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Campus couples talk about the challenges and rewards of working together and reveal their favorite romantic places at UC Berkeley.
Video archive
UC Berkeley grad student’s research spurred by Gulf oil spill
February 8, 2012: Soon after the April 2010 explosion on the Deepwater Horizon offshore oil platform killed 11 workers and spilled 5 million barrels of crude into the Gulf of Mexico, UC Berkeley graduate student Thomas Azwell packed his bags and headed to Louisiana. Azwell teamed up with researchers in the Gulf to develop marsh restoration technology that could impact remediation efforts nationwide.
Berlusconi lecture delves into the cult of personality
February 8, 2012: With the 2012 US presidential race heating up, IGS visiting scholar Sergio Fabbrini unpacked the Italian media tycoon’s rise to power in the age of “tele-democracy.”
With a foothold at Berkeley, ‘engaged scholarship’ goes where it’s needed
February 8, 2012: Urban forester Lara Roman, a Berkeley grad student, is conducting multi-year research designed to help a Sacramento tree-planting program maximize cooling shade for the area’s hot summers. “Engaged scholarship” like Roman’s, increasingly popular with students, is part of the campus’s DNA. New forms of institutional support are helping it flourish.
J-School students’ ‘Food of Politics’ featured by USA Today
January 26, 2012: A video produced by Berkeley journalism students appeared recently on USA Today‘s website. “The Food of Politics,” spotlighting an Iowa diner where presidential hopefuls eat, was created for the summer 2011 Berkeley News21 project on food and health reporting.
‘Income inequality didn’t just happen, it was engineered’
January 18, 2012: Political scientists Paul Pierson of UC Berkeley and Jacob Hacker of Yale say the vast and growing gap between America’s haves and have-nots didn’t just happen, but was deliberately and politically “engineered.” Co-authors of the recent book “Winner-Take-All Politics,” the two appeared on the Jan. 13 episode of “Moyers & Company.”
Leaping lizards and dinosaurs inspire robot design
January 4, 2012: Undergraduate and graduate students teamed up with biologist Robert Full to study how lizards use their tails when leaping. What they found can help design robots that are more stable on uneven terrain and after unexpected falls, which is critical to successful search and rescue operations.
Though it’s not mind-reading, neuroscientists explore perception
January 3, 2012: A team of neuroscientists led by Berkeley Professor Jack Gallant are beginning to figure out a way to reconstruct what we see, based on records of our brain activity. Jake Schoneker, a School of Journalism alum, reports on the PBS NewsHour.
Dan Kammen, Jay Keasling in ‘Future of Energy’ on Discovery Channel tonight
December 22, 2011: Two of UC Berkeley’s top energy experts – Dan Kammen of the Energy and Resources Group and Jay Keasling of the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering – are interviewed extensively for one segment of a new Discovery Channel video, “Earth 2050: The Future of Energy,” which airs Thursday night, Dec. 22, at 7 p.m. PST.
New video of how scientists reconstruct the movies in our minds
December 21, 2011: UC Berkeley scientists Jack Gallant and Shinji Nishimoto have wowed the world by using brain scans and computer modeling to reconstruct images of what we see when we’re watching movies. UC Berkeley broadcast manager Roxanne Makasdjian has produced a video of how they achieved this breakthrough, and where they’re headed.
Study details how dengue infection hits harder second time around
December 21, 2011: One of the most vexing challenges in the battle against dengue virus, a potentially fatal mosquito-borne virus, is that getting infected once can put people at greater risk for a more severe infection down the road. A new study with UC Berkeley researchers details how the interaction between a person’s immune response and a subsequent dengue infection could mean the difference between getting a mild fever and going into a fatal circulatory failure.
Extremism, in the name of fashion, is her advice
December 19, 2011: Getting dressed is a daily adventure for überstylish undergraduate adviser Jane Paris. The College of Letters and Science staffer writes about each new fashion statement in her blog, “What I Wore Today.”
A campus perspective: ‘Occupy’ and the crisis in higher education
December 13, 2011: Berkeley students and staff share their opinions on the state of public education and the recent campus protests.
Saul Perlmutter receives Nobel Prize in Stockholm
December 13, 2011: Saul Perlmutter, UC Berkeley and Berkeley Lab physicist, was feted in Stockholm, Sweden, last week before receiving his Nobel Prize medal on Saturday, Dec. 10, during a ceremony at the Stockholm Concert Hall. Perlmutter shared the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics with Brian Schmidt and Adam Riess.
Taxation, citizenship, protest and the future of UC
December 7, 2011: Three themes — taxation, citizenship and protest — were explored at the Dec. 6 Campus Forum on the Future of Public Universities, the second in a series of public conversations sponsored by campus deans. Many called for UC to form alliances with other institutions affected by public disinvestment.
