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Whether we’re listening to Bach or the blues, our brains are wired to make music-color connections depending on how the melodies make us feel, according to new research from UC Berkeley. For instance, Mozart’s jaunty Flute Concerto No. 1 in G major is most often associated with bright yellow and orange, whereas his dour Requiem in D minor is more likely to be linked to dark, bluish gray.
News archive
Melvin Calvin’s moon dust rediscovered at Berkeley Lab
May 8, 2013: Some 44 years ago, the late chemist Melvin Calvin and colleagues at the Space Sciences Laboratory analyzed moon dust brought back by Apollo 11 and 12, published a paper, and then stashed the dust on a shelf. Archivists at Berkeley Lab rediscovered the precious material, vacuum sealed in a jar, and have returned it to NASA.
Hit a 95 mph baseball? Scientists pinpoint how we see it coming
May 8, 2013: How does San Francisco Giants slugger Pablo Sandoval swat a 95 mph fastball, or tennis icon Venus Williams see the oncoming ball, let alone return her sister Serena’s 120 mph serves? For the first time, vision scientists at UC Berkeley have pinpointed how the brain tracks fast-moving objects.
Campus bids farewell to the Birgeneaus, with burgers, hot dogs and good cheer
May 7, 2013: The campus community came out to bid farewell Tuesday to Chancellor Robert and Mary Catherine Birgeneau, who greeted well-wishers at a barbecue lunch on the Lisa and Douglas Goldman Plaza.
Berkeley GM crop specialist featured in KQED program Wednesday, May 8 
May 6, 2013: UC Berkeley cooperative extension specialist Peggy Lemaux’s efforts to engineer crops to reduce malnutrition in developing countries.will be featured in a half-hour program, “Next Meal: Engineering Food,” that will be shown on KQED’s Quest on Wednesday. The program explores the pros and cons of GM crops, as well as the future of research and regulation.
From fascist Europe to Berkeley: Students help uncover a history of intellectual migration
May 6, 2013: Students digging through Magnes Collection archives stored at the Bancroft Library discovered a world unknown to many these days: The lives of 70 professors who fled Nazi-occupied Europe in the 1930s and made their mark on UC Berkeley. “J Weekly” explores their findings, which were made through the Undergraduate Research Apprenticeship program and will be part of an exhibit at the Magnes in 2014.
Committee named to find Berkeley’s next provost
May 6, 2013: A committee of Berkeley administrators, faculty, students and staff has been formed to advise Chancellor-designate Nicholas Dirks on the search to replace Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost George Breslauer, who has announced his intention to retire at the end of 2013.
Chancellors see Berkeley’s future through students’ eyes
May 3, 2013: Dirks, who takes over as Berkeley’s chancellor on June 1, and Robert Birgeneau, who has held that position for nine years, took a lunch meeting in a Durant Hall conference room with the winners of the campus’s Fiat Lux Remix contest.
Students check out incoming chancellor
May 3, 2013: Nicholas Dirks introduced himself and fielded questions at a conversational meet-up Thursday afternoon between UC Berkeley students and the campus’s next chancellor. About 100 people turned out for what Dirks called one of the “first of a long series of conversations with you.” Earlier in the day, Chancellor Birgeneau and Dirks met with student winners of the “Fiat Lux Remix” contest.
Saddle up for Bike to Work Day
May 3, 2013: Whether you’re one of UC Berkeley’s 5,000 regular bicycle commuters or you’re brand new to cycling, it’s time to make plans for Bike to Work Day, set for Thursday, May 9. Campus riders are encouraged to share photos of their commute at #bike2berk.
Chancellor announces return to Berkeley-operated student health plan
May 2, 2013: In response to student urging, the campus will withdraw from the UC-wide student health-insurance plan (UC SHIP) and return to a UC Berkeley-operated plan starting in mid August. Chancellor Birgeneau announced the decision in a May 2 letter to the campus community.
For law student, an intensely personal path to Sax Prize
May 2, 2013: For Micah West ’13, winner of the 2013 Sax Prize for clinical excellence, the path to advocacy has been intensely personal. When West was 19, his father pled guilty to two felonies and received a one-year sentence to a halfway house. “I could no more walk away from my father than I could any of the millions incarcerated in this country,” West said in accepting the award, honoring his tireless work at Berkeley Law’s Death Penalty Clinic and his efforts to launch the new Youth Defender Clinic.
Poison lips? Troubling levels of toxic metals found in cosmetics
May 2, 2013: UC Berkeley researchers found lead, cadmium, chromium, aluminum and five other metals in a sample of 32 different lipsticks and lip glosses commonly found in drugstores and department stores. Some of the metals were detected at levels that could raise potential health concerns.
Two faculty named Guggenheim Fellows for 2013
May 1, 2013: Two UC Berkeley faculty — improvising pianist and composer Myra Melford and English literature scholar Joanna Picciotto — have been named Guggenheim fellows for 2013, an award conferred for both achievement and promise.
