some autism symptoms in mice with a form of fragile X syndrome, the most common known single-gene cause of autism spectrum disorder.
June 22, 2018
Tiny fossils give clues to origins of human social structure
When you’re caught without a comb on a windy day, you might wish for fingernails that could untangle your hair just as well. A new study suggests that our distant ancestors actually had such nails, known as grooming claws.
June 18, 2018
Everything big data claims to know about you could be wrong
New research suggests that bigger sample sets of human subjects may not necessarily be better.
June 18, 2018
New DNA synthesis technique promises rapid, high-fidelity DNA printing
Scientists at the UC Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have invented a new way to synthesize DNA that promises to be easier and faster, does not require the use of toxic chemicals and is potentially more accurate.
June 15, 2018
Hindu and Muslim children show unexpected religious tolerance
In a region of India with a long history of tension between Hindus and Muslims, children of different faiths are showing unexpected tolerance for one another’s religious beliefs and customs.
June 14, 2018
Mammals going nocturnal to avoid humans
Human disturbance is creating a more nocturnal natural world.
June 13, 2018
Soil prospecting yields wealth of potential antibiotics
Soil microbes produce many types of chemicals that could be turned into antibiotics, drugs or industrial chemicals.
June 8, 2018
In desert trials, next-generation water harvester delivers fresh water from air
UC Berkeley scientist demonstrated that their device can collect drinkable water from the air each day/night cycle.
June 5, 2018
Study: L.A. lacks plan for narrowing achievement gaps, four years after funding reform
New study finds that education officials in Los Angeles fail to equitably fund schools hindered by poverty, stalling efforts to close achievement gaps.
June 1, 2018
June 14 launch of ICON satellite to probe the edge of space
NASA’s Ionospheric Connection Explorer (ICON) is charged with the task to measure the winds of ionized atoms at the edge of space and determine how they are impacted by atmospheric weather, in particular seasonal monsoons in the tropics.
May 25, 2018
Restoring culturally relevant food systems to Native American and immigrant populations
The Karuk Tribe once lived on more than a million acres in remote Northern California, but their food system had been broken almost overnight, and has yet to recover. Jennifer Sowerwine believes it still can be.
May 23, 2018
Rehabilitating lactate: from poison to cure
George Brooks, who discovered the key role lactate plays during exercise, says that it also plays a vital role in recovery from disease
May 22, 2018
Closing coal, oil power plants leads to healthier babies
Shuttering coal- and oil-fired power plants lowers the rate of preterm births in neighboring communities and improves fertility, according to two new University of California, Berkeley, studies.
May 21, 2018
Hippo poop a growing problem in African rivers
Hippopotamus are a major tourist draw to African watering holes, but their bountiful poop is increasingly fouling African rivers and lakes during the dry season, killing off fish and other aquatic life. And human activity is making it worse.
May 21, 2018
Promising research could lead to new strategies in NMR and MRI using diamonds and lasers
Diamond tech could lead to low-cost medical imaging tools
May 21, 2018
Urban Resilience: Hiding in Plain Sight
More than 1,500 abandoned parcels of land lie scattered throughout San Francisco, from unused alleys to vacant parking lots and public easements. The combined area rivals the size of Golden Gate Park. In New York City, more than 2,000 similar “remnant parcels” add up to the size of Central Park.
May 16, 2018
What we inherited from our bug-eating ancestors
People who advocate adding insects to the human diet may be channeling their distant ancestors.
May 14, 2018
New structure of tau protein, a key player in Alzheimer’s disease
Alzheimer’s disease develops when proteins in the brain form abnormal tangles, and a key player is tau protein, which normally stabilizes the cytoskeleton of neurons.
May 14, 2018
CRISPR-EZ: Improving on a Good Thing
Using CRISPR technology to study how different genetic elements interact to assure normal cell development or trigger cancer.
May 10, 2018
Radar reveals details of mountain collapse after North Korea’s most recent nuclear test
As North Korea’s president pledges to “denuclearize” the Korean peninsula, an international team of scientists is publishing the most detailed view yet of the site of the country’s latest and largest underground nuclear test on Sept. 3, 2017.
May 9, 2018
Reconnection tames the turbulent magnetic fields around Earth
When the solar wind – which is really a driving rain of charged particles from the sun – strikes Earth’s protective magnetic field, the shock generates roiling, turbulent magnetic fields that enshroud the planet and stretch for hundreds of thousands of miles.
May 7, 2018
Ramping up Production of Vital Industrial Products
Studying yeast to create a new platform organism for new biofuels and a range of industrial chemicals.
