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A UC Berkeley-led research team found that golden-winged warblers in Tennessee fled the path of tornado-generating storms one to two days ahead, well before any local signs of troubling weather. Signs point to the use of infrasound as Mother Nature’s early warning system.
Press Release archive
Unique Sulawesi frog gives birth to tadpoles
December 31, 2014: Amid the amazing biodiversity of the Indonesian island of Sulawesi lives a 5-gram frog that gives direct birth to tadpoles, without ever laying eggs. This unique reproductive strategy, found in a group of fanged frogs endemic to the island, is described for the first time by UC Berkeley herpetologist Jim McGuire and colleagues from Indonesia and Canada.
Media Advisory: UC Berkeley winter commencement to be held Dec. 20
December 12, 2014:
UC Berkeley will celebrate its annual December Commencement honoring all graduating seniors in the Class of 2014. More than 4,000 people, including graduating students and their guests, are expected to attend the event at Haas Pavilion.
Scientists measure speedy electrons in silicon
December 11, 2014: Attosecond lasers provide the shortest light pulses yet, allowing observation of nature’s most short-lived events. Berkeley researchers have used these lasers for the first time to take snapshots of electrons jumping from silicon atoms into the conduction band of a semiconductor, the key event behind the transistor.
Food luminaries to light up spring semester
December 11, 2014: The Berkeley Food Institute is drawing food and agriculture experts to campus from across the country to address challenges and find solutions to problems in the food sector. Among the luminaries headed to campus this spring is New York Times columnist and writer Mark Bittman, who will co-host the popular Edible Education 101 course. Also: Q&A with Mark Bittman
Organic electronics could lead to cheap, wearable medical sensors
December 10, 2014: UC Berkeley researchers have created a pulse oximeter, commonly used to measure heart rate and blood oxygen levels, using all organic materials instead of silicon. The advance could lead to cheap, flexible sensors that could be used like a Band-Aid.
Can organic crops compete with industrial agriculture?
December 9, 2014: An analysis of 115 studies comparing organic and conventional farming finds that the crop yields of organic agriculture are higher than previously thought. Researchers also found that taking into account methods that optimize the productivity of organic agriculture could minimize the yield gap between organic and conventional farming.
Wealth, power or lack thereof at heart of many mental disorders
December 9, 2014: Donald Trump’s ego may be the size of his financial empire, but that doesn’t mean he’s the picture of mental health. The same can be said about the self-esteem of people who are living from paycheck to paycheck, or unemployed. New research underscores this mind-wallet connection, showing a strong link between self-worth and mental illness.
New therapy holds promise for restoring vision
December 8, 2014: A new genetic therapy developed by UC Berkeley scientists has not only helped blind mice regain light sensitivity sufficient to distinguish flashing from non-flashing lights, but also restored light response to the retinas of dogs, setting the stage for future clinical trials of the therapy in humans. The therapy involves inserting photoswitches into retinal cells that are normally “blind.”
Scientists detect brain network that gives humans superior reasoning skills
December 3, 2014: When it comes to getting out of a tricky situation, we humans have an evolutionary edge over other primates. UC Berkeley scientists have found mounting brain evidence that helps explain how humans have excelled at “relational reasoning,” a cognitive skill we use to solve problems.
Greater income inequality linked to more deaths for black Americans
December 1, 2014: Income inequality matters for everyone, but it matters differently for different groups of people, conclude the authors of a new UC Berkeley study. Researchers linked greater gaps in wealth to more deaths among black Americans, but fewer deaths among white Americans.
Dodging a sixth mass extinction 
November 25, 2014: Integrative biology professor Anthony Barnosky not only has a new book out, Dodging Extinction, but also appears in a new documentary airing Nov. 30 on the Smithsonian Channel. The film, Mass Extinction, Life at the Brink, also features UC Berkeley geologist Walter Alvarez and Barnosky’s wife, Stanford ecologist Elizabeth Hadly.
Obama to present National Medal of Science to three Berkeley faculty
November 19, 2014: Tomorrow (Nov. 20) at 8:30 a.m. PST, President Barack Obama will present the National Medals of Science and National Medals of Technology & Innovation to 19 people, including three UC Berkeley faculty members who have made significant contributions in the fields of chemistry and mathematics.
$45 million in grants fund new cybersecurity centers at UC Berkeley, MIT and Stanford
November 18, 2014: Berkeley’s new Center for Long-Term CyberSecurity will map out what the cybersecurity problem will mean a few years down the road, and to stimulate interdisciplinary research efforts that will make a difference in resolving the threat.
Of rats and men: Tolman, behavior and academic freedom
November 13, 2014: Edward Tolman, whose groundbreaking insights laid the foundation for the discovery of what’s been called “the brain’s GPS,” also led the fight against the McCarthy-era UC loyalty oath. His life and work were remembered during a daylong celebration at the Faculty Club and, of course, Tolman Hall.
