Science & environment

Campus news

From quantum theory to the modern laser: Why ‘basic science’ is the foundation of innovation

Watch UC Berkeley Dean Steve Kahn explain how curiosity-driven research fuels the breakthroughs of tomorrow in just 101 seconds.

a computer's user interface showing a rectangle covered with colored spikes

Research

For 21 years, enthusiasts used their home computers to search for ET. UC Berkeley scientists are homing in on 100 signals they found.

Victoria Gray

Science & environment

Rewriting the code: The inside story of the first CRISPR cure

two lumpy rocks colliding with fiery glow where they touch

Research

Astronomers see fireworks from violent collisions around nearby star

A line of cows standing in a field

The surprising ecological benefits of cows

Six people stand at a table in front of the U.N. emblem

New open-source modeling tool helps countries achieve environmental goals

treetops with mist and distant clouds

A new ‘hypertropical’ climate is emerging in the Amazon

Roughly diamond-shaped asteroid with a rocky, uneven surface, set against a completely black background

Strange ‘space plastic’ found on asteroid Bennu

Randy Schekman sits in a chair in an empty classroom with an illustration of a yeast bud cell drawn in chalk on the blackboard behind him

Berkeley Talks: For Nobel laureate Randy Schekman, it began with pond scum and a toy microscope

A blue tinted image showing a clam shell with thin white string-like tendrils emerging from one side.

For UC Berkeley engineer Phillip Messersmith, nature provides a blueprint for healing

blue and white bus with 'H2' and 'Hydrogen fuel cell bus' written on side

How UC Berkeley is improving the affordability of hydrogen fuel

a bright orange sponge on left, 4 translucent, bell-shaped comb jellies on right

Did the first animal look like a sponge or a comb jelly? The debate continues.

Lines of fire burn through a carpet of dried pine needles on a forest floor.

Prescribed burning helps store forest carbon in big, fire-resistant trees

an orange fish floats above a large group of purple sea urchins

Even moderate heat waves depress sea urchin reproduction along the Pacific coast

Seung-Wuk Lee, professor of bioengineering, in his lab.

UC Berkeley researchers pioneer greener way to extract rare earth elements

A photo of a diver swimming between two sperm whales in a clear blue ocean.

UC Berkeley and Project CETI team discovers ‘vowels’ in whale communication

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