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UC Berkeley’s Essig Museum of Entomology is opening up its collections to citizen scientists through a project called Calbug. The project crowdsources the digitization of a million handwritten field notes that accompany insect specimens, many of which were collected more than a century ago.
Press Release archive
Americans and religion increasingly parting ways, new survey shows
March 12, 2013: Religious affiliation in the United States is at its lowest point since it began to be tracked in the 1930s, according to analysis of newly released survey data by researchers from UC Berkeley and Duke University. Last year, one in five Americans claimed they had no religious preference, more than double the number reported in 1990.
Evidence that comets could have seeded life on Earth
March 5, 2013: UC Berkeley and University of Hawaii scientists have shown that complex molecules can form on icy rocks in space, suggesting that comets may have seeded early Earth with the building blocks of life. The team zapped icy snowballs of carbon dioxide and hydrocarbons, producing complex molecules, such as dipeptides, that are capable of catalyzing the formation of more complex structures.
Physics Nobelist and biotech pioneer Donald Glaser dies at 86
March 1, 2013: Donald Glaser, a Nobel-prize winning physicist who reinvented himself as a biotech pioneer and later dove into the field of neurobiology, died in his sleep Thursday morning, Feb. 28, at his home in Berkeley. Glaser, a professor emeritus of physics and of molecular and cell biology, was 86.
Research News Briefs
February 28, 2013: Research News Briefs: Economic paper says social pressure affects women more than men when it comes to altruism / Neighborhoods teeming with liquor stores linked to big jump in binge drinking
Garniss Curtis, pioneer of precision fossil dating, has died at 93
February 26, 2013: UC Berkeley geologist Garniss H. Curtis, a professor emeritus of earth and planetary science who pioneered the use of radioactive isotopes to date relatively young rocks, thereby providing the first solid timeline for human evolution, died Dec. 18 in Orinda, Calif., at the age of 93.
Policy experts, health care leaders offer landmark roadmap for better health care at lower cost
February 26, 2013: An unprecedented, year-long collaborative effort involving policy experts from UC Berkeley, CEOs of major health insurers and health care delivery systems, and leaders from California’s public sector has produced a detailed roadmap that would transform the state’s health care system and improve care and outcomes while saving billions of dollars in the process.
Early phases of construction begin for BAM/PFA
February 12, 2013: Work is underway on the future home of BAM/PFA in downtown Berkeley, marking a milestone for the new visual arts center.
Scientists create automated ‘time machine’ to reconstruct ancient languages
February 11, 2013: Ancient languages hold a treasure trove of information about the culture, politics and commerce of millennia past. Yet, reconstructing them to reveal clues into human history can require decades of painstaking work. Now, UC Berkeley scientists have created an automated “time machine,” of sorts, that will greatly accelerate and improve the process of reconstructing hundreds of ancestral languages.
Intelligent civilizations rarer than one in a million
February 8, 2013: After looking for intelligent radio signals from 86 stars with known planets, UC Berkeley scientists have, for the first time, calculated the odds of finding intelligent civilizations in the Milky Way Galaxy. Fewer than one in a million stars probably are advanced enough for us to detect, though that means there are still potentially millions of such civilizations in the galaxy.
New evidence comet or asteroid impact was last straw for dinosaurs
February 7, 2013: A team of scientists from the Berkeley Geochronology Center and UC Berkeley have determined the most precise dates yet for the dinosaur extinction 66 million years ago and for the well-known impact that occurred around the same time, and concluded that they were simultaneous. While the impact probably was not the sole reason for the dino die-off, it was likely the last straw.
Research News Briefs
January 31, 2013: Research News Brief: UC Berkeley astronomer Leo Blitz and his colleagues at the European Southern Observatory have used the Berkeley/Caltech CARMA radio telescope array to weigh the black hole at the center of a galaxy 53 million light years away, proving a technique that will allow future telescopes to find many more massive black holes lurking in the cores of distant galaxies.
Discovery opens the door to a potential ‘molecular fountain of youth’
January 31, 2013: UC Berkeley researchers were able to turn back the molecular clock of blood stem cells of old mice by infusing them with a longevity gene. The experiment rejuvenated the aged stem cells’ regenerative potential, providing new hope for the development of targeted treatments for age-related degenerative diseases.
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.
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.
Chancellor to lead American Academy’s new Lincoln Project
January 28, 2013: At a symposium held on campus in Birgeneau’s honor, the American Academy of Arts & Sciences announced that the chancellor will head a new effort to stabilize the financial model of the nation’s public universities.
Playwright/alum Stan Lai to discuss creativity, theater
January 25, 2013: The prolific director/playwright Stan Lai comes home to the Berkeley campus to talk about contemporary theater, culture and creativity in Asia and the United States — and what the world would be like without theater.
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.
Poor sleep can leave romantic partners feeling unappreciated
January 19, 2013: A UC Berkeley study looking into how sleep habits impact gratitude has found that sleep deprivation can leave couples “too tired to say thanks” and can make one or the other partner feel taken for granted.
When mom is the CEO at home, workplace ambitions take a back seat
January 18, 2013: It’s often said that women can have it all – motherhood and a successful career. But a new UC Berkeley study suggests that women who rule the household have less energy for or interest in being a rising star in the workplace.
Powerful people better at shaking off rebuffs, bonding with others
January 18, 2013: Employees often tiptoe around their bosses for fear of offending them. But new UC Berkeley research shows people in power have thicker skin than one might think.
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.
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.
Researchers find minimal state cost from Medicaid expansion in California
January 7, 2013:
California has the opportunity to significantly increase health insurance coverage at minimal cost to the state budget, according to a joint study by UC Berkeley’s Center for Labor Research and Education and the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research.
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.
Banguns initiative calls for change, accountability
December 21, 2012: UC Berkeley political scientist Steve Fish is helping to launch an initiative called Banguns in response to the Sandy Hook massacre. Those signing the initiative pledge to vote for, or financially support, only those elected officials who actively support effective new gun-control legislation
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.
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.
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.
