http://newscenter.berkeley.edu News from the University of California, Berkeley Wed, 22 May 2013 18:39:28 +0000 en-US hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2013/05/22/citizen-scientists-help-calbug/ http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2013/05/22/citizen-scientists-help-calbug/#comments Wed, 22 May 2013 17:30:14 +0000 Sarah Yang http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/?p=34545 UC Berkeley's Essig Museum of Entomology is officially launching a new citizen science project called Calbug to crowd-source the digitization of a million hand-written field notes. The field notes accompany insect specimens, many of which were collected more than a century ago. ]]> http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2013/05/22/citizen-scientists-help-calbug/feed/ 0 http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2013/05/21/architecture-student-among-11-us-recipients-of-new-sustainability-fellowship/ http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2013/05/21/architecture-student-among-11-us-recipients-of-new-sustainability-fellowship/#comments Tue, 21 May 2013 22:30:00 +0000 Kathleen Maclay http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/?p=34835 By updating and expanding California’s utility-allowance calculator, Berkeley grad student Antony Kim hopes to make sustainable architecture more available to low-cost housing developers. He and his faculty mentor, Galen Cranz, are winners of the first-ever Schmidt-MacArthur Fellowship, which encourages the design of sustainable products and processes.]]> http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2013/05/21/architecture-student-among-11-us-recipients-of-new-sustainability-fellowship/feed/ 0 http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2013/05/14/wireless-signals-for-brain-trauma-diagnostics/ http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2013/05/14/wireless-signals-for-brain-trauma-diagnostics/#comments Tue, 14 May 2013 21:00:20 +0000 Sarah Yang http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/?p=34483 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. ]]> http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2013/05/14/wireless-signals-for-brain-trauma-diagnostics/feed/ 0 http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2013/05/14/racial-segregation-heat-risk-disparity/ http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2013/05/14/racial-segregation-heat-risk-disparity/#comments Tue, 14 May 2013 07:05:24 +0000 Sarah Yang http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/?p=34210 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. ]]> http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2013/05/14/racial-segregation-heat-risk-disparity/feed/ 0 http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2013/05/09/heady-mathematics-describing-popping-bubbles-in-a-foam/ http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2013/05/09/heady-mathematics-describing-popping-bubbles-in-a-foam/#comments Thu, 09 May 2013 18:00:30 +0000 Robert Sanders http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/?p=34624 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. ]]> http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2013/05/09/heady-mathematics-describing-popping-bubbles-in-a-foam/feed/ 0 http://newscenter.lbl.gov/science-shorts/2013/05/08/melvin-calvin-moon-dust/ http://newscenter.lbl.gov/science-shorts/2013/05/08/melvin-calvin-moon-dust/#comments Wed, 08 May 2013 17:30:36 +0000 Robert Sanders http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/?p=34621 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.]]> http://newscenter.lbl.gov/science-shorts/2013/05/08/melvin-calvin-moon-dust/feed/ 0 http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2013/05/08/motion-vision/ http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2013/05/08/motion-vision/#comments Wed, 08 May 2013 16:36:15 +0000 Yasmin Anwar http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/?p=34352 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.]]> http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2013/05/08/motion-vision/feed/ 0 http://www.jweekly.com/article/full/68459/from-fascist-europe-to-u.c.-berkeley-students-help-uncover-a-history-of-int/ http://www.jweekly.com/article/full/68459/from-fascist-europe-to-u.c.-berkeley-students-help-uncover-a-history-of-int/#comments Mon, 06 May 2013 18:05:56 +0000 Carol Ness http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/?p=34605 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.]]> http://www.jweekly.com/article/full/68459/from-fascist-europe-to-u.c.-berkeley-students-help-uncover-a-history-of-int/feed/ 0 http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2013/04/30/is-antimatter-anti-gravity/ http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2013/04/30/is-antimatter-anti-gravity/#comments Tue, 30 Apr 2013 15:00:46 +0000 Robert Sanders http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/?p=34391 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.]]