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2013 Summer A New Deal

Outsourcing The Middle Kingdom

As China expands into global markets, inevitable culture clashes occur. The flight from Johannesburg to the Namibian capital of Windhoek is typically brief and uneventful: a two-hour hop across desert, salt pan and thornveld, then an easy approach and touchdown at the small airport carved out of the bush east of town. Still, the short flight […]

Administering Change

The career of incoming Berkeley Chancellor Nicholas Dirks has led him out of the classroom in order to influence what happens within it. As he is inaugurated Nov. 8, we explore the man and his mission for Cal. The year was 1996 and Nicholas Dirks, now Berkeley’s newest chancellor, had just traveled from the University of […]

The Heart of Everything

For 40 years, C.K. Ladzekpo has taught Berkeley that music and dance are one. C.K. Ladzekpo never intended to stay in Berkeley. Now in his 40th year on faculty at Cal, the pioneering drummer, choreographer, and teacher didn’t foresee leaving West Africa at all. But a temporary teaching position abroad started to look more attractive after […]

Bittersweet Conclusion

New evidence says sugar is causing diabetes worldwide. In 2010, clutching a cup of coffee, Paula Yoffe ’11 faced a dilemma. Should she add sugar? “And then I thought, oh my gosh, of course not,” Yoffe recalls. The beverage’s intended recipient, Dr. Robert Lustig of UCSF, had become famous when his lecture on the detrimental health […]

Cleaning Up Contaminated Waters

Constructed wetlands could help save the Salton Sea. The Salton Sea, a 376-square-mile lake in Southern California’s Imperial Valley, is an important stop for migratory birds, though it formed accidentally as a result of a river diversion project in the early 20th century. But selenium runoff from agricultural fields now threatens to contaminate this lake. In […]

Greening the Commute

A new app makes commuters more aware of their environmental impact. If you knew how much C02 you emitted during your daily commute, would you change your travel habits to something more ecofriendly? Researchers are hoping that the answer is yes. To find out, students and professors at Berkeley’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering developed […]

Stormy Weather

If the past is any indication, we may be in for some rough weather. During a terrible storm in the winter of 1969, Berkeley professor Lynn Ingram, just 8 years old at the time, remembers looking out her window and seeing her backyard disappear. The rain-drenched earth of her Santa Barbara home was sliding down into […]