Study to explore if more sleep will help teens shake off depression
After a late night of texting, instant-messaging or updating Facebook, it’s hardly surprising that many teenagers show up groggy for school. And, studies show, sleep deprivation can lead to poor academic performance, truancy and greater dropout rates, especially for those prone to depression. To address this troubling trend, UC Berkeley's Sleep and Psychological Disorders Laboratory – in conjunction with Kaiser Permanente, Oregon – has begun recruiting middle and high school students for a study to see if depression can be alleviated if they get enough sleep.
(04 November)

Studies find Latino toddlers' gap in cognitive growth
Two new studies led by UC Berkeley researchers find that immigrant Latina mothers, who typically live in poor neighborhoods, give birth to healthy babies, but their toddlers start to lag behind middle-class white children in basic language and cognitive skills by the age of 2 or 3.
(20 October)

Bosses who feel inadequate can turn into bullies
Bosses who are in over their heads are more likely to bully subordinates. That’s because feelings of inadequacy trigger them to lash out at those around them, according to new research from the UC Berkeley, and the University of Southern California. In a new twist on the adage “power corrupts,” researchers at UC Berkeley and USC have found a direct link among supervisors and upper management between self-perceived incompetence and aggression. The findings, gleaned from four separate studies, are published in the November issue of the journal Psychological Science.
(13 October)

Bancroft's Darwin exhibit taps campus's museum, library collections
An exhibit revealing what inspired and challenged the world's best known biologist, Charles Darwin, is now open at the University of California, Berkeley's Bancroft Library in celebration of the 200th anniversary of Darwin's birth. The Bancroft joins a worldwide commemoration not only of Darwin's bicentenary, but of the 150th anniversary of the publication of his landmark book, "The Origin of Species."
(17 September)

Kenneth Stampp, noted historian of the Civil War and slavery, dies
Kenneth M. Stampp, a University of California, Berkeley, professor emeritus of history and a formidable scholar best known for paving the way to a sharply revised assessment of American slavery, the coming of the American Civil War and Southern Reconstruction, died in Oakland, Calif., on Friday, July 10. He was 96.
(15 July)

Tougher controls sought for DNA ancestry testing
As the popularity of take-home DNA kits to trace ancestry or calculate the risk for serious medical conditions grows, there is an increasingly critical need for federal oversight of "direct-to-consumer" genetic testing, as well as of the use of DNA samples for research, according to researchers from UC Berkeley,and several other academic institutions.
(02 July)

Linking fast-food proximity to obesity
A high school within a tenth of a mile of a fast-food restaurant is a high school with a higher-than-average number of obese students, Berkeley researchers have found.
(12 March)

Law schools at UC Berkeley and UCLA launch new environment blog
The law schools at UC Berkeley and UCLA today announced the launch of a new blog, Legal Planet, which provides insight and analysis on climate change, energy, and environmental law and policy. This collaborative blog draws upon the individual research strengths and vast expertise of the law schools' think tanks and legal scholars.
(11 March)

Hinshaw on environment, genes, and risk
Stephen Hinshaw, in his new book about increasing mental-health problems among today's adolescent girls, The Triple Bind, points to interactions between "vulnerable" genes and environmental pressures as a key to that dilemma.
(12 February)

Pressure to be a supergirl is causing teen mental health crisis
Expectations for teenage girls to be brainy, athletic, nurturing, and look like supermodels - while juggling homework, social networking and resumé-padding activities - are fueling a generational mental health crisis, according to a new book by UC Berkeley psychologist Stephen Hinshaw.
(10 February)

Survey Research Center marks half-century of data-based insight
Not just accumulating and disseminating reams of data, but interpreting it to help shape public policy, is the mission of Berkeley's Survey Research Center.
(05 February)

Research explores policy research and impressions of bias
A University of California, Berkeley, study shows that when people learn about research findings that conflict with their own beliefs about politically controversial topics, they not only doubt the conclusions, but also question the researcher's objectivity.The study by Robert MacCoun, a UC Berkeley professor of public policy, law and psychology, will be published in the February issue of the journal Political Psychology and already is online.
(03 February)

Retrofitted and revamped, Bancroft reopens to regular hours
The Bancroft Library is back - and it's better than ever. One of the University of California, Berkeley's premier special collections libraries, it reopened this week with regular hours following a three-year, $64 million seismic retrofit and upgrade.
(21 January)

Anxious? Do a crossword puzzle
Anxious people often engage in mindless distractions to keep from thinking scary or troubling thoughts. But results from a new brain imaging study by a UC Berkeley researcher suggest that brain-sharpening activities - rather than mind-numbing ones - can rein in a restless psyche by activating the region of the brain that commands logical reasoning and concentration.
(16 December)

Marriage improves after kids fly the coop, study suggests
So much for the empty nest blues. A UC Berkeley study that tracked the relationships of dozens of women has found evidence that marriages improve once the kids have flown the coop.
(03 December)