> http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2013/04/30/is-antimatter-anti-gravity/feed/ 0 http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2013/04/25/malaria-milestone-took-a-village/ http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2013/04/25/malaria-milestone-took-a-village/#comments Fri, 26 Apr 2013 01:00:35 +0000 Robert Sanders http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/?p=34500 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.]]> http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2013/04/25/malaria-milestone-took-a-village/feed/ 0 http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2013/04/23/ill-gotten-gains/ http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2013/04/23/ill-gotten-gains/#comments Tue, 23 Apr 2013 18:00:09 +0000 Yasmin Anwar http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/?p=34070 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.]]> http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2013/04/23/ill-gotten-gains/feed/ 0 http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2013/04/23/foreign-audits-china-laborers/ http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2013/04/23/foreign-audits-china-laborers/#comments Tue, 23 Apr 2013 17:30:10 +0000 Sarah Yang http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/?p=33152 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. ]]> http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2013/04/23/foreign-audits-china-laborers/feed/ 0 http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2013/04/21/brainsearchparty/ http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2013/04/21/brainsearchparty/#comments Sun, 21 Apr 2013 17:00:54 +0000 Yasmin Anwar http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/?p=34465 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.]]> http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2013/04/21/brainsearchparty/feed/ 0 http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2013/04/18/deepwater-horizon/ http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2013/04/18/deepwater-horizon/#comments Thu, 18 Apr 2013 22:35:23 +0000 Sarah Yang http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/?p=34432 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.]]> http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2013/04/18/deepwater-horizon/feed/ 0 http://vcresearch.berkeley.edu/bakarfellows/creating-new-trail-solve-old-problem http://vcresearch.berkeley.edu/bakarfellows/creating-new-trail-solve-old-problem#comments Thu, 18 Apr 2013 22:25:49 +0000 Carol Ness http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/?p=34454 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. ]]> http://vcresearch.berkeley.edu/bakarfellows/creating-new-trail-solve-old-problem/feed/ 0 https://www.llnl.gov/news/newsreleases/2013/Apr/NR-13-04-03.html https://www.llnl.gov/news/newsreleases/2013/Apr/NR-13-04-03.html#comments Wed, 17 Apr 2013 17:17:31 +0000 Carol Ness http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/?p=34452 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.]]> https://www.llnl.gov/news/newsreleases/2013/Apr/NR-13-04-03.html/feed/ 0 http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2013/04/16/researchers-find-out-why-some-stress-is-good-for-you/ http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2013/04/16/researchers-find-out-why-some-stress-is-good-for-you/#comments Tue, 16 Apr 2013 19:24:50 +0000 Robert Sanders http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/?p=34182 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.]]> http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2013/04/16/researchers-find-out-why-some-stress-is-good-for-you/feed/ 0 http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2013/04/16/uc-berkeley-selected-to-build-nasas-next-space-weather-satellite/ http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2013/04/16/uc-berkeley-selected-to-build-nasas-next-space-weather-satellite/#comments Fri, 12 Apr 2013 19:23:58 +0000 Robert Sanders http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/?p=34347 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.]]> http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2013/04/16/uc-berkeley-selected-to-build-nasas-next-space-weather-satellite/feed/ 0 http://www.ischool.berkeley.edu/newsandevents/news/20130416dronelab http://www.ischool.berkeley.edu/newsandevents/news/20130416dronelab#comments Tue, 16 Apr 2013 17:38:27 +0000 Carol Ness http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/?p=34443 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. ]]> http://www.ischool.berkeley.edu/newsandevents/news/20130416dronelab/feed/ 0 http://www.law.berkeley.edu/15180.htm http://www.law.berkeley.edu/15180.htm#comments Fri, 12 Apr 2013 16:35:28 +0000 Public Affairs http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/?p=34411 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.]]> http://www.law.berkeley.edu/15180.htm/feed/ 0