Subscribe
New technology developed at UC Berkeley is using wireless signals to provide real-time, non-invasive diagnoses of brain swelling or bleeding. The device could potentially become a cost-effective tool for medical diagnostics and to triage injuries in areas where access to medical care, especially medical imaging, is limited.
Research archive
Racial minorities live on the front lines of heat risk, study finds
May 14, 2013: Some racial groups are more likely to bear the brunt of extreme heat waves because of where they live, finds a new UC Berkeley study. The study highlight racial disparities at a time when the frequency and intensity of extreme heat waves is expected to increase with climate change.
Heady mathematics: Describing popping bubbles in a foam 
May 9, 2013: Applied mathematicians James Sethian and Robert Saye from UC Berkeley and Berkeley Lab have discovered a way to mathematically describe the evolution of bubbles in a foam, and have used the equations to create a computer-generated video showing how the process proceeds.
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.
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.
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.
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.
People care about the source of cash, attach less value to ‘tainted’ wealth
April 23, 2013: It’s no accident that money obtained through dishonest or illegal means is called “dirty money.” A new UC Berkeley study suggests that when people perceive money as morally tainted, they also view it as having less value and purchasing power, challenging the belief that all money is green, and that people will cross ethical boundaries to amass it.
Research News Brief
April 23, 2013: Nearly half of Chinese manufacturing firms are audited either by foreign or domestic customers, but a large percentage of their workers still work more unpaid overtime than legally allowed, says a new study by UC Berkeley economists Jeff Perloff and Guojun He.
Lost your keys? Your cat? The brain can rapidly mobilize a search party
April 21, 2013: A contact lens on the bathroom floor, an escaped hamster in the backyard, a car key in a bed of gravel: How are we able to focus so sharply to find that proverbial needle in a haystack? UC Berkeley scientists have discovered that when we embark on a targeted search, various visual and non-visual regions of the brain mobilize to track down a person, animal or thing.
Disaster expert cites ‘failure to learn’ for Deepwater Horizon blowout
April 18, 2013: Bob Bea, UC Berkeley professor of civil engineering and an internationally recognized veteran of disaster investigations, shared his assessment of the Deepwater Horizon blowout at an April 17 talk on campus. He called the event a “system disaster” that exemplified a “failure to learn” from past mistakes.
Bakar Fellows Program: Creating a new trail to solve an old problem
April 18, 2013: With the support of a Bakar Fellowship, researcher Neil Tsutsui is testing the pest-control effectiveness of a synthetic version of a natural ant pheromone he discovered. The fellowship, which supports innovative research by early career UC Berkeley faculty, is accepting applications for the 2012-14 year now.
Scientists discover new materials to capture key greenhouse gas
April 17, 2013: Scientists at UC Berkeley and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory have discovered new materials that can soak up methane, a substantial and growing driver of global climate change.
Researchers find out why some stress is good for you
April 16, 2013: Chronic stress is known to cause major health problems, yet acute stress is thought to improve people’s performance and health. A new study by UC Berkeley professor Daniela Kaufer shows why that is. Stress generates new nerve cells in the brain that, two weeks later, help people learn better.
UC Berkeley selected to build NASA’s next space weather satellite
April 16, 2013: NASA has awarded UC Berkeley’s Space Sciences Laboratory up to $200 million to build a satellite to determine how Earth’s weather affects weather at the edge of space, in hopes of improving forecasts of extreme “space weather” that can disrupt global positioning satellites (GPS) and radio communications.
I School’s Drone Lab looks at positive uses of unpiloted aircraft
April 16, 2013: Don’t be surprised to spot small, unpiloted machines buzzing in the air around South Hall and environs. They’re part of the Drone Lab, a small team of School of Information students who are exploring drones’ positive uses — and reinventing them in the public eye as something other than high-tech killing machines. With video.