EEGs show brain differences between poor and rich kids
Children from well-off families have an inherent advantage over those from poor families, but new research shows an added plus. The brains of kids from low socioeconomic levels show decreased activity in the prefrontal cortex - which governs attention and deals with novel situations - compared to the brains of children from high socioeconomic levels.
(02 December)

Cracking the chronic-poverty code
Living in housing projects for nearly a decade, Berkeley ethnographer Martín Sánchez-Jankowski discovered a ‘subculture of scarcity’ that resists middle-class values but makes the lives of the poor richer.
(22 October)

UC Berkeley study tests impact of terrorism threats on presidential race
Presidential candidates who play up the threat of terrorism to bolster votes may want to rethink their game plan. New research from UC Berkeley suggests the war on terror has less impact on presidential popularity than it did during President Bush's first term.
(01 October)

New studies assess impacts of "No Child" reforms
Teachers across America are redoubling efforts to lift children's achievement but report declining morale under stiff accountability policies and state-mandated curricula, according to seven new studies published today (Wednesday, Aug. 20) by UC Berkeley scholars and associates.
(20 August)

The second-class workers behind China's urban construction boom
Behind the rapid modernization of China, powerfully symbolized by the architectural wonders of the Beijing Olympics, are millions of migrant construction laborers from rural villages, working for low wages and outside the protection of Chinese labor laws.
(14 August)

Beware the superstar CEO, says economist
The seemingly charmed life of a superstar CEO can be a double-edged sword - added power and prestige for the chief executive officer, but often bad news for his or her company and shareholders, according to a new study co-authored by a University of California, Berkeley, economist.
(18 July)

Professor explores social behavior and business misdeeds
Corporate misconduct can be the stuff of high drama. But prevailing theory has it that "settling up," the process of meting out consequences for corporate misdeeds, is largely determined by quite rational, unbiased financial markets and often the legal system.
(16 July)

Berkeley researchers go global to document endangered languages
As the "Breath of Life" conference on California Indian language revitalization gets underway on June 8 on campus, UC Berkeley faculty and student linguists are fanning out around the globe to research and document other often endangered languages.
(06 June)

Ancient Nemea to host 2008 Olympic-like summer games
Just as the Summer Olympics get underway in Beijing on June 21, an ancient athletic stadium at a UC Berkeley archaeological site in Greece that was home to the original Panhellenic Games will once again come alive with competition in the 2008 edition of the Nemean Games.
(04 June)

Geographer David Hooson dies at age 82
David Hooson, a professor emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley, and a scholar of the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, national identities and the history of geographic ideas, died on May 16 at the age of 82.
(29 May)

Egyptologist Cathleen Keller dies at age 62
Cathleen "Candy" Keller, an associate professor of Egyptology in the University of California, Berkeley's Department of Near Eastern Studies, died of pancreatic cancer on April 18 at John Muir Medical Center in Walnut Creek. She was 62.
(07 May)

New study finds glamorization of drugs in rap music jumped dramatically over two decades
A new study finds that references to illegal drug use in rap music jumped sixfold in the two decades since 1979, the year when rap made its way from inner-city urban areas to a mainstream audience. Moreover, illegal drug use became increasingly linked during this time period to wealth, glamour and social standing, raising red flags about its potential influence on young listeners, said Denise Herd, UC Berkeley associate professor and author of the study.
(01 April)

Raising the profile of immigration studies
"Human history has always been about migration," says sociologist Irene Bloemraad, "but with ever-increasing globalization, the 21st century will be a century of people on the move." Over the past five years, she has worked to raise the profile of immigration studies at UC Berkeley, where a remarkable two thirds of students are foreign born or have at least one foreign-born parent.
(19 March)

Mathematician, puzzle lover David Gale has died
David Gale, a puzzle lover and professor emeritus of mathematics who made fundamental contributions to economics and game theory, died March 7 at the age of 86.
(18 March)

Extra cash from government program linked to better child development, new study says
Children in impoverished families that received an extra amount of cold, hard cash from a government support program were taller, less likely to be overweight, and scored higher on cognitive, motor and language tests, compared with kids in families that received less money, says a new UC Berkeley-led study.
(06 March)

Bancroft Library archiving works of pioneering artist Gus Arriola
The "Gordo" comic strips, which beginning in 1941 introduced millions of people in the United States to life south of the border, is part of the rich archive of cartoonist Gus Arriola's work now residing at the University of California, Berkeley's Bancroft Library.
(29 February)

What do we mean when we talk of love?
Psychology prof Dacher Keltner investigates the many facets of everyone's favorite heartfelt emotion — from the passionate urges of early romance to the connections some people are able to feel for humanity at large.
(13 February)

Web conference takes on "silver tsunami"
As America scrambles to meet the retirement needs of 78 million aging Baby Boomers, UC Berkeley is cyber-surfing ahead of the so-called "silver tsunami" by launching its first-ever online conference to help create aging-friendly communities.
(12 February)