Innovation

Spotlight
By Anabel SosaBlind thinkers, scientists, and artists showing us the way.

Running Start for Perlmutter
By Hayden RoysterNamed after Cal’s Nobel-winning cosmologist Saul Perlmutter, Ph.D. ’86, Berkeley’s newest supercomputer was launched in May 2021 by the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC) at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and hailed as one of the fastest ever. The next month, it ranked fifth on the coveted TOP500 list, the biannual record of the world’s most powerful commercially available supercomputers.

Out with a Bang
By Margie CullenIf a star dies in the universe and no one is around to see it, does it make an explosion? Scientists can now confirm that it does.

The Edge Episode 15: I’m in Love With a Robot
It’s not easy coming up with the perfect opening line on Tinder. Artificial intelligence is already helping us compose emails and complete sentences, so why stop there? Laura and Leah talk to the founder of Keys about the possibilities—and dangers—of letting robots do the talking for us.

The San Joaquin Valley Has a Salinity Problem
By Glen MartinAfter decades of salt accumulation, Berkeley scientists look for new solutions.

This Woman is Reshaping Our Understanding of the Living World
By Hope HendersonRocking the tree of life.

As Water Runs Low, San Joaquin Valley Adapts to a Drier Future
By Glen MartinIn the heart of the valley

Berkeley Claims Two More Nobels This Year
By Margie CullenDavid Card and David Julius won for economics and medicine, respectively.

“All Blind Roads Lead to Berkeley”
By Hayden RoysterBerkeley alum Joshua Miele wins a MacArthur for his innovations in technology for the blind.

Can We Make Mars Exploration More Affordable?
By Dhoha BarecheBerkeley will launch two satellites to study Mars in a new era of space exploration.

New Life Sciences Incubator Opens for Business
By Margie CullenBerkeley is Going Big on Bioscience.

WTF is an NFT?
THIS MAY, THE UNIVERSITY ANNOUNCED it would auction off non-fungible tokens (NFTs) connected to two of its most recent Nobel Prize–winning discoveries: Jennifer Doudna’s gene-editing tool, CRISPR, and James Allison’s cancer immunotherapy.