UC Berkeley artificial intelligence (AI) expert Stuart Russell will lead a new Center for Human-Compatible Artificial Intelligence, launched this week.

Introducing this year’s top innovators under 35, a list compiled each year by MIT Technology Review.

California voters oppose an effort to abolish the death penalty and strongly support a competing measure that would streamline procedures in capital cases.

As a vital engine of California’s economy, UC Berkeley has been generating startups at an ever-faster rate in recent years and stimulating more and more companies and jobs.

California voters overwhelmingly support a sweeping gun control measure on the November ballot, including strong majorities of both parties and independent voters.

Search-and-rescue dogs are prized for their ability to sniff out a hiker buried in deep snow. But how exactly do their noses work? 

What’s life like aboard a scientific research vessel plying the California coast deploying robots to unlock important data about climate change?

Patina Mendez is a caddisfly expert, so it’s no surprise that when KQED Science’s Deep Look wanted to get up close and personal with a caddisfly, they asked Mendez for help.

Climate change could constrain the Olympics going forward and not just because of rising sea levels.

The motivation behind the tiny house movement likely revolves around a desire to live modestly while conserving resources — environmental consciousness, self-sufficiency, and the desire for a life of adventure.

Sunflowers not only pivot to face the sun as it moves across the sky during the day, but they also rotate 180 degrees during the night to greet the morning sun.

UC Berkeley engineers have built the first dust-sized, wireless sensors that can be implanted in the body, bringing closer the day when a Fitbit-like device could monitor internal nerves, muscles or organs in real time.

Older people’s short-term memory is generally slower and less accurate compared to younger people. But a new University of California, Berkeley, study suggests that brains that continue to perform well in old age do so by rallying more of the brain to complete mental tasks.

Most cancer drugs are designed to halt cell growth, the hallmark of cancer, and one popular target is the pathway that controls the production of a cell’s thousands of proteins.

A UC Berkeley-led research team will search for causes of leukemia — the most common cancer in children — with a new, four-year, $6 million grant from the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.

It may be hard to imagine competing over who gets to kiss a frog, but when it comes to mating, a new study concludes that some frogs have moved out of the pond onto land to make it easier for the male in the pair to give sexual rivals the slip.

For all the anxiety today about the bacteria in our gut being under constant assault by antibiotics, stress and bad diets, it turns out that a lot of the bacteria in our intestines have been with us for at least 15 million years, since we were pre-human apes.

A 20-month experiment to detect dark matter from the depths of an abandoned gold mine has come to an end, narrowing the search for, but failing to find, an elusive particle that should be everywhere.

Paleontologists have identified distinctive features of primate teeth that allow them to track the evolution of our ape and monkey ancestors.

Like fireworks bursting through a smoky haze, protostars ignite within colossal filaments of gas in a new supercomputer simulation of stars forming inside molecular clouds.

Policies in all 50 states and Washington, D.C., shortchange the 2 million educators who are shaping the future of 12 million children in childcare and preschool across the nation.

Octopuses, squid and other cephalopods are colorblind – their eyes see only black and white – but their weirdly shaped pupils may allow them to detect color and mimic the colors of their background.

UC Berkeley engineer Phillip Messersmith is happy to be learning lessons from a lowly mollusk, with the expectation that the knowledge gained will enable him and fellow physicians to prevent deaths among their youngest patients — those who haven’t been born yet.

Gov. Jerry Brown has signed a 2016-17 state budget that provides $10 million to help launch a statewide earthquake early-warning system.

China’s plans to curb Beijing’s health-damaging air pollution by focusing on restricting emissions from power plants and vehicles may have limited impact if household use of coal and other dirty fuels is not also curtailed, according to a new study.

Everyone knows of a megaproject gone awry: the Bay Bridge or maybe Boston’s Big Dig. Many fear California’s high-speed rail project connecting the northern half of the state with the southern may become yet one more.

New images obtained by the Hubble Space Telescope confirm the presence of a “dark vortex” in the atmosphere of Neptune, a rare type of feature that can persist for years.

Developmental biologist Michael Rape is one of three winners of the 2016 Blavatnik National Awards for Young Scientists announced today in New York.

On June 20, at a conference of global business leaders in Washington, D.C., President Obama announced the creation of a new $140 million Clean Energy Smart Manufacturing Innovation Institute (CESMII), to be headquartered at UCLA, with a Berkeley-based regional center.

Taiwan’s top science award, the Tang Prize, has gone to two UC Berkeley scientists well-known in the fields of biochemistry and physics: Jennifer Doudna, for her invention of CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing, and Arthur Rosenfeld, often called the “godfather of energy efficiency.”

