As a boy, UC Berkeley psychology professor Stephen Hinshaw didn’t understand why his father kept disappearing. The discovery that his father had a severe mental illness inspired him to become a champion against the stigma his father faced, and his new new memoir, Another Kind of Madness: A Journey through the Stigma and Hope of Mental Illness, just won the American Book Fest’s 2018 award for best autobiography or memoir.
December 11, 2018
December 10, 2018
UC Berkeley NewsCenter
New York implemented changes last week to how Lyft and Uber drivers get paid in Manhattan, based on recommendations put forth by Michael Reich, professor of economics and co-chair, center on wage and employment dynamics at the Institute for Research on Labor and Employment at UC Berkeley. Berkeley News interviewed Reich to discuss how the new rules came to be and if San Francisco Bay Area users of ride share services will soon find themselves following the New York model.
UC Berkeley NewsCenter
According to a new study authored by molecular and cell biology professor Stephan Lammel, the brain neurotransmitter dopamine has a yin-yang personality, mediating both pleasure and pain.
December 7, 2018
UC Berkeley NewsCenter
UC Berkeley NewsCenter
UC Berkeley Chancellor Carol Christ sent this message to the campus community late yesterday, regarding a new effort to advance and expand diversity among Berkeley's undergraduate population.
December 6, 2018
UC Berkeley NewsCenter
Geckos are renowned for their acrobatic feats on land and in the air, but a new discovery that they can also run on water puts them in the superhero category, says a University of California, Berkeley, biologist. The study was conducted by U.C. Berkeley graduate students Jasmine Nirody, now a biophysicist at Oxford and Rockefeller University, and Judy Jinn.
December 3, 2018
UC Berkeley NewsCenter
Honeymoon long over? Hang in there. A new UC Berkeley psychology study shows those prickly disagreements that can mark the early and middle years of marriage mellow with age as conflicts give way to humor and acceptance. Researchers found that as couples aged, they showed more humor and tenderness towards one another.
UC Berkeley NewsCenter
In what’s becoming a ritual of stressful times on campus, llamas returned to Memorial Glade to help soothe the students’ pre-finals nerves and bring smiles all around. The gentle animals offered themselves up for petting, feeding, grooming and hundreds of selfies in the return of Llamapalooza.
November 28, 2018
UC Berkeley NewsCenter
Susan Ervin-Tripp, a psycholinguist acclaimed for her pioneering studies of bilingualism and language development in children, native Americans and immigrants, died earlier this month in Oakland from complications of an infected cut. She was 91.
November 27, 2018
NOW HIRING!
Letters & Science is now accepting applications for Undergraduate Student Peer Advisor positions.
Applications are due at 11:59 PM on Monday, January 21st 2019.
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UC Berkeley NewsCenter
The American Philosophical Society awarded English professor emerita Catherine Gallagher the 2018 Jacques Barzun Prize in Cultural History for her book, Telling It Like It Wasn’t: The Counterfactual Imagination in History and Fiction. She received the award in a ceremony in Philadelphia earlier this month. The book explores counterfactualism, the study of things that never happened and wondering what would have happened if they did.
UC Berkeley NewsCenter
Maria Sonevytsky, who received her Ph.D. from Columbia, is joining the faculty as an assistant professor of ethnomusicology.
November 26, 2018
UC Berkeley NewsCenter
Sabeeha Merchant, who received her Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, is joining the faculty as a professor of biochemistry, biophysics, and structural biology.
UC Berkeley NewsCenter
Ethan Katz, who received his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, is joining the faculty as an associate professor of history and Jewish studies.
UC Berkeley NewsCenter
In response to claims that the world’s first genetically edited babies have been born in China, Dr. Jennifer Doudna of UC Berkeley issued the following statement. Doudna is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, Li Ka Shing Chancellor’s Chair in Biomedical and Health Sciences and Professor of Biochemistry, Biophysics and Structural Biology at Berkeley. She is co-inventor of CRISPR-Cas 9 gene editing.
November 21, 2018
UC Berkeley NewsCenter
Earth's magnetic field is one of the key elements that allows it to sustain life. A new analysis of Earth-like exoplanets up to five times the size of our world suggests that they probably have a magnetic field like our own, but one generated in a totally novel way: by the planets’ magma oceans.
November 20, 2018
UC Berkeley Department of Music
UC Berkeley dean and professor emeritus Anthony Newcomb passed away peacefully at his home on Sunday, November 18th in Berkeley. A widely-respected music scholar, Newcomb’s research focused on vocal music of the Renaissance and early Baroque eras, and later the ontological connections between Wagner and 18th and 19th-century instrumental works.
UC Berkeley NewsCenter
Third-year political science major Teddy Lake serves on the ASUC Senate, where she is proud to help raise the voice of UC Berkeley’s queer and trans community.
UC Berkeley NewsCenter
UC Berkeley's The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life has acquired the collection of photographer Roman Vishniac, who documented many of the most important events of the 20th century. Vishniac almost single-handedly preserved our concepts of Jewish life in pre-World War II Eastern Europe. After the war, he would go on to photograph the destruction and rebuilding of Germany and life in the early days of the Baby Boom in New York and its Chinatown.
UC Berkeley NewsCenter
New research from UC Berkeley neuroscientists shows the neural networks supporting anticipation are split between two different parts of the brain, depending on the task at hand. One type relies on memories from past experiences. The other on rhythm. Both are critical to our ability to navigate and enjoy the world.