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/2008/07/02_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/2008/06/24_melissaho.shtml "Compassion" and "computer networking" rarely appear in the same sentence. But they coexist easily for grad student Melissa Ho, whose networking innovations in developing nations have brought her the "Foundations of Change" Thomas I. Yamashita Award. Published: 24 June http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2008/06/20_frischobit.shtml Joseph Frisch, a UC Berkeley professor emeritus of mechanical engineering, who was known as a pioneer in computer-aided design, died June 15 at his home in Berkeley after a prolonged illness. He was 87. Published: 20 June http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2008/06/20_kyotoprize.shtml Richard Karp, UC Berkeley professor of electrical engineering and computer sciences, has been named a laureate of the 2008 Kyoto Prize, Japan's equivalent of the Nobel Prize, in recognition of his lifetime's achievements in the field of computer theory. Karp is credited with significantly advancing the theory of NP-completeness — a cornerstone of modern theoretical computer science — that had been developed a year earlier by former UC Berkeley math professor Stephen Cook. Published: 20 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 http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2008/06/02_chips.shtml A $14.5 million satellite launched just five years ago by NASA to study the sun's local environment has outlived its usefulness — and its funding — and was shut down in April by its UC Berkeley operators. Published: 02 June http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2008/05/22_redspots.shtml The first images of Jupiter since it came out from behind the sun show that the turbulence and storms that have plagued the planet for the past two years continue. Whether or not this is a sign of global warming on the planet, the turbulence does seem to be spawning new spots. Published: 22 May http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2008/05/21_supernova.shtml NASA's Swift satellite caught the rare birth of a supernova earlier this year, allowing astronomers to rapidly deploy ground-based telescopes to follow its evolution and learn about normal stellar explosions. UC Berkeley astronomers have analyzed the data to conclude that the original star was more than 30 times the mass of the sun, but only slightly larger, when its core ran out of fuel and imploded, blowing the star to smithereens. Published: 21 May http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2008/05/07_bplan.shtml New search technology provider Implicit Interfaces and biotech venture Titan Medical tied for first place at the 10th annual UC Berkeley Business Plan Competition at the University of California, Berkeley's Haas School of Business. Published: 07 May http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2008/05/02_zebrafish.shtml Using artificial sugar and some clever chemistry, UC Berkeley researchers have made glow-in-the-dark zebrafish whose internal light comes from the sugar coating on their cells. The technique is a new tool for researchers, and will lead to a better understanding of the role of cell-surface sugars in health and disease. Published: 02 May http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2008/04/29_cellphone.shtml With an innovative concept developed by UC Berkeley engineers, the ubiquitous cell phone could one day be used to make medical imaging accessible to billions of people around the world. Using off-the-shelf components, the researchers demonstrated the feasibility of using a mobile phone to transmit raw data from a medical scan to a central server for processing, and then receiving the final image for display on its screen. Published: 29 April http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2008/04/24_argondating.shtml Thanks to a recalibration of the argon-argon dating technique, geochronologists at UC Berkeley and the Berkeley Geochronology Center have established a more precise date for the dinosaur dieoff at the end of the Cretaceous period: 65.95 million years ago, give or take 40,000 years. Published: 24 April http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2008/03/18_parlab.shtml Microsoft and Intel announced Tuesday, March 18, the creation of two Universal Parallel Computing Research Centers, the first at UC Berkeley and another at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The two centers comprise what is considered the nation's first joint industry and university research alliance of this magnitude that is focused on mainstream parallel computing. Published: 18 March http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2008/03/17_gecko.shtml While recent research has focused on the gecko's unusual toes as the key to climbing walls and hanging from ceilings, UC Berkeley biologists have found that its tail plays a critical role in preventing it from falling when it slips and maneuvering to solid surfaces when it does fall. Published: 17 March http://www.berkeley.edu/news/berkeleyan/2008/02/13_jester.shtml Beneath its jokey exterior, Jester 4.0 is serious research, a recommender system that employs complex mathematics to match users with others of similar tastes and preferences. Someday soon, Eigentaste 5.0 — the sophisticated algorithm on which it's based — could even help Chuck Norris find a portfolio of charities to support. Published: 13 February