April 30, 2018
Editing brain activity with holography
What if we could edit the sensations we feel; paste in our brain pictures that we never saw, cut out unwanted pain or insert non-existent scents into memory?
April 26, 2018
Scalable, cost-effective intervention helps parents improve student attendance, new study finds
Informing parents about not just when but how often their children miss school reduces absenteeism by 10 percent or more at every level from kindergarten all the way through 12th grade, according to a study published this week in the journal Nature Human Behavior.
April 25, 2018
Long-sought structure of telomerase paves way for drugs for aging, cancer
While neither telomerase-based anti-aging drugs, touted as a “fountain of youth,” nor anticancer drugs have yet appeared, the publication today of the first detailed picture of the molecular structure of human telomerase should jump-start that effort.
April 24, 2018
A step toward faster, more accurate breast cancer detection
New technology being developed by engineers could dramatically improve the speed and accuracy of early breast cancer detection through the use of microfluidics.
April 23, 2018
Medical Exams: There’s an App for That
Your cell phone can already find your car and tell you what song the restaurant is playing. How about an app to screen for eye disease?
April 23, 2018
Did last ice age affect breast feeding in Native Americans?
The critical role that breast feeding plays in infant survival may have led, during the last ice age, to a common genetic mutation in East Asians and Native Americans that also, surprisingly, affects the shape of their teeth.
April 19, 2018
Enlarged spleen key to diving endurance of ‘sea nomads’
Over hundreds if not thousands of years, however, a group of Southeast Asian “sea nomads” known for their deep-diving prowess has evolved a solution to increase their time underwater: larger spleens.
April 17, 2018
Calaveras Dam fossil trove gives researchers greatest local find in decades
Researchers are using an exceptional stash of fossils found during the construction of a new East Bay dam to piece together a picture of what the Bay Area may have looked like some 15-20 million years ago.
April 17, 2018
In ‘Gone City,’ geographer questions Silicon Valley’s boom times
Pictures of a Gone City: Tech and the Dark Side of Prosperity in the San Francisco Bay Area, a new book by geographer Richard Walker, sets off some seismic tremors in its unflinching evaluation of the perch of Silicon Valley.
April 16, 2018
UC Berkeley’s massive egg collection helps project up for possible Webby
Can the 12,800 egg sets in the collection of Museum of Vertebrate Zoology tell us why some eggs are oval, and others are round?
April 16, 2018
Drought treatment restructures plants’ microbiomes
New research demonstrates that exposing sorghum plants to drought conditions can shift the balance between specific types of microorganisms found within their root systems.
April 16, 2018
Thin film converts heat from electronics into energy
Engineers have developed a thin-film system that can be applied to sources of waste heat like these to produce energy at levels unprecedented for this kind of technology.
April 12, 2018
Berkeley ecologist selected as a lead author for IPCC report
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has selected Patrick Gonzalez as a lead author for its next major report on climate change.
April 11, 2018
New technology could wean the battery world off cobalt
Now, a research team has opened the door to using other metals in lithium-based batteries, and have built cathodes with 50 percent more lithium-storage capacity than conventional materials.
April 10, 2018
Berkeley engineers build smallest volume, most efficient wireless nerve stimulator
Now, Berkeley engineers have taken neural dust a step forward by building the smallest volume, most efficient wireless nerve stimulator to date.
April 10, 2018
Making computer animation more agile, acrobatic — and realistic
It’s still easy to tell computer-simulated motions from the real thing – on the big screen or in video games, simulated humans and animals often move clumsily, without the rhythm and fluidity of their real-world counterparts.
April 9, 2018
Start of most sensitive search yet for dark matter axion
Thanks to low-noise superconducting quantum amplifiers invented at UC Berkeley, physicists are now embarking on the most sensitive search yet for axions, one of today’s top candidates for dark matter.
April 5, 2018
A ‘Deep Look’ into leeches’ comeback
Once widely used as a cure-all for an array of ailments, leeches are making a resurgence in the medical community just for being their bloodthirsty selves.
April 3, 2018
Podcast explores UC’s pivotal role in California history
In 1929, a young physicist named Ernest Lawrence was going through physics periodicals in the library when he came across a diagram in an obscure technical journal.
April 3, 2018
Study asks why students with more to gain from charter schools are less likely to apply
Low-achieving, non-white and poor students stand to gain the most academically from attending charter schools but are less likely to seek charter school enrollment than higher-achieving, more advantaged students who live closer to charter schools.
April 2, 2018
Mortgage industry is back on shaky ground, experts warn
A decade after the last housing crash, the mortgage market faces the risk of another meltdown that could endanger the economy.