Researchers at UC Berkeley’s School of Information are reporting on a project whose core technology consists of threads individually coated with thermochromic paint that heats up and gradually changes the thread colors when given a jolt of electricity.

A simulation of the powerful jets generated by supermassive black holes at the centers of the largest galaxies explains why some burst forth as bright beacons visible across the universe, while others fall apart and never pierce the halo of the galaxy.

Return on investment in county public health departments in California exceeds return on investment in many other areas of medical care, according to a new study by a University of California, Berkeley economist.

Six of 30 young people honored today by the University of California for their innovative work helping to solve the global food crisis are from the Berkeley campus.

Global warming by just 2 degrees Celsius is likely to force some tropical plant, animal and human populations to relocate hundreds of miles from their current homes this century.

Netflix binge-watching versus a hike in the woods. A cheeseburger versus kale salad. Fentanyl versus Tylenol. New UC Berkeley research suggests our brain activity could be influenced to make the healthier choice.

Alexander Huth, a postdoctoral researcher in neuroscience at UC Berkeley, has won a prestigious early-career award for his work in decoding semantic language in the brain.

A new study is further burnishing copper’s reputation as an essential nutrient for human physiology. A research team has found that copper plays a key role in metabolizing fat.

Astronomers using the upgraded Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array in New Mexico have produced the most detailed radio map yet of the atmosphere of Jupiter.

Astronomers have obtained the most precise measurement yet of how fast the universe is expanding, and it doesn’t agree with predictions based on other data and our current understanding of the physics of the cosmos.

Preliminary results of the study suggest that nature-inspired curiosity can trigger positive feelings and ease symptoms of PTSD in the most wary and withdrawn personalities.

Political scientist Taeku Lee is part of a team leading a newly announced, expanded study of the experiences and attitudes of Asian Americans in the most extensive look to date at the nation’s fastest-growing racial group.

UC Berkeley scientists have developed a quicker and more efficient method to alter the genes of mice with CRISPR-Cas9, simplifying a procedure growing in popularity because of the ease of using the new gene-editing tool.

Sackler Sabbatical Exchange recipient Hiten Madhani studies how genome cutting machines in cells, called spliceosomes, are able to pluck genes away from other sequences of “letters” in strands of RNA.

New research from UC Berkeley’s Urban Displacement Project stresses the need for the production of both market-rate and subsidized housing, along with aggressive preservation of affordable units and protection for tenants, to resolve the San Francisco Bay Area’s housing affordability crisis.

President Barack Obama yesterday honored two UC Berkeley faculty members at the White House, awarding chemist Paul Alivisatos with the National Medal of Science and electrical engineer Chenming Hu with the National Medal of Technology and Innovation.

UC Berkeley experts joined San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee this week in an attempt to convince U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx that the city is the best place to invest $40 million to pioneer a 21st-century smart urban transportation system.

While cities currently are the major contributor to global climate change, they could become the building blocks of sustainability, according to UC Berkeley researchers.

Chris Chang, who is part of the Sackler Sabbatical Exchange Program, carries out experiments to find proteins that bind to copper and may influence the storage and burning of fat.

When tiny microbes jam up like fans exiting a baseball stadium, they can do some real damage.

A four-planet system observed several years ago by the Kepler spacecraft is actually a rarity: Its planets, all miniature Neptunes nestled close to the star, are orbiting in a unique resonance that has been locked in for billions of years.

UC Berkeley researchers have found a long-elusive Achilles’ heel within “triple-negative” breast tumors, a common type of breast cancer that is difficult to treat.

Working at temperatures near absolute zero, UC Berkeley experts in electron microscopy have learned in detail how proteins orchestrate the first key steps in gene activation – opening up the double-stranded DNA.

Water and energy are tightly linked in the 21st century. Per Peterson’s research seeks to develop water-saving ways of cooling energy plants, both nuclear and solar.  

A mother’s breast milk supports immune responses in her newborn that help the infant’s gut become a healthy home to a mix of bacterial species, thanks in part to newly identified antibodies from the mother, according to a study by UC Berkeley researchers.

Newly discovered genetic switches that increase lifespan and boost fitness in worms are also linked to increased lifespan in mammals, offering hope that drugs to flip these switches could improve human metabolic function and increase longevity.

Biochemist Jennifer Doudna has been named a foreign member of the prestigious Royal Society, a rare honor for a UC Berkeley faculty member.

Environmental engineer David Sedlak explores the serious water treatment, supply and security challenges we face, and proposes how to meet them.

A new study suggests Covered California’s authority to select health insurers successfully held down premium costs.

Berkeley’s renowned programs in artificial intelligence and robotics involve scores of professors in the College of Engineering. Their aim is to create machines with the intelligence to better serve and work with human beings.

