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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.
Science archive
Chemist Jean Frechet to receive Japan Prize
January 30, 2013: Emeritus professor Jean Fréchet, a Professor of the Graduate School in chemistry and chemical and biological engineering, has received a 2013 Japan Prize, one of the most prestigious international awards in science and technology.
Research News Briefs
January 30, 2013: Research News Briefs: The star-nosed mole is helping researchers discover touch and pain receptors in humans. / The Keck Foundation is funding a project to insert tiny magnets into cells to make them easy to track with magnetic resonance imaging. / Feelings of awe make people more generous.
The making of a ‘lifetime mentor award’ winner
January 28, 2013: Mechanical-engineering professor Alice Agogino has been named winner of the AAAS Lifetime Mentor Award. In a Q&A with the NewsCenter, she talks about her influences and her efforts to transform a profession, from human-centered design to blogging and Barbies.
Poor sleep in old age prevents the brain from storing memories 
January 28, 2013: The connection between poor sleep, memory loss and brain deterioration as we grow older has been elusive. But for the first time, UC Berkeley scientists have found a link between these hallmark maladies of old age. Their discovery opens the door to boosting the quality of sleep in elderly people to improve memory.
Public Health neuroscientist a winner of prestigious prize for dementia research
January 25, 2013: For his research on beta-amyloid plaques in the brain, Dr. William J. Jagust of UC Berkeley’s School of Public Health has been named a winner of the 2013 Potamkin Prize for Research in Pick’s, Alzheimer’s and Related Diseases by the American Academy of Neurology and the American Brain Foundation. The $100,000 prize is an internationally recognized tribute for advancing dementia research.
Physics society honors Birgeneau for ‘statesmanship in science’
January 24, 2013: The American Institute of Physics has awarded Chancellor Robert Birgeneau the 2012 Karl Taylor Compton Medal for Leadership in Physics. The medal honors Birgeneau’s advocacy for women in science as well as his research.
Arsenic in your rice? The Wellness Letter reports
January 14, 2013: While it’s well known that many private water wells contain high concentrations of arsenic, the substance made headlines recently for its presence, as well, in rice. The UC Berkeley Wellness Report looks at recent research findings, and suggest ways to reduce arsenic consumption while still enjoying the popular grain.
Planet makes weird loops around dusty star
January 12, 2013: UC Berkeley astronomer Paul Kalas has studied the star Fomalhaut for years because of its resemblance to our own solar system 4 billion years ago. New observations using the Hubble Space Telescope reveal that an already-known planet circling Fomalhaut has a highly eccentric orbit that suggests the presence of other planets.
Top psychologists to present research on sleep, awe and more at ‘Big Easy’ conference
January 10, 2013: Poor sleep can sour relationships. Powerful people are better at shaking off rebuffs. Moms who run the household are less concerned with rising to power in the workplace, and people who gaze at the vastness of nature tend to be less self-centered. These are among several intriguing findings UC Berkeley psychologists will be presenting at this week’s annual meeting of the Society of Personality and Social Psychology in New Orleans.
A rock is a clock: physicist uses matter to tell time
January 10, 2013: What is the simplest, most fundamental clock? UC Berkeley physicist Holger Müller and his colleagues have shown that a single atom is sufficient to measure time. Conversely, the frequency of matter can be used to define its mass.
How to ‘un-invent’ America’s food system
January 10, 2013: In a special multi-article feature devoted to “diversified farming systems,” or DFS, for the December issue of the journal Ecology & Society, scientists from Berkeley and other institutions lay out a scientific case that biologically diversified agricultural practices can contribute substantially to food production while creating far fewer environmental harms than industrialized, conventional monoculture agriculture—that is, large swaths of land devoted to growing single crops using chemical inputs.
Farthest supernova yet for measuring cosmic history
January 9, 2013: The Supernova Cosmology Project, based at Berkeley Lab and headed by UC Berkeley physicist and Nobel Laureate Saul Perlmutter, has discovered the most distant supernova yet that can be used in cosmological studies. Announced at the American Astronomical Society meeting, it will help answer questions about dark energy and the fate of the universe.
Somorjai, Lott honored by National Academy of Sciences
January 9, 2013: The National Academy of Sciences, the country’s most prestigious scientific organization, has honored UC Berkeley chemist Gabor Somorjai and mathematician John Lott for major contributions to science.
Earth-size planets common in galaxy
January 8, 2013: Last year, astronomers were excited to discover that the number of exoplanets increases toward smaller sizes, suggesting that there are many Earth-size planets in the galaxy. A new analysis of three years of Kepler data shows that this increase plateaus around twice Earth size. Nevertheless, Earth-like planets occur around at least 17 percent of sun-like stars.
Exocomets may be as common as exoplanets
January 7, 2013: Astronomers have found thousands of potential exoplanets and many stars with massive disks of gas and dust that suggest planets are forming, but not much of the stuff intermediate between dust and planets, such as asteroids, planetesimals and comets. UC Berkeley astronomer Barry Welsh has looked closely at a number of stars with dust disks and found evidence that they also have comets.
