:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/36099698/13-1102_1118386-XL.0.jpg)
Quick links
Berkeley is one of the ten best schools for studying robotics (along with USC and Furd)
As if this were a second or third movie in some superhero franchise, the sworn enemies that are Berkeley and Stanfurd have been forced to team up to combat a greater evil. That evil? Climate change, which prompted Governor Jerry Brown to ask a husband-and-wife and Berkeley-and-Furd pair of professors to co-pen a paper on its deadly consequences.
Why not apply science to alcohol?
What Does Your Favorite Drink Look Like Under A Microscope? http://t.co/zL6H0RJqJ0 #cal #alum #cocktailart pic.twitter.com/n8Ng1CMlly
— Cal (@Cal) July 26, 2014
A Berkeley-born start-up is developing paper-thin batteries for use in smartphones. Can we please stop fat-shaming our phones?
How to grow ten tons of tendons (HEYO!)
Berkeley Lab's Richard Schwartz has discovered a molecule that may help prompt cells to produce the connective tissue in tendons and ligaments. This work may end up having quite an impact because injuries to these tissues result in long recovery time because the cells that inhabit those tissues are sooo slow at creating collagen, which is the primary building block for tendons and ligaments.
You may want to stop reading here, PETA, because this factor was discovered in chicken embryos, chosen for the investigation because of their remarkable tendon production.
The currently unnamed factor binds to the outside of tendon cells and make those cells announce their presence to other cells in the area, which leads to increases in collagen production.
The gene that expresses the protein component of this signaling molecule is highly conserved among animals, meaning a similar molecule performs the same tendon-building job in developing humans.
"More research is needed, but our initial experiments suggest this protein-phospholipid molecule could be administered to adults who've had tendon injuries, to spark healthy tendon growth in the same way that happens during embryogenesis," says Richard Schwarz of Berkeley Lab's Life Sciences Division, a biologist who leads this research.
For all the talk about branding issues causing a disconnect between UC Berkeley and Cal Athletics, here's some great research that has ties to both worlds. Who knows if, years from now, development will lead to treatment options for athletes who suffer tears to tissues like the MCL or the ACL?
Studies of Future Past
Prepare yourself for your favorite time-travel movie or philosophy. Back to the Future? Quantum Leap? Early Edition? Do you think it's the Butterfly Effect or all Predetermined?
A Berkeley study suggests powerful people are capable of manipulating time!
And we're not even talking powers like Cable, Bishop, or Trevor Fitzroy in X-Men. This ability extends itself to people with even a low-level of power, like an employer.
And we aren't even talking true time travel... But this study looks into how power affects people's perception of time.
[Survey-takers] who considered themselves powerful were the most likely to say they had time on their hands. One version of the survey, in which one participant was asked to play the role of a boss and another that of an employee as they answered the questions, found that even a temporary shift in power dynamics led to people feeling they were more in control of their time.
"We all adhere to the same clocks," said Dr Serena Chen, the social psychologist who conducted the experiments. "Yet we are showing that power can shift your perception of time.
So, what exactly is causing this phenomenon?
Dr David Eagleman, a neuroscientist at the Baylor College of Medicine in Texas, told The Wall Street Journal that, rather than feeling more stressed by the increased responsibility, people in positions of power have more mental energy available to them to manage their time effectively.
...
The flip-side of the experiment is that those who feel powerless also have to struggle with the feeling of not having enough time available to them.
I guess it's time to reveal my true power. I can time travel. I wrote this on a Saturday and you're reading it days later. WHAAAAT?
