The Current CRISPR Patent Dispute, Explained
Posted on April 27, 2017 - 5:37pm
Innovation
Plant Fast Food: Berkeley Researchers Turbocharge Photosynthesis
UC Berkeley plant scientists, working with colleagues from the University of Illinois, have successfully supercharged the photosynthesis cycle, allowing genetically altered tobacco plants to grow as much as 20 percent larger simply by using more sunlight.
From the Spring 2017 Virtue and Vice issue of California.
Reading Roundup: Planet Nine, UC and Trump, the Woolly Mammoth
The Sad Last Days of the Woolly Mammoth
Hoping to shed light on the woolly mammoth’s decline, UC Berkeley bioinformatics researcher Montgomery Slatkin and a colleague compared the genomes of two of the hairy giants and found that they were mutational hot messes in their last days, with trouble finding where to pee and translucent satin coats that may have looked cool at parties but were hardly enough to protect them from the elements.
Posted on March 2, 2017 - 11:23am
How Bears Breed Unicorns: Inside Cal’s Vast Startup Ecosystem
How’s this for a modern take on the venerable office vending machine? You swipe your credit or debit card, open a fridge-like glass door, and choose from an array of fresh entrees and snacks. If you want a receipt, the machine will email it to you, and it keeps track of your preferences: next time there’s a sale on your favorite yogurt, Byte Food’s cloud-based servers will give you a heads up.
Posted on February 16, 2017 - 1:44pm
Encryption for All: Why This American Tradition Must Be Upheld
On August 28, 1789, Thomas Jefferson wrote to James Madison from Paris about the French revolutionaries, relaying an important piece of strategic information: “Mirabeau is their chief.”
Posted on January 31, 2017 - 4:46pm
Waxing Poetic: New Tech Revives Sounds from Past Treasures
In a corner of the Digital Imaging Lab in the basement of UC Berkeley’s Moffitt Library, recent graduate Olivia Dill is checking on the latest shipment of fragile wax recordings from the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology. These hard wax tubes, invented by Thomas Edison in the 1880s, are one of the earliest sound recording media.
Posted on January 3, 2017 - 12:44pm
Greening the Planet: The Fertilizer Effect of CO2 Slows Warming
A new study led by UC Berkeley Lab researcher Trevor Keenan suggests that increased plant growth is slowing the accumulation of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, a finding that could help explain the mystery of why the uptick in CO 2 concentrations has leveled off since 2002, even as emissions have increased. “We believed one of the planet’s main carbon sinks had unexpectedly strengthened,” Keenan explained in a Lab press release. “The question was: which one?”
From the Winter 2016 Reality Bites issue of California.
People Are Strange When You’re Sleep Deprived
Got a lousy night’s sleep? Feeling kinda grouchy? Turns out waking up on the wrong side of the bed won’t just make you cranky. It will make others seem that way, too. A 2015 study from the UC Berkeley Sleep and Neuroimaging Laboratory found that a single sleepless night can fundamentally alter the way we perceive others—making even the mellowest of fellows seem like the strangest of dangers.
From the Winter 2016 Reality Bites issue of California.
Alumni Gazette: Rocket Science, Woman Power, and Updating The League
Ever hear that old cliché “This ain’t rocket science?” I wouldn’t use it around Ashley Chandler Karp because what she does is rocket science. A propulsion engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, she’s helping design the next generation of rockets, which will bring samples from Mars back to Earth for more extensive testing than can be done on the Martian surface.
As if that weren’t ambitious enough, they also have to figure out a way to transport the stuff here without getting any contamination from the Red Planet on the container.
From the Winter 2016 Reality Bites issue of California.
Five Questions for Dr. Sheyna Gifford
This interview has been edited for clarity.
1. How would you describe the route that led you to a simulated Mars mission?
From the Winter 2016 Reality Bites issue of California.
Matter of Degrees: How Hot It Gets Still Depends on Us
Author’s prologue
From the Winter 2016 Reality Bites issue of California.
Mind Tricks: Bishop Berkeley and the Idea of Everything
Lately, I’ve been spending time at Founders’ Rock trying and mostly failing to get a grasp on reality.
Founders’ Rock is an outcropping at the northeast corner of the UC Berkeley campus, where Gayley Road and Hearst Avenue meet, a lonely spot shaded by toyon, oak, and eucalyptus. The rock itself—lichen-encrusted and moss-fringed—is an unassuming jumble.
From the Winter 2016 Reality Bites issue of California.
Paint by Numbers: Algorithms for the Artistically Challenged
As a 10-year-old growing up in Shanghai, Jun-Yan Zhu often avoided homework with furtive doodling. He’d sketch comics or movie characters in pencil, then erase the evidence before his mother saw it. Much as he loved drawing, however, he wasn’t very good at it. He dreamed of a world where everyone, even those who lacked the talent, could easily communicate in pictures.
From the Winter 2016 Reality Bites issue of California.
Unlocking The Grid: Berkeley Gets $11 Million to Reduce Traffic
Road rage is hardly an acceptable response to the travails of driving. It signals inadequate impulse control, perhaps even sociopathy. People can end up hurt, incarcerated, or worse.
Posted on November 14, 2016 - 2:22pm
Alumni Study: Africans Abroad Still Committed to the Homeland
Even those of us who don’t reflexively shriek “Go Bears” every four or five minutes know that UC Berkeley is one of the finest universities on the planet. The proof is in the sheepskin; if a Cal degree isn’t always a fast track to an executive suite or academic renown, it at least constitutes a reliable on-ramp.
But is that the case just for American students? What about the developing world? Berkeley bona fides can be of inestimable value in Silicon Valley, but is the same true for Mombasa?
Posted on October 31, 2016 - 11:49am
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