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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 somber Requiem in D minor is more likely to be linked to dark, bluish gray.
Technology & engineering archive
Keck observations reveal complex face of Uranus
October 17, 2012: Uranus is so far from Earth that telescopes have typically seen little more than a blue-green blur, but new techniques employed with the Keck II telescope in Hawaii are revealing complex surface detail reminiscent of the solar system’s other giant planets, including Saturn and Neptune.
Pedagogy of the obsessed: ‘Wikignome’ spreads the word
October 16, 2012: As part of a student-run course on online piracy, Kevin Gorman discovered Wikipedia’s potential as a tool for teaching and learning. Since then the UC Berkeley undergrad has become an evangelist for collaborative online encyclopedia-making, coaching campus instructors and students on using Wikipedia-based assignments to enhance learning and disseminate information online.
UC mentors next generation of women in STEM fields
October 12, 2012: A nationwide online mentoring program, Women in Technology Sharing Online (WitsOn), seeks to connect women students pursuing STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) degrees with women leaders from academia and industry. Students and faculty from Berkeley and seven other UC campuses are participating.
USAID chief lauds Blum Center as model in search for global solutions
October 11, 2012:
USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah visited campus and encouraged students to join the search for open source solutions to pressing global problems.
How much water does a steelhead need to thrive?
October 9, 2012: We know how much water that cities, industry and agriculture need, says UC Berkeley engineering professor Mark Stacey. “We can put pretty precise numbers on each of those things. But we cannot do the same on the ecosystem side. We do not know how much water a steelhead needs to thrive.” Now, Stacey and his UC Davis collaborator are developing methods to quantify ecosystem requirements in two iconic California environments: Lake Tahoe, at the high end of the watershed, and Pescadero Estuary, at the bottom.
UC grant will help commercialize nanolaser for faster computer chips
October 8, 2012: Thanks to a new Proof of Concept grant from the University of California, Berkeley mechanical engineer Xiang Zhang will be able to build a prototype of his innovative “plasmon nanolaser,” faciitating the process of turning a lab-bench invention into a commercially viable technology for improving computer chip speed for use in high-volume data communications.
Bernard Sadoulet shares Panofsky Prize for dark matter search
September 27, 2012: The 2013 Panofsky Prize in Experimental Particle Physics was awarded jointly to UC Berkeley physicist Bernard Sadoulet and Stanford’s Blas Cabrera for their development of new techniques for searching for weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPS), the most popular candidate for the unseen dark matter that permeates the universe.
BART teams with UC Berkeley to adopt earthquake early warning system
September 27, 2012: The Berkeley Seismological Laboratory has hooked BART into the Northern California seismic network, in an earthquake early-warning system that automatically slows trains in the event of a quake. For quakes beyond the Bay Area, BART gets advance warning, so that its trains can slow to a crawl before the ground begins to shake.
$10 million NSF grant to study human factor in cybercrime
September 25, 2012: Vern Paxson, UC Berkeley professor and researcher at the International Computer Science Institute (ICSI), will lead new cybercrime research funded by a $10 million, five-year grant from the National Science Foundation. Researchers from ICSI, UC San Diego and George Mason University will investigate the roles played by economics and social interactions in Internet security. and it will include analysis of the relationships among cybercriminals, who rely upon each other for services and expertise.
Looking anew at the user experience 
September 24, 2012: School of Information doctoral candidate Elizabeth Goodman is coauthor of the second edition of a classic handbook on research methods, “Observing the User Experience.” Goodman has twice co-taught a course at the I School using the first version of the book as an assigned text.
Cal Energy Corps interns field-test smart solutions
September 24, 2012: More than 30 Berkeley undergrads shared experiences, adventures and insights from their summer internships during the second annual Cal Energy Corps symposium at the David Brower Center Thursday.
Architecture’s de Monchaux proposes fixes for ailing Venetian lagoon, islands
September 20, 2012:
Nicholas de Monchaux, an assistant professor of architecture, is leading a workshop exploring the use of urban design software to “redevelop” Venetian islands.
Campus calendar network, all grown up, hits a milestone
September 20, 2012: Nearly six years after its launch, the campuswide calendar network has reached a milestone: 1,500 upcoming event listings, contributed to by more than 120 campus departments and units. Useful tools, added since its 2006 launch, include a new mobile interface.
What California needs to do about electric cars (hint: more)
September 11, 2012: Electric cars are key to California’s energy and clean-air future, but more needs to be done to make consumers aware of their performance, to reduce their cost and to build an easy-to-use charging network, according to a new report from the Berkeley and UCLA law schools.
Laser discoverer Charles Townes to receive first Golden Goose Award
September 11, 2012: Charles Townes, who won a Nobel Prize in Physics for invention of the laser, will receive an inaugural Golden Goose Award Sept. 13. Presented for the first time this year, the prize honors scientists who received federal funding for seemingly arcane work that turned out to have revolutionary applications.
