Summer 2014 Apocalypse
This Is the End
Features
Doomsday 1: An Asteroid Wiped Out Dinosaurs. Are We Next?
At some point, an asteroid measured better in miles than feet will come for us all. By Chris A. Smith
Read more »
Doomsday 2: No One Knows When, But the Next Plague Is Coming
The emergence of pathogens capable of killing millions, if not billions, is inevitable. By Glen Martin
Read more »
Doomsday 3: California May Oscillate Between Droughts and Deluges
California’s climate, long known for its mild disposition, is poised to become a major bad actor.
Read more »
Doomsday 4: Massive Quake Could Be Only Beginning of Bay Area Woes
A Magnitude 7 on the Hayward Fault would also trigger economic and social upheaval for years.
Read more »
Apocalypse Later: The End is Always Near—Here’s Hoping It Stays There
The Doomsday Clock now reads five minutes to midnight. In other words, not yet.
Read more »
Endangered California
California is the most biodiverse state in the nation—but some of its natives are fighting extinction, and others already have vanished.
Read more »
Lab + Field
Blister on the Sun
A near-miss draws speculation on the effects of a large solar storm.
Read more »
Yes, It’s Rocket Science
Berkeley scientists launch a rocket into the northern lights to study a complex atomic phenomenon.
Read more »
Eyesight to the Blind
Berkeley neuroscientists engineer molecule that causes blind mice to react to light.
Read more »
Whooping Cough Back With a Vengeance
A Q&A with Berkeley’s head epidemiologist about immunization—and the return of pertussis.
Read more »
Arts + Letters
Enter Gotanda
A ground-breaking playwright becomes a ground-breaking professor as well.
Read more »
Taste Test
‘Greener’ Plants
Researchers aim to curb a little-known energy glutton: food processing.
Read more »
Sather Gate
Game of Allophones
With an obscure hobby, Cal alum creates languages for fantasies such as HBO’s Game of Thrones.
Read more »
Out of the Gate
Hitting the Big Leagues
Whatever the field, my daughter now knows she can play with the big boys.
Read more »
Alumni Gazette
Radicals Revisited
Eyewitnesses to Berkeley’s Free Speech Movement ready to mark its 50th anniversary.
Read more »