Record massive black holes discovered lurking in monster galaxies
December 5, 2011: UC Berkeley astronomer Chung-Pei Ma, graduate student Nicholas McConnell and colleagues have discovered the largest black holes to date ‑- two monsters with masses equivalent to 10 billion suns that are threatening to consume anything, even light, within a region five times the size of our solar system.
PBS Newshour reports on black hole discovery today at 3 & 6 p.m.
Daily Cal special feature delves into DREAM Act
November 30, 2011: A team of student journalists explores the California DREAM Act, which grants undocumented students access to publicly funded financial aid, in a special project of The Daily Californian. The multimedia package, “Dream State,” looks at political, historical, financial and personal dimensions of a controversial issue.
Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation awards $6 million for earthquake early warning research
November 29, 2011: UC Berkeley, Caltech and the University of Washington will each receive $2 million from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation to conduct research on an earthquake early warning system that seismologists hope to create along the Pacific Coast.
Ira Michael Heyman, former UC Berkeley chancellor, dies at 81
November 21, 2011: Ira Michael Heyman, chancellor of UC Berkeley from 1980 to 1990 and professor emeritus at the School of Law and in the Department of City & Regional Planning, has died. He was 81.
Desdemona takes the microphone: A conversation with Toni Morrison
November 17, 2011: In conjunction with Cal Performances’ recent U.S. premiere of “Desdemona,” the Townsend Center for the Humanities brought together the project’s collaborators — director Peter Sellars, Nobel Prize-winning novelist Toni Morrison and singer/songwriter Rokia Traoré — in conversation with faculty members Abdul JanMohamed (English), Tamara Roberts (music); Darieck Scott (African American Studies). Video of the event is now available.
In Sacramento, students take a stand for the future of UC
November 16, 2011: A busload of UC Berkeley students joined a UC rally in Sacramento on Wednesday, Nov. 16. Their message to legislators: “no” to continued funding cuts to public education, “yes” to structural changes needed to increase available state funds.
Rally remarks: ‘Don’t let public higher ed in California be destroyed,’ Breslauer urges
From Savio Steps, Reich applauds ‘moral outrage’ as thousands cheer
November 15, 2011: Capping another long day of demonstrations at UC Berkeley, Robert Reich addressed a cheering crowd of thousands from the top of the Mario Savio Steps Tuesday night, telling protesters how proud he was of them, and “how proud I am to be a member of this wonderful community.”
Is a stranger genetically wired to be trustworthy? You’ll know in 20 seconds
November 14, 2011: There’s definitely something to be said for first impressions. New research from UC Berkeley suggests it can take just 20 seconds to detect whether a stranger is genetically inclined to being trustworthy, kind or compassionate. See if you can guess which people shown in the video have the empathy gene.
How hummingbirds shake off the rain
November 9, 2011: Ever wonder how birds are able to fly in the rain? Robert Dudley and Victor Ortega-Jimenez showed that hummingbirds shake their heads with 34 g’s of force, much like a dog flings off water. But hummingbirds do this in flight in the heaviest downpour without losing control.
Renowned Chilean musician visits Berkeley
November 8, 2011: The renowned Chilean musician-composer Horacio Salinas is on campus this week, teaching a short course on Latin American music. He gave an intimate recital for the Center for Latin American Studies and other members of the campus community Nov. 1.
This is not your grandmother’s microscope
November 8, 2011: See how CellScope, a project initiated by UC Berkeley engineers, has opened up the microscopic world to more people. The lightweight, mobile microscopes are not only being used in developing countries to diagnose disease, but also in classrooms to get kids excited about science.
Perlmutter, Filippenko in NOVA special
November 2, 2011: Newly minted Nobel Laureate Saul Perlmutter is among the physicists and astronomers interviewed in the premier episode of a four-part NOVA series, “The Fabric of the Cosmos,” which airs tonight on PBS stations around the country. In the San Francisco Bay Area, the one-hour episode can be viewed on KQED-TV at 9 p.m.
Intestinal stem cells respond to food by supersizing the gut
October 27, 2011: A new study from UC Berkeley shows that adult stem cells can reshape our organs in response to changes in the body and the environment, a finding that could have implications for diabetes and obesity.
Haas study sheds eerie light on fright and financial decision making
October 27, 2011: Watching a scary movie can motivate you to sell your stocks earlier than you would have otherwise. That’s the frightening evidence shown in a series of studies from the Haas Marketing Group.
Grad student finds inspiration in the clouds
October 25, 2011: UC Berkeley graduate student Greg Goldsmith may have his head in the clouds, but he is firmly grounded in the reality of global warming and the danger it poses to the Central American cloud forests he loves. He developed an elementary school curriculum as a way to help save them.
