2024 Spring/Summer Archives - Cal Alumni Association

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2024 Spring/Summer

2024 Spring/Summer

_{Marcus Hanschen}

Exit Interview with the Chancellor

After seven years at the helm, Carol Christ hangs up her iconic blue blazer. Before she headed out the door, California sat down with her for a final interview.

_{Illustration by Michael Byers}

Solving for Doomsday

By Hayden Royster

Harold Camping ’42 thought he had calculated when the world would end. Ten years after his death, he still has plenty to teach us about the dangers and appeal of “doing your own research.”

The Bedrock of Good Journalism

By Francisco Martínezcuello

2024 Alum of the Year Bill Whitaker brings integrity to his storytelling.

What to Read, Watch, and Listen to This Summer

By California magazine editors

Here are our favorite books, shows, and podcasts by people from Berkeley to enjoy this summer.

_{CALIFORNIA HALL, INVENTORY OF THE JOHN GALEN HOWARD
COLLECTION, (1955-4), ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGN ARCHIVES. COLLEGE
OF ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGN. UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA.}

Kingdom Come Never Came

Solving for the end of the world, plus much more in this issue

_{Illustrations by Patrick Welsh}

Cal Comedians

By Dano Nissen ’18

Six comedians walk onto campus…

_{Photo by Jim Block}

Five Questions for Social Psychologist Sa-kiera Hudson

By Nathalia Alcantara

This Berkeley Haas assistant professor is studying a less understood social emotion called “schadenfreude.”

_{COURTESY OF HUMAN RIGHTS CENTER}

Working Toward Justice

By Leah Worthington

In an unassuming house on Piedmont Avenue, students are ushering human rights investigations into the digital era.

Berkeley Buffet

By Dhoha Bareche

A new course enables students to sample the campus’s intellectual riches

_{PHILIPPE PSAILA/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY}

Neanderthal-Human Overlap

By Katherine Blesie

What 45,000-year-old bones reveal about the earliest history of modern humans

_{PHOTOGRAPH BY MARCUS HANSCHEN}

Semester of Discontent

As campuses across the country made headlines, Berkeley managed to stay out of them. Mostly.

_{BERKELEY LAB}

Mother of Neutrino Detectors

Berkeley physicists build a new device to detect one of the universe’s most elusive particles.

_{LORIE SHAULL/FLICKR}

None Like it That Hot

In a bit of bad news, it turns out that scientists have been underestimating the heat index, or how hot it feels, amid deadly heatwaves.

_{PHOTOGRAPH BY MARCUS HANSCHEN ’01, M.A. ’04}

A Bird’s-Eye View of People’s Park

Where People’s Park stands now

How to Quickly Upgrade the Power Grid

A potentially simple solution to help the U.S. meet its future energy needs

Adversity and Exclusion

By Katherine Blesie

In a new experiment, Berkeley researchers found that racial “contact gaps” were highly concentrated in just a few companies.

_{DAYGLO COLOR CORP}

Fuzzy Logic, Boxed Salad, and No-Fault Divorce

By Coby McDonald, M.J. ’17

Even more things you never knew came from Cal.

_{RICHARD BLAIR}

The Ghost Ship of Inverness

By David Hopkins ’96

The mysterious origins of the “Inverness Shipwreck”

_{Power trio: Chancellor Christ (R) with UC President Michael Drake, center, and
incoming chancellor, Rich Lyons. © BRANDON SANCHEZ MEJIA}

Ending with Thanks

By Chancellor Carol T. Christ

Because this is the last column I will write for California magazine, I begin with thanks …