We know that our changing climate will bring rising sea levels to the Bay Area. But do we know how to handle it?

UC Berkeley scientists have taken a step in that direction by building a “semantic atlas” that shows in vivid colors and multiple dimensions how the human brain organizes language.

Information overload and “fear of missing out” may rank among the biggest contributors to chronic indecision. But help is at hand.

Ashok Gadgil is refining an affordable water treatment technology to produce fresh drinking water from brackish water, one of many projects supported by CERC-WET.

Scientists increasingly realize the importance of gut and other microbes to our health and well-being, but one UC Berkeley biologist is asking whether these microbes — our microbiota — might also have played a role in shaping who we are by steering evolution.

The American Academy of Arts and Sciences today announced the election of 213 new members, including nine UC Berkeley faculty members.

A new analysis of the genetic diversity of cassava will help improve strategies for breeding disease resistance and climate tolerance into the root crop, a staple and major source of calories for a billion people worldwide.

Fungi communicate by chemical signals only, but they, like humans, appear to use different dialects.

A University of California, Berkeley, study of homeless youth living on the streets of San Francisco found that they have a 10 times higher mortality rate than their peers, mostly due to suicide and substance abuse.

Berkeley's study of the impacts of school lunch reforms in the Oakland Unified School District could help schools elsewhere better address chronic public health issues for children.

Researchers at UC Berkeley, who have discovered more than 1,000 new types of bacteria and Archaea over the past 15 years lurking in Earth’s nooks and crannies, have dramatically rejiggered the tree to account for these microscopic new life forms.

Berkeley engineering grad student Ziran Zhang and engineering professor Steven Glaser put on their snowshoes and headed into the hills recently to take a close look at the snowpack high in the Sierra.

NASA’s newest space weather research satellite, the Ionospheric Connection Explorer, is on course for a summer 2017 launch after UC Berkeley scientists and their colleagues shipped its four instruments to Utah for testing, prior to being packed into the final satellite.

Researchers from Stanford University and UC Berkeley report in today’s edition ofScience that door-to-door canvassing by volunteers — both transgender and not — reduced voters’ prejudice against transgender people.

A near-record supermassive black hole discovered in a sparse area of the local universe indicate that these monster objects — this one equal to 17 billion suns — may be more common than once thought, according to UC Berkeley astronomers.

Scientists at the Berkeley Lab have taken a big step toward the practical application of “valleytronics,” which is a new type of electronics that could lead to faster and more efficient computer logic systems and data storage chips in next-generation devices.

A parade of luminaries took part in Clinton Global Initiative University this weekend, but the event was all about the students, more than 1,200 of whom assembled at UC Berkeley for three days of inspiration, cooperation and “commitment to action.”

On the first weekend of spring, UC Berkeley’s newest research station, the Blue Oak Ranch Reserve, threw an open house to show off its new facilities, nestled amid rolling green, flower-studded hills east of San Jose.

A proposed gradual increase in California’s minimum hourly wage from $10 to $15 by 2023 would raise wages of 5.6 million workers by an average of 24 percent, according to a brief released today by the University of California, Berkeley.

UC Berkeley cancer immunologists are teaming up with colleagues working on infectious disease to create a new Immunotherapeutics and Vaccine Research Initiative.

On March 24, Berkeley Lab’s Bill Collins, an internationally recognized expert in climate modeling and climate change science, updated the Science in the Theater audience on what we know about climate change.

Three faculty members have been selected as 2016-17 Signatures Innovation Fellows, receiving as much as $100,000 per year each for up to two years to pursue commercially promising data science and software projects.

Many bacteria build miniature magnets and use them to navigate their environment, and UC Berkeley’s Arash Komeili has found a neat trick they use to do it.

UC Berkeley biologists have discovered the switch that triggers the power kick sperm use to penetrate and fertilize a human egg, uncovering a possible source of male infertility but also a potential target for contraceptives that work in both men and women.

Ocean waves have vast energy potential. The Electric Power Research Institute estimates the total wave energy resource along the United States coastline at 2,640 terawatts per year. One terawatt can supply more than 93,000 typical U.S. homes with power annually.

Experiments show magnetic chips could dramatically increase computing’s energy efficiency.

A new UC Berkeley report finds that raising the minimum wage in New York have large positive effects on living standards and very small effects on employment.

UC Berkeley scientists have captured unique images of problem-solving in action by tapping into the minds of mice. The study shows rapid rewiring in the rodents’ frontal brains after they learn by trial and error.

A new study led by researchers at UC Berkeley and Clinica de Salud del Valle de Salinas demonstrates how even a short break from certain kinds of makeup, shampoos and lotions can lead to a significant drop in levels of hormone-disrupting chemicals in the body.

