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After months of meetings and preparation, Nicholas Dirks arrived for work June 3 as Berkeley’s 10th chancellor. On a day that was all about connections, he received a warm welcome from staff in California Hall, and a loud serenade from the Cal Marching Band.
Video archive
Video offers a tour of the new Memorial Stadium
August 23, 2012: Bob Milano, assistant athletics director at UC Berkeley, gives a brief tour of a few of Memorial Stadium’s new features. The stadium reopens for its first home football game on Saturday, Sept. 1, after a major renovation.
Lights! Camera! Field hockey!
August 23, 2012: A small piece of history was made Friday when the women of Cal’s field hockey team battled No. 1 Maryland. The game was the first-ever appearance by UC Berkeley student-athletes on the recently launched Pac-12 television networks.
Poli sci’s Bedolla: As Latino vote goes, so goes the nation
July 31, 2012: Political Science professor Lisa Garcia Bedolla, on UCTV’s Prime Vote video series examining election year issues, argues that Republicans will never become a majority party without support from Latinos.
45 Cal Bears at Olympics — most for a U.S. public school
July 27, 2012: As the games begin in England, UC Berkeley cheers on its 45 student-athletes, alumni, coaches and campus-community members. Stats compiled by Cal Athletics show UC Berkeley in the lead for number of Olympic participants from a U.S. public university and No. 2 (USC is No. 1) among public and private schools.
Chemical makes blind mice see
July 25, 2012: Neuroscientists have synthesized a chemical that, when injected into the eyes of genetically blind mice, makes their retinas light sensitive. A newer version of the chemical, now undergoing tests, has better attributes and holds promise for treating retinitis pigmentosa and other degenerative eye diseases.
As reopening nears, Memorial Stadium rolls out the green carpet
July 25, 2012: Work crews readying Memorial Stadium for the first home game, Sept. 1, are on a 10-day mission to lay state-of-the-art synthetic turf on the football field. The project began months ago, when the field was dug up and lowered and an extensive infrastructure for game operations was installed.
Higgs fever: Overflow crowd hears about new particle
July 17, 2012: A July 13 lecture and panel discussion drew overflow crowds to hear about the newly discovered Higgs boson. Physicists Beate Heinemann and Lawrence Hall explained the theory and experiment behind this “third” kind of stuff, while three others explored the implications of the discovery.
Discovery opens door to attacking biofilms that cause chronic infections
July 12, 2012: Using super-resolution microscopy and continuous fluorescent imaging, UC Berkeley physicists have for the first time revealed the structure of bacterial biofilms, which are responsible for the tenacious nature of bacterial diseases such as cholera and chronic sinusitus. The picture provides new targets for the development of drugs that can tear down these structures.
CLAS interviews probe Mexican elections
July 3, 2012: The Center for Latin American Studies (CLAS) has conducted interviews on the 2012 Mexican elections with leading Mexican public intellectuals, a journalist and an iconic political leader. The interviews are available on the CLAS Facebook page and Youtube channel.
UC Berkeley installing first CO2 sensor network in Oakland
June 27, 2012: Using inexpensive detectors that can fit inside a shoebox, UC Berkeley chemists are installing carbon dioxide and other air pollution sensors in 40 sites around Oakland to explore how detailed, neighborhood-by-neighborhood information can help communities monitor greenhouse gas and other harmful emissions.
Book it! Schedule a flash from the Golden Gate Bridge’s ‘Solar Beacon’
June 21, 2012: Through the website solarbeacon.org, anyone can now schedule Solar Beacon – heliostats mounted on the Golden Gate Bridge by UC Berkeley space scientists – to flash sunlight in their eyes, like the glint of the sun off a car’s mirror.
Hindcasting helps scientists improve forecasts for life on Earth
June 12, 2012: Scientists at UC Berkeley have launched a unique program, the Berkeley Initiative in Global Change Biology, to use hindcasting – “predicting” what happened during past episodes of climate change – to improve the reliability and accuracy of computer models that forecast how plants and animals will adapt to a changing planet.
How Walter Alvarez’s collaboration with Microsoft led to ChronoZoom
June 12, 2012: Geologist Walter Alvarez and his former student, Roland Saekow, are interviewed by Microsoft Research Connections about the fruitful collaboration that led to ChronoZoom, an online tool for traveling in time and experiencing Big History.
X-ray telescope to focus on hottest regions of black holes, supernovas
June 8, 2012: NASA is scheduled to launch an orbiting X-ray satellite on Wednesday, June 13, that will open a new window on the universe, allowing scientists to probe the roiling edges of black holes, exploding stars and the smallest, most frequent flares on the sun. UC Berkeley scientists and engineers helped build the instruments, will operate the satellite, and will analyze the data from supernova explosions.
Stealth behavior allows cockroaches to seemingly vanish
June 6, 2012: Cockroaches, known for their stealth behavior, have a strategy up their sleeve only recently discovered by UC Berkeley biologists. They are able to quickly disappear under ledges by flinging themselves off at full speed, grabbing the edge with hook-like claws on their hind legs, and swinging like a pendulum to land upside-down underneath.
