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So far, the Rim Fire has been California’s worst wildfire for 2013, scorching more than a quarter-million acres in and around Yosemite and destroying more than 100 homes. Take it as a harbinger. As Cal professor of fire science Scott Stephens and his co-authors noted in a recent paper in the journal Science, climate change […]
It may be that an ingredient that determines whether your marriage is bliss on earth or a living hell is in your genes. Weirder still, it’s the same gene for both. Everyone has a gene that helps regulate the neurotransmitter serotonin. On this gene, there’s a region known as 5-HTTLPR—which, if you try to pronounce […]
It has been many long and hoary decades since UC Berkeley was the nation’s epicenter of radical politics. Indeed, Cal Republicans have been among the most active groups on campus. Still, poll after poll demonstrates that the recent zaniness in Washington is hurting the Republican brand. And that made us wonder if Cal’s Republican students […]
Next to headlines on the ongoing government shutdown, the prospect of a default on the national debt, and the spike in the price of short-term federal IOUs which, according to one wonk “ should terrify you,” the news that Berkeley’s own Janet Yellen was tapped to chair the Federal Reserve might have been the least […]
The most recent report on the likely effects of global warming from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is a sobering document. In fact, it just makes you want to cry. At least, it got the tears flowing copiously down Eric Holthaus’ cheeks. Holthaus, a meteorologist and former contributor to the Wall Street Journal who […]
How do you best address infant and maternal mortality, exploding population rates and gender inequity in the developing world? Most initiatives – particularly in Africa — have consisted of massive aid programs that more often than not stall or collapse when confronted with the continent’s endemic corruption, poor infrastructure and mores that tolerate or even […]
In some fine arts circles, “entertainment” has become something of a dirty word. But at Cal Performances, one of the country’s top presenters of artistic productions, the notion of art as entertainment is wholeheartedly embraced. One look at this season’s calendar reveals a host of music, dance, and theatrical events that break down, if not obliterate […]
Cal is replete with geniuses, of course, but it’s always gratifying when one is recognized as such. That happened today to Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory physicist and “sound savior” Carl Haber, who has been named one of 2013’s MacArthur Genius Grant recipients. Haber’s award was granted in recognition of his endeavors to resurrect recorded sounds […]
Anxiety is running higher around California’s strawberry fields after a recent study linked the birth of smaller babies to the fumigant methyl bromide: Newborns whose mothers lived within three miles of fields treated with the fumigant weighed an average of 4 ounces less at birth. But one of the Cal authors of the paper cautioned […]
Keith Gilless, the Dean of UC Berkeley’s College of Natural Resources, stands in the center of a circle on October 13, microphone held loosely in hand, and looks thoughtfully at his audience. The occasion is Family Field Day at the Gill Tract, and some hundred people—many with children, pets, and bikes in tow—have turned out […]
Jellyfish—the gently pulsing, brainless mainstay of darkened aquariums everywhere—are terrifying. Haven’t you heard? Last year they clogged the Diablo Canyon nuclear reactor, rendering it unusable. Some Australians wear pantyhose in the water to protect themselves from their fatal stings. And a recent New York Review of Books article, which noted that jellyfish have gouged the economies of at least […]
Feeling downtrodden and powerless? Take a tip from the bantam rooster. It may be the most diminutive of chickens, but it struts its stuff like a cassowary. When it strides the barnyard, all the other fowl give it a wide berth. And by practicing a similar swagger, you can achieve the same ends. By acting […]
Used to be, not so very long ago—prior to 2008, in fact—you had few options for raising money if you were low on cash and wanted to make a film or album, write the Great American (or Australian or Lithuanian) Novel, launch a killer app, or start a catering service for dogs. If you had […]
We like to think human beings are created equal, but strictly speaking, it isn’t quite true. Many abnormalities, from premature births to immune diseases, can afflict newborn children with no advance warning. Now a team including researchers from UC Berkeley will investigate using newly affordable genetic tests to detect complications in newborns—while also examining the […]
Allen Salkin has spent the majority of his career writing about the sometimes bizarre but always fascinating ins-and-outs of American culture. During his tenure at The New York Times, Salkin explored nearly every crevice of popular culture, from the Hollywood “Bling Ring” to Bernie Madoff’s beach house to the real-life adoption of Festivus—a fictional holiday featured in a 1997 episode of “Seinfeld.” Now comes Salkin’s latest […]
The flooding in Boulder, Colorado, seems to strain the capacity for hyperbole reserved for natural disasters, though journalists and bloggers continue to grope for appropriately hair-raising adjectives. Still, the event was not completely unexpected. Boulder’s propinquity to creeks that drain large watersheds off the Rocky Mountain Front has always made the city something of a target, and […]
What’s the carbon footprint of a chicken leg? How many tons of CO2 were emitted during the making of your salsa? Have you considered the environmental consequences of your clove of garlic? After spending the past year-and-a-half pondering exactly those kinds of questions, an international team of engineers with one foot in Berkeley has come […]
In its current session, the California Legislature considered 103 bills dealing with highways or highway infrastructure—and roughly one-third of those bills named bridges or roadway sections after people the legislators deemed deserving. Among the honorees were the correctional guards of Soledad State Prison, the Tuskegee airmen, and the Seebees. Many of the designees were police […]
From Mount Diablo to the Sierras, a significant portion of California’s woodlands are going up in smoke. The impacts on humans are, of course, distressing. And as we’ve reported, the trend of bigger, hotter wildfires bodes to change the essential composition of California’s wildlands: Mixed coniferous forests are likely to contract, while grasslands, chaparral and […]
