http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/ Headlines from the University of California, Berkeley Steve McConnell - steve.mcconnell@berkeley.edu en-US http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2008/08/06_helium.shtml A strange, metal brew lies buried deep within Jupiter andSaturn, according to a new study by researchers at the University ofCalifornia, Berkeley, and in London. Published: 06 August http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2008/07/30_focusinglight.shtml Scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, have devised a way to squeeze light into tighter spaces than ever thought possible, potentially opening doors to new technology in the fields of optical communications, miniature lasers and optical computers. Published: 30 July http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2008/07/29_keck.shtml Britt Glaunsinger, a University of California, Berkeley, virologist and an assistant professor in the Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, has won a W. M. Keck Foundation grant, an award given to innovative young scientists in the area of biomedical research. Published: 29 July http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2008/07/24_reconn.shtml The northern and southern lights are fueled by energy from the sun, as solar wind particles make their way through the Earth's magnetic shield to the poles. The THEMIS mission managed by UC Berkeley has now identified the trigger event that dumps the sun's energy into the Earth's auroras and makes them flash and shimmer. Published: 24 July http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2008/07/24_math.shtml Despite perceptions by many parents and teachers, there is no differnce in math performance between girls and boys. A new study by UC Berkeley's Marcia Linn and University of Wisconsin colleagues shows that in both elementary and high school, girls and boys do equally well on math assessment tests. Published: 24 July http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2008/07/21_hiking.shtml Even a quiet stroll in the park can dramatically change natural ecosystems, according to a new study by conservation biologists from the University of California, Berkeley. These findings could have important implications for land management policies. Published: 21 July http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2008/07/14_listeria.shtml Disease-causing microbes like the food-borne bacterium Listeria monocytogenes specialize in invading and replicating inside their animal hosts' own cells, making them particularly tricky to defeat. But a new study led by UC Berkeley biologists has identified a molecular alarm system in which the intracellular pathogen sends out signals that kick the immune response into gear. Published: 14 July http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2008/07/10_daphnia.shtml Scientists have for the first time identified environmental pollutants using a genomic approach. This new gene-based technique could lead to better and faster lab tests for pinpointing pollutants in contaminated ecosystems. Published: 10 July http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2008/07/07_eisner.shtml A detailed survey of stars in the Orion Nebula has found that fewer than 10 percent have enough surrounding dust to make Jupiter-sized planets. The study, one of the first using the new CARMA radio array, was conducted by astronomers at UC Berkeley, Caltech and the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Published: 07 July http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2008/07/03_nature.shtml Countering a perception that establishing nature reserves in developing nations drives away local communities, a new UC Berkeley study finds that human settlements are actually drawn to protected areas in Africa and Latin America. Unfortunately, the researchers also found a link between high rates of human population growth and illegal harvesting of timber, bushmeat hunting and species extinction. Published: 03 July http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2008/07/02_helio.shtml NASA's STEREO spacecraft unexpectedly detected particles from the edge of the solar system last year, allowing UC Berkeley scientists to map for the first time the energized particles in the region where the hot solar wind slams into the cold interstellar medium. Published: 02 July http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2008/07/02_toxoplasma.shtml Even though parasites are complex creatures, the mammalian immune response to them is surprisingly simple. This finding by UC Berkeley researchers provides hope that creating vaccines for parasitic diseases such as malaria may be more straightforward than initially thought Published: 02 July http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2008/06/30_birds.shtml The family relationships among the world's 9,600 bird species have been thrown into question by a genetic comparion of bird DNA. According to UC Berkeley ornithologist Rauri Bowie, the study sheds a whole new light on birds' long evolutionary road from the dinosaurs. Published: 30 June http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2008/06/25_marssoil.shtml A new analysis of Martian soil data led by UC Berkeley geoscientists suggests that there was once enough water in the planet's atmosphere for a light drizzle or dew to hit the ground, leaving tell-tale signs of its interaction with the planet's surface. The study's conclusion breaks from the more dominant view that the liquid water that once existed during the red planet's infancy came mainly in the form of upwelling groundwater. Published: 25 June http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2008/06/18_lancelet.shtml The ancestor of all chordates, a group that includes humans and other vertebrates, probably looked like a sand-dwelling invertebrate called the lancelet or amphioxus. Its newly sequenced genome confirms that, and shows how vertebrates evolved over the past 550 million years -- through a four-fold duplication of the genes of our primitive ancestors. Published: 18 June