April 2, 2018
Hubble peers through cosmic lens to capture most distant star ever seen
A phenomenon called gravitational lensing – the bending of light by massive galaxy clusters in the line of sight – can magnify the distant universe and make dim, far away objects visible.
March 29, 2018
Poor grades tied to class times that don’t match our biological clocks
It may be time to tailor students’ class schedules to their natural biological rhythms, according to a new study.
March 29, 2018
Eating out increases exposure to harmful phthalates
A new study has found that people who ate more fast food were exposed to higher levels of potentially harmful chemicals known as phthalates than people who ate more home-cooked meals.
March 29, 2018
Land degradation pushing planet towards sixth mass extinction
More than 100 experts from 45 countries have published a three-year study of the Earth’s land degradation, calling the problem “critical”.
March 28, 2018
Why some people are selling their cars and renting their neighbors’
Peer-to-peer car sharing services have encouraged a small number of their members to ditch car ownership, according to a first-of-its-kind study of from the Transportation Sustainability Research Center.
March 27, 2018
First large-scale nuclear reactor monitor will boost neutrino physics
A new U.S. Department of Energy project to develop the first detector able to remotely monitor nuclear reactors will also help physicists test the next generation of neutrino observatories.
March 26, 2018
Atomically thin light emitting device opens the possibility for ‘invisible’ displays
UC Berkeley engineers have built a bright-light emitting device that is millimeters wide and fully transparent when turned off.
March 26, 2018
Flash-in-the-pan supernovas explained
Most exploding stars flare brightly and then slowly fade over weeks to months, but an unusual group of supernovas noticed only in the last 10 years flare up and disappear within days.
March 22, 2018
Want to clean up the environment? Make credit easier to get
Businesses are more likely to be environmentally friendly if it’s easier for them to borrow money.
March 20, 2018
Brewing hoppy beer without the hops
Hoppy beer is all the rage among craft brewers and beer lovers, and now UC Berkeley biologists have come up with a way to create these unique flavors and aromas without using hops.
March 20, 2018
David Patterson, pioneer of modern computer architecture, receives Turing Award
The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) today named David A. Patterson, professor emeritus, a recipient of the 2017 ACM A.M. Turing Award for pioneering a systematic, quantitative approach to the design of computer architectures.
March 19, 2018
Mars’ oceans formed early, possibly aided by massive volcanic eruptions
A new scenario seeking to explain how Mars’ putative oceans came and went over the last 4 billion years implies that the oceans formed several hundred million years earlier and were not as deep as once thought.
March 15, 2018
Researchers create a protein ‘mat’ that can soak up pollution
In a breakthrough that could lead to a new class of materials with functions found only in living systems, scientists have figured out a way to keep certain proteins active outside of the cell.
March 9, 2018
How to make space molecules
How could complex carbon-based molecules – a rich zoo of chemical compounds formed from fused rings of carbon and hydrogen – possibly form in the cold vacuum of space?
March 8, 2018
How brightly colored spiders evolved on Hawaii again and again … and again
In Hawaiian Ariamnes stick spiders, adaptive radiation has resulted in 14 species now living across Hawaii.
March 7, 2018
Sinking land will exacerbate flooding from sea level rise in Bay Area
A new study warns that sinking land — primarily the compaction of landfill in places such as Treasure Island and Foster City — will make flooding even worse.
March 6, 2018
Brown fat flexes its muscle to burn energy -- and calories
Scientists have discovered that the same kind of fat cells that help newborn babies regulate their body temperature could be a target for weight-loss drugs in adults.
March 6, 2018
Smart Materials: Getting the Sun to Pull Down the Shade
When a car seat heats up on a hot day, it just gets.... hot. But some materials become totally transformed by the sun’s heat. They undergo a kind of Jekyll and
March 6, 2018
A way to grow plants with less water
Crops possibly can be grown with significantly less water by altering a gene involved in regulating photosynthesis, according to new research.
March 5, 2018
How to improve health care affordability in California
A new report offers options for California policymakers interested in narrowing the coverage and affordability gaps for people struggling to afford premiums and out-of-pocket costs for health insurance.
March 1, 2018
Retraining the brain’s vision center to take action
Neuroscientists have demonstrated the astounding flexibility of the brain by training neurons that normally process input from the eyes to develop new skills, in this case, to control a computer-generated tone.
February 27, 2018
Scientists detect how words grow new meanings. Maybe computers will, too
What are voice-controlled personal assistants like Alexa and Siri to do when faced with words like “face” that have multiple meanings ranging from a body part
February 27, 2018
$10 million for Berkeley RISELab’s AI research
The National Science Foundation today announced that RISELab has been awarded an Expeditions in Computing award to enable game-changing advances in real-time decision making technologies.
