Science News

Like all mammals, the Neanderthals breast fed their babies. Scientists wanted to know: For how long? In a new report in Nature, researchers from UC Berkeley and other institutions say the answer can be found in the fossilized tooth of an eight-year old Neanderthal child, discovered in a Belgian cave. KQED's science blog reports.

At the request of California Gov. Jerry Brown, UC Berkeley biologist Tony Barnosky prepared with 15 other scientists a consensus statement about the environmental problems endangering Earth and what policy makers should do about it, and garnered more than 500 signatures before presenting it to Brown on May 23.

UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Birgeneau signed a memorandum of understanding in April, committing the campus to sharing scientific and technical expertise with a new X-ray research center under construction in Jordan. The center, called SESAME, unites scientists from throughout the Middle East.

UC Berkeley's Essig Museum of Entomology is opening up its collections to citizen scientists through a project called Calbug. The project crowdsources the digitization of a million handwritten field notes that accompany insect specimens, many of which were collected more than a century ago.

Team members Karen Adrade (right) and Zack Fischmann (next to Karen) making their pitch for the Science Shop. Big Ideas@Berkeley is an annual innovation contest which aims to provide support, funds, and encouragement to interdisciplinary teams of students on campus.... Ann Guy

Associate Professor of Genetics, Genomics and Development Nicole King, Associate Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology Michael Rape, and Associate Professor of Immunology and Pathogenesis Russell Vance have been appointed as Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) investigators, highly sought positions that provide subsidized appointments and research funds.

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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 UC Berkeley. For instance, Mozart’s jaunty Flute Concerto No. 1 in G major is most often associated with bright yellow and orange, whereas his somber Requiem in D minor is more likely to be linked to dark, bluish gray.

Nathan Bickart shows a group of graduate students how to identify and uproot invasive grass. Conservation and Resource Studies major Nathan Bickart is one of seven graduating seniors selected as recipients of the 2013 Judith Lee Stronach Baccalaureate Prize, it... Ann Guy

More than 50 students and 30 alumni of Berkeley's Biology Scholars Program gathered recently in the Durant Hall atrium to thank Chancellor Robert Birgeneau and Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost George Breslauer for their support.

Douglas Clark, the current chair of the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and the Warren and Katharine Schlinger Distinguished Professor in Chemical Engineering, has been designated the new dean of the College of Chemistry.

Applied mathematicians James Sethian and Robert Saye from UC Berkeley and Berkeley Lab have discovered a way to mathematically describe the evolution of bubbles in a foam, and have used the equations to create a computer-generated video showing how the process proceeds.

Three young faculty members - Nicole King, Michael Rape & Russell Vance - have won the most sought-after appointment for a researcher at any American university: as a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator. The institute will pay their salaries in the Department of Molecular & Cell Biology and provide research funding, freeing them from constant application for federal research grants.

Some 44 years ago, the late chemist Melvin Calvin and colleagues at the Space Sciences Laboratory analyzed moon dust brought back by Apollo 11 and 12, published a paper, and then stashed the dust on a shelf. Archivists at Berkeley Lab rediscovered the precious material, vacuum sealed in a jar, and have returned it to NASA.

How does San Francisco Giants slugger Pablo Sandoval swat a 95 mph fastball, or tennis icon Venus Williams see the oncoming ball, let alone return her sister Serena’s 120 mph serves? For the first time, vision scientists at UC Berkeley have pinpointed how the brain tracks fast-moving objects.

UC Berkeley cooperative extension specialist Peggy Lemaux's efforts to engineer crops to reduce malnutrition in developing countries.will be featured in a half-hour program, "Next Meal: Engineering Food," that will be shown on KQED's Quest on Wednesday. The program explores the pros and cons of GM crops, as well as the future of research and regulation.

The National Geographic website has an article titled "Mind-Bending Parasite Permanently Quells Cat Fear in Mice" which describes the research of Wendy Ingram, an MCB graduate student in Professor Ellen Robey's and Professor Michael Eisen's labs.

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Professor of Biochemistry, Biophysics and Structural Biology James Berger and Professor of Biochemistry, Biophysics and Structural Biology Daniel Portnoy have been elected to the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), one of the highest honors given to a scientist or engineer in the United States.

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Structural biologist James Berger, immunologist Daniel Portnoy and mathematician James Sethian have been elected members of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), one of the highest honors given to a scientist or engineer in the United States.

Most physicists suspect that antimatter and normal matter weigh the same, that is, they are affected the same way by gravity. No direct measurements exist, however, that prove they do. UC Berkeley scientists, part of the ALPHA collaboration at CERN, are working on just such an experiment and have some very rough results.

By Louis Sahagun, Los Angeles Times Tobacco plants genetically modified to produce biofuels. PHOTO: Anastasios Melis, Department of Plant and Microbial Biology Once celebrated as an economic mainstay, the tobacco industry has been hard hit by health concerns, bans, lawsuits... Ann Guy