Innovation
“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.
Welcome to the Age of Billionaires in Space
A space hotel for the super rich is on the horizon. But what about the rest of us?
Paleontology Is in the Midst of a Revolution.
The UC Museum of Paleontology celebrates a century of discoveries. THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA MUSEUM OF PALEONTOLOGY (UCMP) celebrates its centennial this year, but the story of its founding begins nearly two centuries ago, when California’s newly formed legislature commissioned a survey of the state, eager to map its gold deposits. A team of geologists led […]
Berkeley Experts Help Launch a Groundbreaking New Space Telescope
By Susan KarlinThe James Webb Space Telescope will offer an unprecedented view of the universe. AFTER A QUARTER-CENTURY IN DEVELOPMENT and years of delays, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is poised to finally launch in November. Its multiyear mission: to explore other Earth-like planets and seek out the universe’s first light. Orbiting one million miles from Earth, […]
“Dr. Fill” Becomes the First Computer to Win Crossword Tournament
Developed at Berkeley, the AI system edged out its top human competitor by 15 points. AT THE ANNUAL AMERICAN CROSSWORD PUZZLE TOURNAMENT in April, some 1,300 contestants raced to see who could complete the eight puzzles the fastest. The winner was Dr. Fill, an AI system developed by Matthew Ginsberg and helped to victory by Berkeley’s […]
Berkeley Scientists Invent New Infinitely Recyclable Plastic Material
FROM THE MICROPLASTICS LEACHING from our laundry to the Styrofoam swirling in the Pacific garbage patch, it seems the world is awash in plastic waste. While we have struggled and failed to wean ourselves off plastics, Berkeley scientists are working hard to address the problem by making polymers that are more readily recyclable and biodegradable. While […]
Dr. Mireille Kamariza is Leading the Fight Against Tuberculosis
Growing up in the Burundi and Cameroon, Dr. Mireille Kamariza, dreamed of becoming an astronaut.
The Edge Episode 12: 2021, A Space Hotel Odyssey
Since the first human left Earth’s atmosphere in 1961, few earthlings—and even fewer private citizens—have had the opportunity to “boldly go” there. But, with new advancements from SpaceX, Blue Origin, and other spaceflight companies, wealthy tourists could soon be booking rooms in hotels in outer space. The rise of space tourism raises some new, sometimes uncomfortable, questions.
Bears in Space: Shining the Spotlight on Five Interstellar Alumni
From Berkeley to the beyond, these grads have really taken off. Margaret Rhea Seddon Margaret Rhea Seddon ’70 came to Cal in 1965 from Murfreesboro, Tennessee. It was an eye-opening, and liberating, experience for the Southern belle. As she recalls in her 2016 memoir, Go for Orbit: “While students at traditional colleges worried about the […]