Scientists uncover evidence of impending tipping point for Earth
June 6, 2012: UC Berkeley professor Tony Barnosky and 21 scientists from around the world argue in Nature magazine that planet Earth is frighteningly close to a tipping point that would send the globe into a state that could spell disaster for humans. The new Berkeley Initiative in Global Change Biology is focused on recognizing the signs of impending doom so that we can stop short of the precipice.
Cal engineering students win national steel bridge competition
June 1, 2012: UC Berkeley civil engineering students speed-built a winning steel bridge called ApoCALypse to take first place in the 2012 Student Steel Bridge Competition, an annual contest sponsored by the American Institute of Steel Construction and the American Society of Civil Engineers. Only 47 teams from a field of nearly 200 nationwide advanced to the finals, which were held at Clemson University in South Carolina over the Memorial Day weekend.
Mirrors provide candles for Golden Gate Bridge’s 75th birthday
May 25, 2012: In honor of the Golden Gate Bridge’s “Big 7-5,” UC Berkeley space scientists are topping each of its towers with a glittering solar candle. Through a website, members of the public can schedule times for the Solar Beacon’s mirrors to swivel and tilt, flashing reflected sunlight to their location.
Historic Greek Theatre safe, sound and superb after upgrades
May 24, 2012: The 108-year-old Greek Theatre’s seismic rating has gone from “very poor” to “good” following six months of retrofit work and other upgrades.
What makes some students happy? Check out their videos
May 21, 2012: Students in Professor Keltner’s “Human Happiness” class produced short videos this spring on what makes them happy. A panel of judges named, as first-place winner, “Bill’s Story,” about a paper doll who learns about the relative value of wealth, status and social connections.
Scientists at UC Berkeley and LBNL convert carbon in tobacco leaves into biofuels
May 15, 2012: UC Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory scientists use light to convert carbon in tobacco leaves to biofuel.
Public policy Dean Henry Brady promotes election polling to make more voices heard
May 15, 2012: UCTV’s “Prime Vote” features Henry Brady’s video commentary, Don’t Hang Up! Why Voters Should Respond to Pollsters,”as he makes a case fo folks to stay on the line and make their opinions heard, especially in an electoral season increasingly dominated by rich donors and highly paid lobbyists.
Commencement Convocation sends 2012 graduates out into the world
May 14, 2012: Joyous graduates, their friends and families filled Edwards Track Stadium in a swirl of blue and gold on Saturday, as they celebrated their graduation as UC Berkeley’s Class of 2012 and heard Google leader Eric Schmidt and Chancellor Robert Birgeneau send them on their way. With video and slideshow.
Floating robots use GPS-enabled smartphones to track water flow
May 9, 2012: A fleet of 100 floating robots took a trip down the Sacramento River on May 9, in a field test organized by UC Berkeley engineers. The devices, equipped with GPS-enabled smartphones, demonstrated the next generation of water-monitoring technology, promising to transform the way government agencies track one of the state’s most precious resources.
Tyrone Hayes premieres in new documentary on coming water crisis
May 8, 2012: Integrative biology professor Tyrone Hayes joins Erin Brockovich in a documentary, “Last Call at the Oasis,” that’s already getting praise for its discussion of a coming global water crisis. Directed by Jessica Yu & produced by the same people who created “An Inconvenient Truth,” the documentary opened May 4 in New York and Los Angeles and comes to the Bay Area May 11.
Bruce Cain on UCTV to talk campaign finance, polling
May 8, 2012:
UCDC’s Bruce Cain talks with UCTV’s “Prime Vote” series about the era of PACS and who’s financing the 2012 election.
Scientists core into Clear Lake to explore past climate change
May 3, 2012: One of the oldest lakes in the world, Clear Lake has deep sediments that contain a record of the climate and local plants and animals going back perhaps 500,000 years. UC Berkeley scientists are drilling cores from the sediments to explore this history and fine-tune models for predicting the fate of today’s flora and fauna in the face of global warming and pressure from a growing human population.
Crawford Greenewalt receives prestigious award for work at site of ancient city of Sardis
April 26, 2012: This year’s Bandelier Award for Public Service to Archaeology goes to a UC Berkeley classics professor emeritus, for his decades-long work exploring the ancient city of Sardis, capital of the ancient empire of Lydia.
Cal students “Spread the Word” at Richmond High with college-going help
April 26, 2012: UC Berkeley student volunteers will introduce 90 Richmond High teens to campus Friday, culminating a yearlong effort to help these local students navigate a path to college.
UC Berkeley class prepares disabled students for competitive job market
April 23, 2012: If it’s a tough job market out there for able-bodied college graduates, imagine how employment prospects might look to students with cerebral palsy or a muscular or neurodegenerative disease. That’s why a dozen UC Berkeley students are enrolled in “Professional Development and Disability,” a unique course that is teaching them how to market their disabilities as strengths.
