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New Zealanders are as resentful of the attention they get from visitors—often so taken with the landscape and friendly locals that they dream of buying a home and staying forever—as they are eager for approval. Especially from Americans. Oh, the perils of beauty. Super-models and actresses struggle with excess admiration, and countries do, too. Especially if […]
In his Oppenheimer Lecture and in conversations with Berkeley Nobelist George Smoot, the world’s most famous physicist reveals cosmic genius The vast stage at Zellerbach Hall is almost empty, save for a couple of perfunctory ferns and a microphone center stage, lowered as if for a child’s talent show. the sold-out crowd is buzzing, excited. Stephen […]
Legendary historian Leon Litwack says goodbye. In 43 years as a Berkeley professor, retiring historian Leon Litwack ’51, Ph.D. ’58, taught more than 30,000 students. An impressive fraction returned to Wheeler Auditorium on a hot day in early May to hear their teacher deliver the final lecture for History 7B, his signature survey of post–Civil War […]
A new film by young Tibetans challenges the mythic Lhasa of patient and tragic Buddhists When the Dalai Lama fled to India after the Chinese takeover in 1959, most Tibetans, including filmmaker Tenzing Sonam’s father, thought exile would last a few years at worst. “My father passed away in India,” says Sonam, M.J. ’85, who grew […]
When a guy wants a girl’s phone number, he might seek help from a friend, or “wingman,” to keep the conversation flowing and distract her friends, secure in the knowledge that he, too, has the opportunity to flirt. For the male lance-tailed manakin, a small forest bird of Central and South America, the payoff is […]
Mental health stigma is the worst it’s been in 50 years You couldn’t find a worse poster child for the mentally ill, but Cho Seung-Hui is now the most famous in the United States—if not the world. The 23-year-old Virginia Tech student shot and killed 32 faculty and peers on April 16, the worst mass killing […]
Freeloader. Parasite. Sponge. We all know someone whose special talent is getting something for nothing. But what about plants and animals engaged in cooperative relationships—think of bees pollinating flowers in return for nectar? The extent of mooching in nature remains a subject of debate. Evolutionary biologist Ellen Simms believes organisms keep cheating in check by […]
Carbs are essential for sports performance, but women should take care When he’s not in the lab, Gareth Wallis can be found on the rugby field. The Integrative Biology Department postdoctoral fellow has learned from experience that top conditioning is essential for surviving the fast tempo and brutal hits of Bay Area club rugby. Off the […]
Teens deceive parents on “moral” grounds Fatima didn’t want to deceive her parents but knew if she told them she’d be dancing with boys that night, she’d be in trouble. So the 17-year-old chose her words carefully, not exactly lying but not telling the whole truth, either. She explains via email, “Not every guy I meet […]
Q: Why do you hear the sound of the ocean when you hold a seashell to your ear?—Nicola Ward, San Francisco A: This “sounds” like an answer: Just cup your hand in front of your ear to expand its size and you will hear the same thing—although it probably won’t be as loud. A drinking […]
“My first winter here had become something of a challenge to see if I could acclimate myself, and perhaps better understand the man I have married.” My husband, daughter, and I had been living in southern Norway for several weeks—since mid-February—when the sun emerged for the first time. Two weeks of record-breaking snowstorms had, overnight, begun […]
With or without Castro, Cuba’s revolt won’t stop. Ronald Reagan was preparing an invasion that was going to rescue the whole island next week. Fidel was about to be airlifted to a new home in Miami, the guest of his secret patrons and supporters, the U.S. government. The soldiers were already lining up for Bay of […]
Following migrants deep into Chiapas, the author discovers the ghost of her Jewish abuelito. We were abusing our little Mexican rental car by clattering vigorously up a potholed road in southern Chiapas, where somebody had told us to get breakfast at a place called the Casa Grande. Around us stretched the coffee plantations, which were deep […]
The Summer of Love’s unrequited romance.
Chile recalls the life I thought I wanted. I once imagined starting my life as a world traveler in Chile. I was in college then. Vietnam was climaxing beyond my comprehension—so much bigger than I was, a girl without brothers. It was a time of portentous possibilities in Latin America, both good and horrific, and I wanted […]
