science wire

Gov. Jerry Brown to address 2013 political science graduates

Bach to the blues,our emotions match music to colors
Whether we're listening to Bach or the blues, our brains are wired to make music-color connections depending on how the melodies make us feel, according to new research from the University of California, Berkeley.

Wireless signals could transform brain trauma diagnostics
New technology developed at the University of California, Berkeley, is using wireless signals to provide real-time, non-invasive diagnoses of brain swelling or bleeding.

Heady mathematics: Describing popping bubbles in a foam
Bubble baths and soapy dishwater, the refreshing head on a beer and the luscious froth on a cappuccino.

An 18-year-old wunderkind named top graduating senior

Eric Holder, Jerry Brown, Steve Wozniak to address UC Berkeley graduates

Howard Hughes Medical Institute names three new campus investigators
Evolutionary biologist Nicole King has been interested in the natural world since she was a little girl mucking around in the creeks and swamps of Florida.

Media Advisory: May 3 public talk by Fabiola Gianotti, co-discoverer of Higgs boson
ATTENTION : Reporters & editors covering science WHAT: Physicist Fabiola Gianotti, co-discoverer of the Higgs boson at the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva, Switzerland, will deliver a free public lecture, "The Higgs Boson and Our Life." The talk is part of a three-day celebration of the work of University of California, Berkeley, physicist Bruno Zumino, whose theory of supersymmetry has emerged as a possible explanation for the number and variety of fundamental particles seen in nature.

People care about the source of cash, attach less value to ‘tainted’ wealth
It's no accident that money obtained through dishonest or illegal means is called "dirty money." A new study from the University of California, Berkeley, suggests that when people perceive money as morally tainted, they also view it as having less value and purchasing power. Challenging the belief that "all money is green," and that people will cross ethical boundaries to amass it, social scientists from UC Berkeley and Stanford University have found compelling evidence that the source of wealth really does matter.

Out why some stress is good for you
Overworked and stressed out? Look on the bright side. Some stress is good for you. "You always think about stress as a really bad thing, but it's not," said Daniela Kaufer, associate professor of integrative biology at the University of California, Berkeley.

POI: From high school dropout to U.S. Gates Cambridge scholar
BERKELEY - Justin Park dropped out of high school when he was 16, finding it too confining and thinking he could learn a lot more outside the classroom.

UC Berkeley selected to build NASA’s next space weather satellite
This picture of Earth and the ionosphere, taken with a handheld camera by an astronaut on the International Space Station, shows a bright red wall of plasma near the equator.

Launch of antimalarial drug a triumph for UC Berkeley, synthetic biology
Twelve years after a breakthrough discovery in his University of California, Berkeley, laboratory, professor of chemical engineering Jay Keasling is seeing his dream come true. On April 11, the pharmaceutical company Sanofi will launch the large-scale production of a partially synthetic version of artemisinin, a chemical critical to making today's front-line antimalaria drug, based on Keasling's discovery.

Berkeley professor to testify in trial of former Guatemalan dictator
ATTENTION: Reporters covering Latin America, human rights, indigenous communities and legal affairs WHAT: Anthropologist and UC Berkeley Professor, Beatriz Manz has been called to testify as an

Rising temperature difference between hemispheres could dramatically shift rainfall patterns in tropics
One often ignored consequence of global climate change is that the Northern Hemisphere is becoming warmer than the Southern Hemisphere, which could significantly alter tropical precipitation patterns

California’s online registration drive draws broader voter base
California's new online voter registration system that premiered last fall generated some striking results, including that more registrants come from lowand middle-income neighborhoods than expected, says a new University of California, Berkeley, study.

Professor makes case for U.S.-Mexico border without walls
As the United States reconsiders immigration policy reform - particularly between the United States and Mexico - the focus should be on immigration and integration instead of tougher border security, 

Physics Nobelist and biotech pioneer Donald Glaser dies at 86
Donald Arthur Glaser, a Nobel-prize winning physicist who reinvented himself as a biotech pioneer and later dove into the field of neurobiology, died in his sleep Thursday morning, Feb.

Garniss Curtis, pioneer of precision fossil dating, has died at 93
Geologist Garniss H. Curtis, a professor emeritus of earth and planetary science at the University of California, Berkeley, whose pioneering use of radioactive isotopes to date relatively young rocks provided the first solid timeline for human evolution, died Dec.

Policy experts, health care leaders offer landmark roadmap for better health care at lower cost
Policy experts, health care leaders offer landmark roadmap for better health care at lower cost By Public Affairs , UC Berkeley An unprecedented, year-long collaborative effort involving policy

Early phases of construction begin for BAM/PFA
Work is underway on the future home of the University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAM/PFA) in Berkeley's downtown arts district, BAM/PFA officials announced today (Tuesday, Feb.