Lightning expected to increase by 50 percent with global warming
November 13, 2014: UC Berkeley atmospheric scientist David Romps and his colleagues looked at predictions of precipitation and cloud buoyancy in 11 different climate models and concluded that global warming will generate 50 percent more lightning strikes across the U.S. by the end of the 21st century.
Amateur, professional astronomers alike thrilled by extreme storms on Uranus
November 12, 2014: A team led by Berkeley astronomer Imke de Pater has been observing Uranus regularly for years, and recently found that the normally bland face of the planet has become increasingly stormy, with enormous cloud systems so bright that for the first time ever, amateur astronomers are able to see details in the planet’s hazy blue-green atmosphere.
Study says California solar boom makes the state a national leader, prepares new generation of workers
November 10, 2014: A new report from UC Berkeley’s Don Vial Center for Green Jobs notes California’s leading role in the solar energy field, and recommends steps to secure the state’s solar energy future in terms of energy supplies and for workers, too.
Study identifies effective communication strategies for voter ID laws
November 5, 2014: A new study examining impacts of voter ID requirements finds some effective communications tools to help inform and prepare voters to be prepared when going to the polls.
How important is long-distance travel in the spread of epidemics?
November 4, 2014: A new model of epidemic spread by biophysicists Oskar Hallatschek of UC Berkeley and Daniel Fisher of Stanford shows that how common long-range jumps are makes a big difference in the dispersal of a disease, that is, whether you get slow, rippling spread or metastatic spread.
Faster switching helps ferroelectrics become viable replacement for transistors
October 26, 2014: Ferroelectric materials – commonly used in transit cards, gas grill igniters, video game memory, and more – could become strong candidates for use in next-generation computers, thanks to a new, easy method for speeding up their performance.
Bancroft opens stunning California Captured on Canvas exhibit
October 21, 2014: The Bancroft Library is providing a window onto California’s unique history and culture with an new exhibit of oil paintings from its pictorial collection, some of which haven’t been publicly displayed before.
Hospital mergers and acquisitions leading to increased patient costs
October 21, 2014: The trend of hospitals consolidating medical groups and physician practices in an effort to improve the coordination of patient care is backfiring when it comes to lowering the cost of patient care, according to a new study. Researchers find that patient costs are significantly higher in hospital-owned physician groups compared with physician-owned groups.
New post-bac at Berkeley may be hottest ticket to grad school
October 21, 2014: Aaron Fisher was a nanny for a successful actor in Manhattan when he applied for a post-baccalaureate in psychology. Emily Becklund was working in L.A., as a personal assistant for the reality-TV Kardashian family, when she did the same. Today their academic dreams have converged at UC Berkeley, where Fisher just launched a post-bac, inspired by his own success.
POLARBEAR seeks cosmic answers in microwave polarization
October 21, 2014: The POLARBEAR experiment, directed by UC Berkeley physicist Adrian Lee, is studying the B-mode polarization of the cosmic microwave background radiation. He hopes to determine the structure of matter in the universe, the masses of neutrinos and the nature of dark matter and dark energy.
Chancellor’s Community Partnership Fund application process begins
October 17, 2014: Chancellor Dirks has announced the launch of the 2015-16 grant cycle for the Chancellor’s Community Partnership Fund. This year the fund can grant up to $260,000 to innovative campus-Berkeley community partnerships, for projects beginning in the summer or early fall of 2015.
New front in war on Alzheimer’s, other protein-folding diseases
October 16, 2014: Many neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s, have been linked to the accumulation of improperly folded proteins in the brain. How they collect is a mystery, but Andrew Dillin and his lab have found a new mechanism cells use to prevent misfolding that could lead to new types of therapies for these diseases.
Media Advisory: Chancellor to visit Hayward, Tennyson high schools on Oct. 16 to promote college access
October 14, 2014:
UC Berkeley Chancellor Nicholas Dirks and top campus administrators will visit Hayward High School and Tennyson High School in the Hayward Unified School District to promote college readiness, inspire potential UC students and offer teens practical tools for college success.
Earth’s magnetic field could flip within a human lifetime
October 14, 2014: UC Berkeley geophysicist Paul Renne, grad student Courtney Sprain and their Italian and French colleagues found that Earth’s last magnetic reversal took place 786,000 years ago and happened very quickly, in less than 100 years – roughly a human lifetime. The rapid flip is much faster than the thousands of years most geologists thought.
Scientists create new protein-based material with some nerve
October 14, 2014: UC Berkeley scientists have taken proteins from nerve cells and used them to create a “smart” material that is extremely sensitive to its environment. This marriage of materials science and biology could lead to new types of biological sensors, flow valves and controlled drug release systems, the researchers said.
