Close Mobile Menu

Human Behavior

NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio

The Edge Episode 25: The Heat with Jeff Goodell 

Don’t let the term “climate change” mislead you. It’s true that our environment is changing in all sorts of ways as we continue to pollute and exploit and manipulate our planet. But even as we brace for more historic typhoons and biblical floods, there’s an invisible and pervasive force that is wreaking havoc on us all: heat. In this episode, we speak with environmental journalist Jeff Goodell about his latest book, The Heat Will Kill You First, the potentially lethal effects that rising temperatures will have on our lives and on our planet, and what we can do to prepare for it.

istockphoto/urfinguss

Blog Calls out Bogus Data

By Pat Joseph

It was a new wrinkle in a bombshell story. Not one, but two superstar researchers appear to have independently faked data for two separate, highly publicized studies about (irony of ironies!)

“Nakata,” Roamer October 1910 Album, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.

Nakata’s Smile: Unlocking the Diaries of Jack London’s Valet

By Aleta George

The reference librarian slid the archival container across the counter. “This looks like a fun box to look through,” he said. I smiled behind my face mask.

Courtesy of Emilie Raguso

On the Story: Emilie Raguso Covers Berkeley’s Crime Beat Like No One Else

By Margie Cullen

When news first broke that a human skeleton was found hidden under a building on Berkeley’s Clark Kerr campus, Emilie Raguso was horrified.

Margaret being sworn in as a judge as her mother and daughter look on (Courtesy of the Fujioka family)

Her Honor: Judge Carries Lessons Handed Down From Heart Mountain

By Martin Snapp

On January 11, 2017, Margaret Fujioka ‘79 took the oath of office in the Rotunda of Frank Ogawa Plaza in Oakland as the first Japanese American woman Superior Court judge in Alameda County. She was flanked by her proud mother, husband, and children, but her thoughts turned to two people who weren’t there: her late father, Yoshiro “Babe” Fujioka, and his hero, his big brother Teruo “Ted” Fujioka.

sistock.com/sportpoint

Lift Your Gaze

By Pat Joseph

At the height of the pandemic, I took a motorcycle safety course—partly for research, partly for the hell of it. Most of what I learned has since been forgotten or relegated to muscle memory, but one thing has stuck in my mind: target fixation.

Illustration by Pushart

Dacher Keltner is Awe-Inspired, and You Should Be Too

By Laura Smith

What Dacher Keltner teaches isn’t likely to land you a job on Wall Street or even make you more hireable, but that’s not really the point.

Jing Jing Tsong

Despite What You’ve Heard, Sadder Isn’t Wiser

By Leah Worthington

There’s a pervasive idea in psychology that depressed people are better judges of reality.

Don’t Curb Your Enthusiasm

By Leah Worthington

For the better part of the last 40-plus years, Cal alum and Carnegie Mellon psychology professor Michael Scheier has been thinking about optimism—what it is, where it comes from, and why it matters. 

Illustration using Canvas

Berkeley Center Brings Science-Based Mindfulness to the Masses

By Leah Worthington

A stone’s throw from the southwestern edge of campus sits a squat, nondescript, brown building with a lofty dream: to untangle the science of a meaningful life.

NASA, ESA, CSA, STSCI

Climate Hope Has a Champion

By Coby McDonald

In this era of climate crisis there’s plenty of doom and gloom going around.

Cat Willett

How A Survivor Contestant Learned to Keep Her Head Above Water

By Karla Cruz Godoy ’16 as told to Josh Sens, M.J. ’95

I found myself in the Pacific Ocean, trapped beneath a metal grate with the tide rising  around me, fighting the urge to panic.