Cheap and easy technique to snip DNA could revolutionize gene therapy
January 7, 2013: UC Berkeley’s Jennifer Doudna discovered that an enzyme used by bacteria to defend against viruses makes a simple, precise and cheap method of cutting DNA in order to insert new genes. The technique, now proved to work in human cells, could revolutionize genome engineering and transform gene therapy.
Physicist Art Rosenfeld to receive National Medal of Technology & Innovation
December 26, 2012: On Dec. 21, President Barack Obama named UC Berkeley and LBNL physicist Arthur Rosenfeld one of this year’s 11 recipients of the National Medal of Technology and Innovation. The annual award honors the nation’s top inventors. Rosenfeld is often called the “godfather of energy efficiency” because of his pioneering work on reducing the nation’s energy usage.
Less pavement, greater flower diversity lead to more bumblebee pollinators
December 24, 2012: In a study of California bumbebees, former Berkeley post-doc Shalene Jha, now at the University of Texas, and Berkeley professor Claire Kremen found that populations decreased when more land was paved, but increased with floral diversity. This suggests that farmers should plant flowering hedgerows and cover crops to encourage native pollinators.
Cellphone, GPS data suggest new strategy for alleviating traffic tie-ups
December 20, 2012: Tired of sitting in rush hour traffic? A new study demonstrates that asking everyone to cut their driving is only moderately effective in reducing congestion, but asking those in specific communities – those that contribute most to bottlenecks – may work better.
Undergrads get a rare chance to present their research alongside world experts at upcoming biology conference
December 19, 2012: Twenty-six young UC Berkeley scientists, many in the Berkeley Undergraduate Research Apprentice Program (URAP), will make a rare trip to present their research alongside internationally recognized experts at a major international biology conference.
Berkeley 2012 – the year in pictures 
December 19, 2012: New faces, new vitality, reflection and celebration — 2012 brought all that, and more, to UC Berkeley. Here’s a glance back at the year, in pictures.
What do leeches, limpets and worms have in common?
December 19, 2012: As much as one-third of marine life, including clams, octupuses and worms, fall into a group called the lophotrochozoa, ancient creatues that originated more than 500 million years ago. Berkeley’s Daniel Rokhsar spearheaded a team that has now sequenced the genomes of 3 of these creatures, a limpet, a polychaete worm and a freshwater leech, to learn more about their evolution.
Scientists construct first map of how the brain organizes everything we see
December 19, 2012: Our eyes may be our window to the world, but how do we make sense of the thousands of images that flood our retinas each day? UC Berkeley scientists have found that the brain is wired to put in order all the categories of objects and actions that we see. They have created the first interactive map of how the brain organizes these groupings.
Big NSF grant funds research into training robots to work with humans
December 17, 2012: What if robots and humans, working together, were able to perform tasks in surgery and manufacturing that neither can do alone? That’s the question driving new cloud robotics research by UC Berkeley professors Ken Goldberg and Pieter Abbeel and colleagues from four other universities, who were awarded a $3.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation.
To revert breast cancer cells, give them the squeeze
December 17, 2012: UC Berkeley researchers have found that compression can guide malignant breast cells back to a normal growth pattern. The findings, presented at the American Society for Cell Biology meeting, demonstrate the influence of mechanical forces on a cell’s destiny.
Cloud forest trees drink water through their leaves
December 12, 2012: Using water flow sensors and plastic “leaves” that sense wetness, UC Berkeley biologists have discovered that trees living in tropical mountaintop cloud forests drink through their leaves as well as their roots. Todd Dawson and Greg Goldsmith of integrative biology note, however, that studies show that the clouds are disappearing because of climate change.
New Energy Biosciences Building, Birgeneau Energy Garden dedicated
December 11, 2012: State legislators and city officials joined nearly 100 UC Berkeley researchers and administrators on Monday, Dec. 10, to dedicate the new Energy Biosciences Building and celebrate the fifth anniversary of the Energy Biosciences Institute, a partnership between the campus, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the energy company BP.
Q&A: Chris Somerville reflects on EBI’s first five years
December 11, 2012: In a Q&A, Chris Somerville, director of the Energy Biosciences Institute, reflected on the institute’s first five years and the current biofuels landscape.
NOAA’s Jane Lubchenco on ‘society’s wicked problems’
December 10, 2012: In a talk sponsored by the Berkeley Energy and Climate Institute and the Berkeley Initiative in Global Change Biology, the marine ecologist and longtime university professor spoke of a “social contract” for scientists, urging them not just to identify problems but to work toward solutions.
Conservatives can be persuaded to care more about the environment, study finds
December 10, 2012: When it comes to climate change, deforestation and toxic waste, the assumption has been that conservative views are intractable. But new research from UC Berkeley suggests that such opinions can be changed with messages couched in terms of fending off threats to the “purity” and “sanctity” of Earth and our bodies.