Scientists create automated ‘time machine’ to reconstruct ancient languages
Ancient languages hold a treasure trove of information about the culture, politics and commerce of millennia past. Yet, reconstructing them to reveal clues into human history can require decades of painstaking work. Now, scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, have created an automated "time machine," of sorts, that will greatly accelerate and improve the process of reconstructing hundreds of ancestral languages.

Intelligent civilizations rarer than one in a million
NASA's Kepler mission has identified 2,740 planets orbiting other stars, but do any of them harbor intelligent life? Scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, have now used the Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia to look for intelligent radio signals from planets around 86 of these stars.

New evidence comet or asteroid impact was last straw for dinosaurs
The demise of the dinosaurs is the world's ultimate whodunit. Was it a comet or asteroid impact? Volcanic eruptions? Climate change? In an attempt to resolve the issue, scientists at the Berkeley Geochronology Center (BGC), the University of California, Berkeley, and universities in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom have now determined the most precise dates yet for the dinosaur extinction 66 million years ago and for the well-known impact that occurred around the same time.

Chancellor to lead American Academy’s new Lincoln Project

Playwright/alum Stan Lai to discuss creativity, theater
Stan Lai, considered the leading playwright/director in Asia and one of the region's most prolific, is taking a break from his hectic schedule and heading back to his alma mater, the University of Cal

Physics society honors Birgeneau for "statesmanship in science"

Poor sleep can leave romantic partners feeling unappreciated
Spouses and other romantic partners often complain about feeling unappreciated, and a new study from UC Berkeley suggests poor sleep may play a hidden role. A study looking into how sleep habits impact gratitude found that sleep deprivation can leave couples "too tired to say thanks" and can make one or the other partner feel taken for granted.

When mom is the CEO at home, workplace ambitions take a back seat
It's often said that women can have it all - motherhood and a successful career. But a new UC Berkeley study suggests that women who rule the household have less energy for or interest in being a rising star in the workplace.

A rock is a clock: physicist uses matter to tell time
Ever since he was a kid growing up in Germany, Holger Müller has been asking himself a fundamental question: What is time? That question has now led Müller, today an assistant professor of physics at the University of California, Berkeley, to a fundamentally new way of measuring time.

Earth-size planets common in galaxy
An analysis of the first three years of data from NASA's Kepler mission, which already has discovered thousands of potential exoplanets, contains good news for those searching for habitable worlds outside our solar system.

Minimal state cost from Medicaid expansion in California
As the California Legislature prepares to consider bills relating to implementing the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and expanding Medicaid, the state has the opportunity to significantly increase health

Exocomets may be as common as exoplanets
Comets trailing wispy tails across the night sky are a beautiful byproduct of our solar system's formation, icy leftovers from 4.6 billion years ago when the planets coalesced from rocky rubble. The discovery by astronomers at the University of California, Berkeley, and Clarion University in Pennsylvania of six likely comets around distant stars suggests that comets - dubbed "exocomets" - are just as common in other stellar systems with planets.

Banguns inititative calls for change, accountability
Steve Fish knows there's a slew of petitions aimed at reining in American gun violence in the wake of Sandy Hook.

Cellphone, GPS data suggest new strategy for alleviating traffic tie-ups
Asking all commuters to cut back on rush-hour driving reduces traffic congestion somewhat, but asking specific groups of drivers to stay off the road may work even better.

What do leeches, limpets and worms have in common?
Leeches, despite the yuck factor, have captured the hearts of two University of California, Berkeley, scientists who are part of a team that this week is publishing the leech's complete genome sequence.

To revert breast cancer cells, give them the squeeze
Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have put the squeeze - literally - on malignant mammary cells to guide them back into a normal growth pattern. The findings, presented today (Monday, Dec. 17) at the annual meeting of the American Society for Cell Biology in San Francisco, show for the first time that mechanical forces alone can revert and stop the out-of-control growth of cancer cells.

Media ethicist Edward Wasserman to become new journalism school dean
Edward Wasserman, an authority on the ethics, evolution and ownership of the news media, will become dean of the Graduate School of Journalism at UC Berkeley on Jan.

Media Advisory: New Food Labor Research Center to be launched at UC Berkeley
ATTENTION: Reporters covering food, agriculture, labor, health, sustainability and social justice WHAT: An event celebrating the official launch of the University of California, Berkeley's new

Let there be clean light: Kerosene lamps spew black carbon, should be replaced, study says
The primary source of light for more than a billion people in developing nations is also churning out black carbon at levels previously overlooked in greenhouse gas estimates, according to a new study led by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley and the University of Illinois. Results from field and lab tests found that 7 to 9 percent of the kerosene in wick lamps - used for light in 250-300 million households without electricity - is converted to black carbon when burned.

New grant will accelerate job creation, economic development in East Bay
Pleasant Hill, Calif . - Bay Area congressional leaders today (Wednesday, Nov.

Robert Lin, UC Berkeley pioneer in experimental space physics, dies at 70
Physicist Robert Peichung Lin, a former director of the Space Sciences Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley, who designed and built dozens of instruments to study solar flares, the ma