Research & Innovation

SEED Scholars showcase their research in annual symposium

October 29, 2026
by Alexander Rony

While some of her peers were relaxing over the summer, Megha Ramachandran was conducting statistical research at Seattle’s Institute for Systems Biology. Her lab’s principal investigator was very supportive and even let her come up with her own research project.

“That was a new experience,” said Ramachandran, a second-year undergraduate at UC Berkeley majoring in data science and molecular and cell biology. “It was...

Are California elections safe? Here's what the experts say.

October 28, 2026
By Miles Kofman

With Election Day less than a week away, California’s elections have already attracted controversy. They’ve drawn scrutiny from the federal government over slow ballot counts, mail-in voting and more.

The Department of Justice sued California earlier this month over what it says could be as many as 20,000 people committing voter fraud, and it charged 28 people in California with illegally registering or voting in federal elections.

This has led to mistrust in election systems. A UC Berkeley Institute of...

What can AI learn from children?

October 14, 2026
By Miles Kofman

AI models are always hungry for vast amounts of information, so it can learn how to give us human-like responses. For example, OpenAI’s GPT-3 trained on 570 gigabytes of text, or roughly 225 billion words.

But children and babies, however, do not require an enormous pool of information to learn how language works. They listen and try things like imitating the sounds of people around them – a different way of learning that’s more efficient and consumes much less energy.

Is it possible for AI to learn more like young...

Will AI decide who wins the midterms?

October 26, 2026
By Miles Kofman

Artificial intelligence has been woven into the everyday lives of Americans. As voters head to the polls on November 3 for a consequential midterm election, will AI change the way they get their information and ultimately influence how they vote?

Since the 2024 presidential election, AI use has grown significantly, according to a Pew Research Center poll, which found that half of U.S. adults use AI, with a quarter of them using it daily. Two years ago, only one-third of adults had used AI platforms.

Public...

How the legacy of slavery shapes health disparities today

October 22, 2026
By Jessica Ballardo

An institution that existed more than 150 years ago is still impacting who lives and dies today.

A new study co-authored by UC Berkeley Psychology Professor Manuel Galvan found that modern-day Black Americans have higher mortality rates in counties that had greater proportions of enslaved people in the 19th century.

The opposite was true for White Americans: counties with a greater historical reliance on slavery had lower mortality rates among White residents.

The study, “...

Why UC Berkeley Economist Gabriel Zucman wants a 2% billionaire tax

June 18, 2026
By Jessica Ballardo

Billionaire wealth has reached historic highs — and so has their power. UC Berkeley and Paris School of Economics Professor Gabriel Zucman, a world-renowned expert on wealth inequality and global tax evasion, warns that this growing concentration of extreme wealth is undermining democracy and allowing the ultra-rich to wield outsized influence over politics and society.

In his new book, “We Need to Tax Billionaires...

Why trying too hard to be happy might actually make you less happy

May 28, 2026
By Jessica Ballardo

Trying to be happy can sometimes have the opposite effect.

A new review of previous psychology research, titled “The pursuit of happiness: pitfalls and promises,” by Iris Mauss, a UC Berkeley psychology professor, and Brett Ford, a University of Toronto psychology professor and Berkeley psychology alumna, explores this happiness paradox. The researchers examined findings from 20 years of research on the...

How do Californians tolerate extreme inequality?

May 29, 2026
By Lila Thulin

The 136 conversations took place in roughly the same way: Pleasantries would be exchanged, a recorder started, then UC Berkeley researchers asked middle-class Californians to dig deep. Who deserves government assistance? What values do you hope to instill in your children? What do you think about undocumented immigration? What is the American dream, exactly?

Those wide-ranging interviews form the basis of aself-scrutinizing new book from Berkeley professors G. Cristina Mora and...

https://news.berkeley.edu/2026/05/28/how-do-californians-tolerate-extreme-inequa…

Why some researchers choose not to share their work openly

July 30, 2026
By Jessica Ballardo and Ashley Park

Open-access publishing was supposed to make knowledge available to everyone. But a new UC Berkeley study suggests that some of the scholars whose research could most benefit public conversations about race, gender and inequality are less likely to share their work through open-access channels.

The new study, which was published in Gender & Society, is titled “Sharing Knowledge Openly: Author Gender, Race/Ethnicity,...

Why California’s electricity bills keep climbing

August 14, 2026
By Aubrey Spowart

Flipping on the lights, plugging in a phone or turning on the air conditioner are everyday routines that most Californians rarely think twice about — until the monthly utility bill arrives. Over the past several years, electricity has become one of the fastest-growing household expenses across the state, leaving residents wondering why costs have risen so dramatically as California doubles down on clean energy goals.

It’s tempting to point to a single culprit: Some blame renewable energy, while others point to regulations or inflation. However...