New report: California lags in fracking regs
April 12, 2013: A new report on fracking in California warns of potentially irreversible contamination of surface and groundwater near oil drilling sites, unless the technique is carefully monitored and controlled. “Regulation of Hydraulic Fracturing in California: A Wastewater and Water Quality Perspective” is an independent analysis produced by Berkeley Law scholars.
Launch of antimalarial drug a triumph for UC Berkeley, synthetic biology
April 11, 2013: The best therapy today for malaria is a drug combination that includes a derivative of artemisinin, now solely available from plants. On April 11, Sanofi began production of the first semi-synthetic version of artemisinin, derived from yeast developed by biotech company Amyris based on discoveries in the laboratory of Jay Keasling at UC Berkeley.
Hot tech-startup idea? Apply to Venture Lab contest
April 10, 2013: Campus students and post docs who seek to launch and grow a tech startup are invited to apply for funding, workspace and guidance from the Venture Lab competition. The contest deadline is April 17.
Experts sound alarm over “perfect storm” in African Sahel
April 9, 2013: The African Sahel, beset with impacts from climate change and the most rapidly growing population in the world, could descend into large-scale drought, famine, war and terrorist control if immediate steps are not taken, according to a new report by experts from UC Berkeley and the African Institute for Development Policy.
Biblical scholar on his latest translation, Ancient Israel 
April 8, 2013: Biblical scholar Robert Alter considers himself a “literary archaeologist.” He discusses his latest Hebrew Bible translation, an award-winning work on the ancient Biblical books Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings, on KQED radio’s “Forum with Michael Krasny.”
Forget your password: The future is ‘passthoughts’
April 5, 2013: Instead of typing your password, in the future you may only have to think your password, according to School of Information researchers.
Rising temperature difference between hemispheres could dramatically shift rainfall patterns in tropics
April 2, 2013: UC Berkeley climatologist John Chiang, geography graduate student Andrew Friedman and colleagues from the University of Washington found that changes in the temperature difference between the Northern and Southern hemispheres during the 20th century were linked to catastrophic changes in tropical rainfall. As the difference rises, the tropics could see future rainfall disruptions.
Enlisting Android phones to find black holes
March 27, 2013: Wired writer Daniela Hernandez profiles UC Berkeley’s David Anderson, creator of the BOINC platform that runs SETI@home and other crowd-sourced projects, and efforts to capture the computing power of smart phones. Anderson is now testing software on the Android phone that would allow anyone to plug into Einstein@home, another crowd-sourced project, to search for black holes.
I School research looks at online collaboration and MOOCs
March 25, 2013: How can students work together in the new generation of online courses? And how can online systems support and encourage peer learning? A new UC Berkeley School of Information research project aims to answer these questions and more.
Planck mission updates age and content of universe
March 21, 2013: The European Space Agency’s Planck satellite, supported in part by NASA, has obtained the most precise picture yet of the temperature of the early universe, from which they’ve updated the age of the universe and the proportions of normal and dark matter and dark energy. At a Mar. 21 NASA press conference, UC Berkeley physicist Martin White called the Planck data “stunning.”
Latin America scholars on Chavez’s death, new Pope
March 21, 2013: What does the death of Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez, and the election of an Argentinian cardinal as Pope, mean for Latin America? Experts from the Americas offer commentary, in English and Spanish, via the Center for Latin American Studies’ online video series “Critical Insights.”
Computer simulations reveal clues to cell interaction
March 21, 2013: Scientists have developed a computer model of integrin, a protein that helps cells interact with their surroundings. The virtual integrin snippet is about the same length and behaves in similar ways to its biological counterpart. The result is a new way to explore how the protein connects a cell’s inner and outer environments.
Engineers watch photons going out for a spin
March 21, 2013: Engineers at UC Berkeley and Berkeley Lab have created a 2D sheet of gold nanoantennas to get the strongest signal yet of the photonic spin Hall effect, an optical phenomenon of quantum mechanics that could play a prominent role in how information is encoded and processed in computing.