Male friendships, portrayed and often winked at in bromance movies, could have healthful effects similar to those seen in romantic relationships, especially when dealing with stress.

New research led by scientists at UC Berkeley shows for the first time that PET scans can track the progressive stages of Alzheimer’s disease in cognitively normal adults, a key advance in the early diagnosis and staging of the neurodegenerative disorder.

Shilpi Mathrani wanted a career in the biomedical field. To a student, though, the industry can seem like an exclusive club. For Mathrani, UC Berkeley’s Bio-Manufacturing to Market program held the key.

Eight UC Berkeley assistant professors are among 126 new fellows announced today by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. The Sloan Research Fellowships, awarded annually since 1955, honor early-career scientists and scholars.

Bakar Fellow Pieter Abbeel studies deep learning in robots. The robot BRETT (Berkeley Robot for Elimination of Tedious Tasks) has mastered a range of skills, including folding laundry, knot-tying, and basic assembly.

Three UC Berkeley faculty members named as recipients of the Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers, the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. government on science and engineering professionals in the early stages of their independent research careers.

Berkeley Lab and UC Berkeley Scientists to participate in new NASA space telescope project that will explore mysteries of dark energy, hunt for distant planets and retrace universe's history during 6-year mission.

Bakar Fellow Ronald Rael is advancing a type of 3-D printing that could add more beauty, variety and sustainability to building designs.

Paul Alivisatos, UC Berkeley’s newly appointed vice chancellor for research and the outgoing director of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, has been awarded the international Dan David Prize for his contributions in the field of nanoscience.

Science isn’t generally considered an extreme sport, but you wouldn’t know that by watching researchers in the Eel River Critical Zone Observatory scale hundred-foot-tall trees and wade through rushing rivers.

UC Berkeley scientists are releasing an Android app with the goal of creating a worldwide seismic detection network that could eventually warn users of impending jolts from nearby quakes.

Berkeley Lab and UC Berkeley scientists adapt next-gen solar cell materials for a different purpose.

Bakar Fellow Holger Müller is redesigning an instrument known as an atom interferometer, capable of making extremely precise measurements of distance and gravity.

Our fear and disgust that cockroaches can quickly squeeze through the tiniest cracks are well-justified, say UC Berkeley scientists.

Until recently, being paralyzed from the waist down meant using a wheelchair to get around - UC Berkeley’s Robotics and Human Engineering Laboratory has been working to change that.

The Obama administration and members of Congress today renewed their commitment to funding an earthquake early warning system along the Pacific Coast.

The Bakar Fellows Program supports Michael Lustig’s collaborations with clinicians and industry to speed adoption of the new MRI imaging strategies.

A new sensor developed at UC Berkeley can be made into “smart” wristbands or headbands that provide continuous, real-time analysis of the chemicals in sweat.

Kate Jastram, an attorney and UC Berkeley expert in forced migrations, says closing U.S. doors to Syrian refugees would deepen America’s anti-Muslim reputation and alienate the 3.3 millions Muslims already living here.

Bakar Fellow Ke Xu’s imaging technology allows researchers to distinguish between interacting proteins with exceptional color and image resolutions.

Paul Alivisatos, an internationally renowned chemist who has run the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory for the past seven years, has been tapped to lead the research enterprise at the UC Berkeley.

There are many different ways to make nanomaterials but weaving, the oldest and most enduring method of making fabrics, has not been one of them – until now.

UC Berkeley researchers have made a major improvement in CRISPR-Cas9 technology that achieves an unprecedented success rate of 60 percent when replacing a short stretch of DNA with another.

To Michael Jordan, the smart way to extract and analyze key information embedded in mountains of “Big Data” is to ignore most of it. Instead, zero in on collections of small amounts of data.

UC Berkeley biochemist Jennifer Doudna joined Joseph Biden this morning at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, as the vice president promoted a major new U.S. initiative to speed the discovery of cures for cancer.

Just last year, researchers were saying there was no end in sight for California’s recent drought. But things are looking up. El Niño has swept into the Golden State and is breathing life back into the area.

From Apple’s Siri to Honda’s robot Asimo, machines seem to be getting better and better at communicating with humans. But some neuroscientists caution that today’s computers will never truly understand what we’re saying.

Scientists have found a new way to tease out signals about Earth’s climatic past from soil deposits on gravel and pebbles, adding an unprecedented level of detail to the existing paleoclimate record and revealing a time in North America’s past when summers were wetter than normal.

Three bright pulsating stars on the outskirts of the Milky Way galaxy could be beacons from an invisible dwarf galaxy that astronomers predicted was there based on its effects on the gas in our galaxy.

Data on current carbon emissions will help cities meet goals set a Paris climate summit, and show people how they contribute to global warming.