News

Finding Archaea: Archaeans inhabit some of the most extreme environments on Earth. Woese and Fox’s genetic analysis led them to redraw the Tree of Life, incorporating this third domain. (Photo: Morning Glory Pool, Yellowstone National Park; Jim Peaco; March 2015;...Read more about Rethinking the Tree of Life with new tools

(l to r) Markita Landry and Alanna Schepartz (photos courtesy of the scientists.)

The College of Chemistry is delighted to announce that professors Markita Landry (Chemical and Biomolecular...Read more about Markita Landry and Alanna Schepartz receive CZ Biohub Investigator awards

The Periodic Table including the heavy elements. (Adobestock)

Margaret Fuchs (née Melhase) as an undergraduate at the University of California, Berkeley ca 1941 (...Read more about The Women Written Out of Nuclear Science

Illustration of DNA with parade of animals and humans. (Adobestock)

New innovations in gene and stem cell technology have the power to shape ecosystems and even change humanity. This hour, TED speakers share the breakthroughs heralding the next scientific revolution....Read more about Reshaping evolution

Researchers from UC Berkeley and the NSF Center for Sustainable Polymers have developed a chemical technology that combines fermentation and chemical refining (center panels) to produce petroleum-like liquids (right) from renewable plants (left). (Image by John Beumer, courtesy of...Read more about Microbes provide sustainable hydrocarbons for petrochemical industry

Artist’s rendering of autonomous, continuous “liquid robots” in an animated GIF. (Credit: Jenny Nuss/Berkeley Lab)

When you think of a robot, images of R2-D2 or C-3PO might come to mind. But robots can serve up more than just entertainment on the big screen. In a lab...Read more about Tiny liquid robots never run out of energy as long as they have food

Photo: Worker planting rice. (Adobe Stock)

Fifteen years after their initial meeting to discuss what has become the CRISPR revolution, Professors Jill ...Read more about Genetically modified rice could emit fewer greenhouse gases

Photo: Scanning tunneling microscopy image of a zigzag graphene nanoribbon. (Credit: Felix Fischer/Berkeley Lab)

Ever since graphene – a thin carbon sheet just one-atom thick – was discovered more than 15 years ago, the wonder material became a workhorse in...Read more about Technique tunes into graphene nanoribbons’ electronic potential

David Schaffer, newly elected fellow of the National Academy of Inventors in his lab.

David Schaffer, a UC Berkeley chemical engineer who pioneered the use of engineered viruses to deliver gene...Read more about QB3 director David Schaffer elected to National Academy of Inventors

J. Frank Valle-Riestra (1924-2021). Undated photo.

We are sad to report that J. Frank Valle-Riestra passed away in April of this year. Frank was a first generation American born on November 12, 1924 in Oakland, California. He was the son of Carlos and Milena (Pudil) Valle-...Read more about In Memoriam: J. Frank Valle-Riestra