Campus News

Seven UC Berkeley faculty members from a broad range of fields are among the 2024 class of fellows elected to the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), one of the world’s largest general scientific societies and publisher of the Science family of journals.

The 471 new AAAS fellows...

Amid a government freeze on funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and other federal agencies, two California representatives paid a visit to the the University of California, Berkeley’s Innovative Genomics Institute on Friday, Feb. 21, to hear about the importance of NIH-funded basic research. Both Democratic representatives vowed to contest the Trump administration’s attempts to drastically cut biomedical funding.

President Trump issued an executive order on Jan. 27 freezing payment on all federal grants and loans — a freeze still in effect, despite a temporary...

Have you ever seen letters from the 1800s? Aside from the pristine penmanship and grammar, the way friends expressed their fondness for each other is remarkable.

“Letters sent between friends are often full of the kinds of loving and affectionate language that today we would only associate with romantic or sexual relationships: ‘My darling,’ ‘I love you,’ ‘I can’t wait to be near you,’” said UC Berkeley historian Sarah Gold McBride, who in 2022 created the course, Friendship in America, with Berkeley anthropologist Christine Palmer.

Throughout history, with changes in...

Even in the face of overwhelming evidence, false narratives can be incredibly sticky. Many people insist that the earth is flat, that childhood vaccines cause autism, or that climate change is a hoax, despite ample scientific evidence to the contrary.

“Stories are very powerful,” said Timothy Tangherlini(link is external), a UC Berkeley professor in the Department of Scandinavian and the School of Information. “We’re much more comfortable with hearing stories that confirm our beliefs than ones that challenge...