Election 2012: New app springing from Berkeley estimates financial impact on you, your community, the nation
September 10, 2012: Voters interested in what the November presidential election will mean for their own finances, and for those in their community and the nation as a whole, can get a clear visual picture from the latest update of the Politify website and app, created by UC Berkeley students and a big winner in last spring’s CITRIS Big Ideas contest.
Deborah Berke awarded new Berkeley-Rupp Prize for advancing women in architecture, contributing to sustainability 
September 10, 2012: Deborah Berke, a New York City-based architect known for her design excellence and commitment to architectural innovation, is the first recipient of the College of Environmental Design’s inaugural Berkeley-Rupp Architecture Professorship and Prize.
Solar Beacon will bejewel Golden Gate Bridge through September
August 31, 2012: An art installation called Solar Beacon, mounted atop the Golden Gate Bridge towers in May by UC Berkeley space scientists, has been given a one-month extension and will remain operative through September, allowing Bay Area residents to schedule flashes of light from the movable mirrors.
Public lecture and panel to honor Alan Turing, father of computer science
August 30, 2012: The public is invited to a celebration Tuesday, Sept. 4, marking the life and work of Alan Turing, an English mathematician and wartime code-breaker considered the father of computer science and artificial intelligence. The event is sponsored by the Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing at UC Berkeley and the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute.
Fox named academic director of online-education center
August 30, 2012: Armando Fox, professor-in-residence in the College of Engineering, has been appointed to serve as academic director of the Berkeley Resource Center for Online Education, a new unit dedicated to supporting online-education initiatives and research.
IST announces changes to campus-supported cellular service
August 30, 2012: AT&T and Verizon Wireless will be the exclusive providers of cellular devices and plans offered through Information Systems and Technology for university-owned cell phones, effective Dec. 1, 2012. Departments that want to switch from their current carriers to AT&T or Verizon Wireless, or to remain with other carriers, need to take action by that date.
Lizard tails and gecko feet inspire industries, students
August 30, 2012: Integrative biologist Robert Full and his students have made discoveries about the agile and sticky gecko that have sparked product ideas ranging from rescue robots to sports gear. These animals — not to mention cockroaches, centipedes and crabs — have also captured the research imagination of undergraduate and graduate students.
NSF awards $3.4 million to train students in “green chemistry”
August 29, 2012: The Berkeley Center for Green Chemistry has been awarded a $3.4 million training grant by the National Science Foundation. The grant will train five to six Ph.D. students annually for five years in the principles of green chemistry and the design of clean energy technologies.
ETS launches e-text pilot
August 27, 2012: This semester, Educational Technology Services is heading up a pilot program to explore a new way of offering students access to e-textbooks. The goal is to explore a new business model for delivering electronic content, as well as to find out how the use of electronic content may affect the teaching and learning process.
NSF awards $2 million to develop flexible bioelectronics systems
August 23, 2012: The National Science Foundation has awarded $2 million over four years for a UC Berkeley project to develop flexible bioelectronics systems. The research would support the development of electronic materials that could not only be implanted into the body for medical applications such as wound healing, but that could also be safely resorbed into the body.
$2.5 million grant to improve traffic safety
August 17, 2012: California’s Office of Traffic Safety (OTS) has awarded nearly $2.5 million in grants to two research and education centers affiliated with the Institute of Transportation Studies to improve safety for pedestrians, bicyclists, motorcyclists, and drivers. The Safe Transportation Research & Education Center (SafeTREC) and the Technology Transfer Program (Tech Transfer) will use the funds to study better ways to prevent crashes and to help local agencies identify potentially hazardous surface roadway conditions.
Berkeley helps laid-off workers retool for new careers
August 13, 2012: Laid-off workers are getting hands-on training in microfabrication at Berkeley’s Biomolecular Nanotechnology Center through a collaborative technical-education initiative with Oakland’s Laney College.
Berkeley takes silver in UC tech innovation awards
August 7, 2012: Campus was honored with a Sautter award for Kuali Ready, a Web application that helps departments create a continuity plan, which is used to resume critical operations as soon as possible after a disruptive event.
‘Greener and greener’ Li Ka Shing Center wins LEED Gold
August 2, 2012: A recently opened five-story building on the campus’s western edge has been officially certified LEED Gold. The Li Ka Shing Biomedical and Health Sciences Center is the 10th UC Berkeley building to earn high marks from the U.S. Green Building Council, and brings the campus’s LEED-certified space to more than 1 million square feet.
New Energy Biosciences Building opens at UC Berkeley
August 1, 2012: Almost five years into its 10-year program to develop new energy alternatives using biological tools and methods, the Energy Biosciences Institute is moving its UC Berkeley headquarters and research labs into a modern new building. The western branch of the $500 million public-private collaboration will be housed in a five-story, 113,000-gross-square-foot, state-of-the-art facility.