February 27, 2018
Hidden ‘rock moisture’ may be key to tree survival during drought
An oft-neglected layer of weathered rock underlying the soil on hillslopes could be a significant reservoir for water, providing critical moisture for trees during droughts, according to a new study.
February 23, 2018
Mechanical Engineering To Aid Back Surgery
Lower back pain is not as common as the common cold. But it’s close. About 80 percent of people suffer back pain sooner or later.
February 22, 2018
How the ‘I approve’ tagline boosts nasty political ads
With primary season just around the corner, voters will soon start hearing a familiar refrain: “I’m Candidate X, and I approve this message.”
February 21, 2018
Better planetary management though data science
In the past, world leaders had little but magic to predict the future. Today, they can turn to masses of data to project the future and help prepare for it.
February 21, 2018
Amateur astronomer captures rare first light from massive exploding star
Thanks to lucky snapshots taken by an amateur astronomer in Argentina, scientists have obtained their first view of the initial burst of light from the explosion of a massive star.
February 20, 2018
Some black holes erase your past
If someone were to venture into a relatively benign black hole, they could survive, but their past would be obliterated and they could have an infinite number of possible futures.
February 16, 2018
Cockroach-inspired robot is no crash-test dummy
UC Berkeley researchers have taken a lesson from cockroaches and built a robot called DASH that uses the momentum of a head-on crash to tip itself upward to climb a wall.
February 16, 2018
Security for data analytics – gaining a grip on the two-edged sword
In the world of data analytics, privacy restrictions can get in the way of analysis. It’s a classic two-edged sword, and finding a flexible but secure solution to assure both privacy and deep data access has been difficult to achieve.
February 15, 2018
CRISPR scissors, Cas12a, enables cutting-edge diagnostics
CRISPR-Cas12a, one of the DNA-cutting proteins revolutionizing biology today, has an unexpected side effect that makes it an ideal enzyme for simple, rapid and accurate disease diagnostics.
February 15, 2018
Six young faculty members named Sloan Research Fellows
Six assistant professors from the fields of computer science, economics, neuroscience and physics have been named 2018 Sloan Research Fellows, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation announced today.
February 12, 2018
Security for Data Analytics - Gaining a Grip on the Two-Edged Sword
In the information age, data is power, and the ability to mine it can boost business profits, save patients’ lives and aid government security.
February 6, 2018
Connecting the dots between declining wildlife and human misery
Justin Brashares explores the social and cultural impacts of declining wildlife populations around the world, from fish to carnivores.
February 6, 2018
New Berkeley IGS Poll: Two Calif. House Republicans should worry about jobs
Two Republican House members from California should start to worry about their jobs, according to two new polls from UC Berkeley’s Institute for Governmental Studies.
February 5, 2018
Computer Vision to Protect Patients — and Budgets
Alexandre Bayen and PhD student Pulkit Agrawal developed a computer vision-based system to help memory care centers monitor patient falls and to reduce them where possible.
January 30, 2018
Super-resolution microscopy reveals fine detail of cellular mesh
One of today’s sharpest imaging tools, super-resolution microscopy, produces sparkling images of what until now has been the blurry interior of cells.
January 30, 2018
Why traffic apps make congestion worse
Has your smartphone traffic app ever led you into a traffic jam? Join the club.
January 30, 2018
Super-resolution microscopy reveals fine detail of cellular mesh
One of today’s sharpest imaging tools, super-resolution microscopy, produces sparkling images of what until now has been the blurry interior of cells, detailing not only the cell’s internal organs and skeleton, but also providing insights into cells’ amazing flexibility.
January 24, 2018
Artificial leaves to produce fuel on Earth and, one day, Mars
Call it “liquid sunlight.” With the right technology, the gas station of the future will make its own fuel directly from sunlight, in the process sucking up carbon and producing oxygen.
January 22, 2018
Chemists create tinted windows that also generate electricity
A new discovery by Berkeley researchers may soon bring us windows that automatically tint on a sunny day to block the heat while also generating electricity.
January 22, 2018
Recording a thought’s fleeting trip through the brain
UC Berkeley neuroscientists have tracked the progress of a thought through the brain, showing clearly how the prefrontal cortex at the front of the brain coordinates activity to help us act in response to a perception.
January 22, 2018
2018 Ed Roberts Award for accessible design leader Raymond Lifchez
The Center for Independent Living will recognize UC Berkeley architecture and city planning professor Raymond Lifchez tomorrow (Jan. 23) with the second annual Ed Roberts Award, which recognizes and honors individual contributions to the success of CIL and the independent living/disability rights movement.
