WATCH: How to Mount a Moth – Bugged, Episode 1
Posted on May 15, 2019 - 5:51pm
Science + Health
I Just Don’t Get It: Why Do So Many People Treat Pets as Human Equals?
This rumination begins with a phone call from my brother, but it’s really about domestic animals, dogs and cats mostly, and our changing mores about them: How they are now viewed as peers and family members rather than pets, how we’ve come to define ourselves as their guardians rather than their owners, whether our growing obsession with them is somehow a simulacrum for the complicated and messy human relationships that formerly dominated our lives, and whether apotheosizing them somehow minimizes our sensitivity to human suffering.
Posted on April 29, 2019 - 9:33am
Playing with Fire: Welcome to the Experimental Forest
UC Berkeley’s Blodgett Experimental Forest is situated on the Georgetown Divide between the Middle and South forks of the American River, about 80 miles southeast of Paradise and smack in the heart of California’s most productive timber country. It’s just one of four such research forests owned by the University, but Rob York, Blodgett’s director and Berkeley adjunct professor of forestry, calls it the crown jewel.
From the Spring 2019 issue of California.
September 17, 1923: The Day That Berkeley Burned
The first signs of trouble were subtle. For some, it was the strange amber hue of the midday light. Others caught the distinctive scent of burning eucalyptus. By two in the afternoon of September 17, 1923, just about everyone in Berkeley had taken note of the uncommonly warm, dry wind blowing in from the northeast. What they didn’t know was that a small grass fire over the hill in Wildcat Canyon was growing fast, leaping from grass to brush to tree—and it was about to crest the hills of North Berkeley.
From the Spring 2019 issue of California.
Q&A: Roe v. Wade Is on the Stand. Could a Grassroots Movement Save It?
Roe vs. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that recognized abortion access as a fundamental right, has been contested by conservative activists and legislators since it was passed. And while the decision remains popular 45 years later, with 71% of voters opposed to overturning Roe, Trump’s recent appointments to the Supreme Court indicate there may be an opening to do just that. The size of that opening, and the stakes involved, are being hotly debated.
Posted on March 26, 2019 - 1:10pm
Losing Paradise: The “New Normal” of California Wildfires
On the morning of November 8, 2018, Don Peck awoke to the sound of bombs going off.
“It was boom, boom, boom,” recalls the retired jeweler, who had slept in late after a bout of insomnia the night before. Now, as the 70-year-old struggled to gain full consciousness, he realized it was propane tanks, not bombs, he heard. His town, Paradise, was on fire.
Peck knew that he had probably lost everything—his home, his belongings, his cat.
From the Spring 2019 issue of California.
Meet Frances Arnold, Teenage Rebel Turned Nobel Laureate
At 15, she was a class-skipping, catch-me-if-you-can maverick hitchhiking to D.C. to protest the Vietnam War. Looking back on those years now, Frances Arnold says, “Fifteen is one of those terrifying ages, where you’re frustrated because you know something’s wrong, but you have no idea how to fix it. So I did what I could, which is protest.
“But as I’ve gone through my life,” she continues, “I know that it’s my responsibility to fix it. I’m much better at fixing things than protesting.”
She pauses.
From the Spring 2019 issue of California.
“It Kept Failing”: Whistleblower Erika Cheung on Working at Theranos
On Monday, March 18, HBO will air the documentary The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley about the stunning rise and dramatic fall of the Silicon Valley healthcare company Theranos.
Posted on March 16, 2019 - 2:56pm
The Twin Tunnels Are Out—Berkeley Experts Say That’s a Good Thing
The extravagantly wet winter notwithstanding, California’s water woes are far from over. But recent moves suggest Governor Gavin Newsom is leading the state into a new era of water policy. Last month, he decided to scale back his predecessor’s decades-long effort, the Twin Tunnels, to deliver water from Northern to Southern California.
“Really, the idea that two massive tunnels would be built in the Delta was always—well, a pipe dream,” says Peter Gleick.
Posted on March 12, 2019 - 5:14pm
The Green New Deal: The Good, the Bad, and the Eco-Friendly
For an initiative that would cool a sweltering planet, The Green New Deal is hot.
Posted on March 4, 2019 - 1:47pm
Save the Lions with a Quick Annual Payment of $1-2 Billion
The African lion is on the ropes. Lions numbered close to 100,000 in 1960 and have since dropped to around 20,000, according to conservation experts.
Posted on February 20, 2019 - 10:59am
Wine Is Money: How the Rich Are Changing Napa Valley’s Drink
Stu Smith and his brother, Charlie, put down a $500 option on about 200 acres of land on the slopes of Spring Mountain in 1971, eventually purchasing the property for $70,000. The views of the adjacent Napa Valley were stunning, and Smith, who had developed a passion for wine while completing his undergraduate degree in economics at Berkeley, was determined to get into the nascent California premium wine business.
Posted on February 20, 2019 - 10:57am
Tunnel Vision: This Water Plan Might Make a Splash in the Delta
A long-debated water plan that could change the course—literally—of water in California, will be up for a vote by the State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) next month. Originally scheduled for November, the vote has been postponed until December 11, per California Gov. Jerry Brown and Gov.-elect Gavin Newson’s request.
Posted on February 20, 2019 - 10:56am
How Algorithms Could Save the Planet
As the natural world unravels, conservationists are looking for new solutions to save what’s left.
Big conservation initiatives take big bucks, but there’s only so much money to go around. So, how do we allocate? And once priorities are determined, how do we identify the most effective approaches?
One possibility: Big Data. It’s now poised to do for conservation what it has done for self-driving cars and online retail, says Carl Boettiger, an assistant professor in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management at UC Berkeley.
Posted on February 1, 2019 - 5:24am
Two Brains Are Better Than One: AI and Humans Work to Fight Hate
It started with a conversation. About two years ago, Claudia von Vacano, executive director of UC Berkeley’s social science D-Lab, had a chat with Brittan Heller, the then-director of technology and society for the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). The topic: the harassment of Jewish journalists on Twitter. Heller wanted to kick the offending trolls off the platform, and Vacano, an expert in digital research, learning, and language acquisition, wanted to develop the tools to do it. Both understood that neither humans nor computers alone were sufficient to root out the offending language.
Posted on December 18, 2018 - 6:04pm
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