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/2009/11/05_rapid_supernova.shtml Post-doc Dovi Poznanski was looking through seven-year-old data when he chanced upon a very strange supernova that flashed and was gone in less than a month, when 3-4 months is typical. The unusually rapid supernova appears to match the predicted behavior of a thermonuclear explosion on a white dwarf that has drawn helium from its companion. Published: 05 November http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2009/10/15_popscience.shtml A UC Berkeley engineer has been pegged as an up-and-coming scientist to watch by the magazine Popular Science. The publication announced today (Thursday, Oct. 15) that Ting Xu, 35, assistant professor of materials science and engineering, is one of the "Brilliant 10" young researchers profiled in its November issue. Published: 15 October http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2009/10/15_DUSEL.shtml UC Berkeley's proposal to build lab facilities in a South Dakota mine has received an additional $29 million in support from the National Science Foundation. The funds, which are for a preliminary design, set the stage for later construction funds that would create the world's deepest underground laboratory for experiments in physics, geology and biology. Published: 15 October http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2009/10/08_sustainable_chemistry.shtml The College of Chemistry is moving toward sustainable "green" chemistry with a new emphasis on sustainability in its undergraduate courses, a new endowed chair in sustainable chemistry, and its participation in the campuswide Berkeley Center for Green Chemistry. Published: 08 October http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2009/10/01_hlusko.shtml The groundbreaking discovery of the partial skeleton of Ardipithecus ramidus, a hominid species dating back 4.4 million years, is the latest in a long line of contributions UC Berkeley researchers have made toward the elucidation of the human ancestral tree. To learn more about what it's like to be a hominid fossil hunter, Sarah Yang from UC Berkeley Media Relations interviewed Leslea Hlusko, associate professor of integrative biology and the associate faculty member of the Human Evolution Research Center at UC Berkeley. Published: 01 October http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2009/10/01_ardiskeleton.shtml The oldest hominid skeleton found in Africa, dating from 4.4 million years ago, revolutionizes our understanding of how humans evolved from the last common ancestor of apes and humans. Published: 01 October http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2009/09/03_cyberlawblog.shtml Two University of California, Berkeley, professors are teaming up with two colleagues to launch "Cyberlaw Cases," a blog covering what they consider the top 10 most important pending U.S. legal cases involving issues that impact the Internet, databases and software programs. Published: 03 September http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2009/08/31_nanolaser.shtml UC Berkeley researchers have reached a new milestone in laser physics by creating the world's smallest semiconductor laser, capable of generating visible light in a space smaller than the size of a single protein molecule. Published: 31 August http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2009/08/28_spacescienceslab.shtml In 1959, only two years after the Soviet Union launched Sputnik and ignited the space race, UC Berkeley created a laboratory devoted to space science that has grown to be one of the most active academic space research labs in the country. Published: 28 August http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2009/08/26_sasir.shtml The University of Arizona has cast a 9-ton honeycomb mirror that will become the centerpiece of the San Pedro Martir Telescope in Baja California and the locus of a highly sensitive infrared survey of the northern sky, accoring to project PI Joshua Bloom of UC Berkeley. Published: 26 August http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2009/08/18_innovators.shtml A trio of researchers at UC Berkeley are up-and-coming scientists to watch, according to a newly released 2009 list of Top Young Innovators Under 35. Published: 18 August http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2009/08/17_igert.shtml With a new National Science Foundation grant, biologists and engineers at Berkeley will be stepping up their collaborative effort to learn from nature and apply their discoveries for the benefit of humanity. Published: 17 August http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2009/07/28_matterhorn.shtml As a growing number of worldwide learners log on, free of charge, to video and podcast lectures and events at UC Berkeley, the campus is leading an international effort to build a communal Webcasting platform to more easily record and distribute its popular educational content. Published: 28 July http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2009/07/23_JupGem.shtml A team of astronomers using the Gemini North telescope on Mauna Kea in Hawai'i obtained a new infrared image of Jupiter on Wednesday night, July 22, showing its new scar still glowing in mid-infrared wavelengths. Published: 23 July http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2009/07/21_cellscope.shtml UC Berkeley researchers have developed a cell phone microscope that not only takes color images of malaria parasites, but of tuberculosis bacteria labeled with fluorescent markers. The latest milestone moves a major step forward in taking clinical microscopy out of specialized laboratories into field settings for disease screening and diagnoses. Published: 21 July