Campus Shared Services IT center takes stock of early success
May 1, 2013: In mid January, Campus Shared Services Information Technology began supporting more than 3,700 UC Berkeley staff from its home base in West Berkeley. The IT group, which has been closely tracking customer satisfaction through anonymous surveys and user testimonials, reports on campus users’ largely positive feedback so far.
Nicholas Dirks, history prof
May 1, 2013: Appearing not as a future chancellor but as a fellow faculty member, Nicholas Dirks led a history department colloquium Tuesday on the topic of “Scholars and Spies: World War II and the Emergence of South Asian Area Studies.”
Three faculty members named to National Academy of Sciences
April 30, 2013: Structural biologist James Berger, immunologist Daniel Portnoy and mathematician James Sethian have been elected members of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), one of the highest honors given to a scientist or engineer in the United States.
How graduate-student instructors help undergrads thrive
April 30, 2013: At a large research university like Berkeley, graduate-student instructors play a vital role in undergrads’ academic lives. “Letter Home,” the Cal Parents newsletter, explores what GSIs bring to the educational equation — and the training that helps prepare them to be effective teachers and mentors.
Building an LGBT community for STEM majors
April 30, 2013: An appreciation for diversity and a passion for energizing student life led Paul Zarate,a senior majoring in mechanical engineering, to found the Berkeley chapter of Out in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (oSTEM), a national organization dedicated to the professional development of LGBT students.
From Marin to The Hague, working for justice
April 30, 2013: Alexa Koenig, who is finishing up her dissertation as she settles into her role as executive director of the Human Rights Center, plans to “engage pretty deeply” with the center’s work in war-torn regions all over the globe.
Is antimatter anti-gravity?
April 30, 2013: Most physicists suspect that antimatter and normal matter weigh the same, that is, they are affected the same way by gravity. No direct measurements exist, however, that prove they do. UC Berkeley scientists, part of the ALPHA collaboration at CERN, are working on just such an experiment and have some very rough results.
White House honors student working to stop human trafficking
April 29, 2013: Graduate student Minh Dang has been named a White House Champion of Change. She is among a group of Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander women cited for extraordinary commitment to their communities and the nation.
Meet future veterinarian (or zookeeper) Amanda Wong
April 29, 2013: Aspiring veterinarian (or zookeeper) Amanda Wong is VP of the Cal Pre-Vet Club. In an interview with DugDug, “a blog for pets,” the Berkeley junior talks about her stint as a zoo volunteer, teaching visitors about horned frogs and golden eagles — and other experiences with animals so far.
Chancellor looks back: ‘a period where leadership mattered’
April 26, 2013: In an interview with NBC11, Robert Birgeneau talks access and excellence, Dreamers, and how — despite a budget model for UC Berkeley that has changed in response to severe state funding cuts during his time as chancellor — “we still spend our money, as we should, like a public university.”
Emoticons get more emotional, thanks to Berkeley psychologists
April 26, 2013: Emoticons not expressing the full complexity of your feelings? UC Berkeley psychologist Dacher Keltner and his team at the campus’s Greater Good Science Center can help. They have assisted in creating a nuanced Facebook sticker package based on a character named “Finch,” inspired by scientist Charles Darwin.
Malaria milestone ‘took a village’
April 25, 2013: On April 25, World Malaria Day, the non-profit Zagaya released a video Illustrating why, in the words of UC Berkeley synthetic biologist Jay Keasling, “it took a village” to create an accessible treatment for malaria that will be essential to eradicating the disease.
Take the Greater Good ‘Compassionate Organizations Quiz’
April 25, 2013: While we often think about compassion as an individual quality, the organizations where we spend our time — such as workplaces, schools, places of worship, and community centers — can actually impact whether and how we respond to someone in distress. Does your organization foster compassion or callousness?
Media Advisory: May 3 public talk by Fabiola Gianotti, co-discoverer of Higgs boson
April 25, 2013: Physicist Fabiola Gianotti, co-discoverer of the Higgs boson at the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva, Switzerland, will deliver a free public lecture, “The Higgs Boson and Our Life.” The talk is part of a 3-day celebration of UC Berkeley physicist Bruno Zumino, whose theory of supersymmetry has emerged as a possible explanation for the variety of fundamental particles seen in nature.
Fourteen staffers, six teams win Chancellor’s Outstanding Staff Awards
April 25, 2013: Fourteen staffers and members of six teams will be honored Monday (April 29) as the UC Berkeley campus recognizes the 2013 recipients of the Chancellor’s Outstanding Staff Awards. Chancellor Robert Birgeneau will hand out awards and shake the honorees’ hands. The 2 p.m. event will be streamed live online.
Berkeley named one of America’s ‘Bicycle Friendly Universities’
April 25, 2013: The Bicycle Friendly University program recognizes institutions of higher education for promoting and providing a more bicycle-friendly campus for students, staff and visitors.
‘Fitness for All’ is an exercise in inclusion
April 24, 2013: Campus staffer and Cal grad Matt Grigorieff is the driving force behind Fitness for All, a new program that aims to provide health and fitness options to UC Berkeley students with disabilities. Among the first offerings is a class on goalball, a court sport that puts blind and sighted players on a level playing field.