January 19, 2018
Research finds social media users actually wind down, not up
Contrary to conventional wisdom, people tend to wind down rather than whip themselves into a frenzy while browsing Facebook and Twitter.
January 18, 2018
100 million dead trees in the Sierra are a massive risk for unpredictable wildfires
To drive through parts of the Sierra Nevada these days is to witness a morbid reminder of California’s extreme drought: Vast landscapes of standing dead trees, a brown tide sweeping across the green landscape.
January 18, 2018
100 million dead trees in the Sierra are a massive risk for unpredictable wildfires
To drive through parts of the Sierra Nevada these days is to witness a morbid reminder of California’s extreme drought: Vast landscapes of standing dead trees,
January 18, 2018
Moms, sisters, wives rank among most ‘difficult’ kin
Most of us put up with whiners, naggers, control freaks and other annoying people in our lives for good reason – we’re related to them.
January 18, 2018
Amid flu epidemic, more bad news about its spread
Getting lots of sleep, drinking lots of water, sneezing into the crook of your arm and getting a vaccination no doubt will help fight back the flu. But if you don’t want to get it in the first place, don’t breathe.
January 17, 2018
Berkeley anthropologist honored with 2017 Huxley Award
Margaret Conkey, a professor emerita of anthropology, is the Royal Anthropological Institute’s 2017 Thomas J. Huxley Memorial Medal recipient.
January 17, 2018
Professor Lee Schruben receives INFORMS Simulation Society Lifetime Professional Achievement Award
IEOR Professor Lee W. Schruben recently received the Lifetime Professional Achievement Award (LPAA) by the Institute of Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) Simulation Society, the highest honor given by the society.
January 16, 2018
History professor’s ‘Work of the Dead’ wins 2018 Shannon Prize
“The Work of the Dead,” a book by history professor Thomas W. Laqueur, was selected to receive the 2018 Shannon Prize in Contemporary European Studies.
January 16, 2018
Building better batteries to provide renewable energy anytime, anywhere
Research on lithium ion batteries — the power source for cellphones and nearly every piece of electronics we use daily — began at UC Berkeley some 50 years
January 16, 2018
Report on California correctional officers’ suicide risks spurs widespread attention
Response to a recent report finding that California’s correctional and parole officers face extraordinarily high risks of suicide and other mental health problems has Amy Lerman feeling cautiously optimistic about the state’s ability to address the issue.
January 12, 2018
Podcast: Here’s what our recent quake sounded like
Toppling tchotchkes and whining dogs were only some of the sounds from last week’s 4.4-magnitude earthquake on the Hayward Fault. Underground, seismic sensors captured the quake’s deep rumble.
January 12, 2018
With interspecies hybrids, it makes a difference who’s the dad and who’s the mom
With the occasional appearance of coydogs, pizzlies and ligers, it’s clear that different species can often interbreed, even if the offspring are infertile.
January 11, 2018
Largest recorded underwater volcanic eruption sheds light on deep-sea events
The 2012 eruption of the Havre volcano took place three-quarters of a mile under the surface near New Zealand, and offered researchers a rare opportunity to study submarine eruptions.
January 10, 2018
SETI project homes in on strange ‘fast radio bursts’
Recent observations of a mysterious and distant object that emits intermittent bursts of radio waves so bright that they’re visible across the universe provide new data about the source but fail to clear up the mystery of what causes them.
January 9, 2018
Berkeley part of new international Buddhist Studies network
Center for Buddhist Studies is part of a new international network of universities that is receiving $4.9 million to advance the study of Buddhism and East Asian cultures.
January 9, 2018
Changing when we use energy to fit the ‘duck curve’
Physicist Mary Ann Piette wants to address too much electricity from solar in the middle of the day and a sharp drop-off in the evenings and mornings by changing when Californians use energy.
January 9, 2018
Heart health at risk for Latinas worried about deportation
A recent study found that worry about deportation was associated with multiple cardiovascular health risk factors in Latinas from California’s Salinas Valley, home to many immigrants.
January 8, 2018
Berkeley expert on restaurant exploitation is red-carpet guest at Golden Globes
Saru Jayaraman, director of UC Berkeley’s Food Labor Research Center, was actress Amy Poehler’s date to the Golden Globes last night.
January 3, 2018
Which came first: complex life or high atmospheric oxygen?
How crucial were high oxygen levels to the transition from simple, single-celled life forms to the complexity we see today?
January 2, 2018
CRISPR put to work to save chocolate from devastation
Chocolate is forever, right? Scientists, using the revolutionary gene-editing tool CRISPR, are working to make it so, as climate change threatens the cacao plant’s favorite growing sites.