Research

Illustration of technique to "print" cellular structures

New technique ‘prints’ cells to create diverse biological environments

03/18/20 — Berkeley researchers utilize photolithography and programmable DNA to rapidly “print” two-dimensional arrays of cells and proteins that mimic cellular environments in the body

Illustration of layered plasmonic nano-antenna arrays

Researchers develop novel way to shrink light to detect ultra-tiny substances

02/20/20 — The research could lead to the development of ultra-sensitive devices that can quickly detect pathogens in human blood.

Is spaghetti the key to building a better robot?

01/22/20 — Studying how spaghetti reacts to water might offer clues to how robots built from flexible materials can better mimic human movement, according to Oliver O'Reilly, professor of mechanical engineering.

UC Berkeley professor influences Facebook’s efforts to combat deepfakes

01/14/20 — The social media giant hired Hany Farid to help it detect fake videos, but Farid says company's new policy is problematic.

New discovery makes it easier to design synthetic proteins that rival their natural counterparts

01/08/20 — Researchers have created a synthetic membrane that could transform fields including medicine, life sciences, alternative energy and environmental science.

Anyscale co-founders Robert Nishihara, Ion Stoica and Philipp Moritz

Grad students, Databricks founder tackle programming challenge

12/17/19 Business Insider — RISELab spinoff Anyscale is building tools and infrastructure to run distributed applications, the next really hard problem for big data programmers.

Ceder peeks into the battery pipeline

12/16/19 Berkeley Lab — From cobalt-free to sodium-ion, Berkeley Lab scientist and MSE professor Gerbrand Ceder evaluates some of the most promising battery technologies in development.

Vacuum chamber used to test heat transfer

Heat energy leaps through empty space, thanks to quantum weirdness

12/11/19 — In a surprising new study, Berkeley researchers led by Xiang Zhang, professor of mechanical engineering, showed that heat energy can travel through a complete vacuum due to invisible quantum fluctuations, a discovery that could have profound implications for the design of computer chips.

Sustainable sand gives pollution a one-two punch

12/05/19 — Berkeley engineers have developed a mineral-coated sand that can soak up toxic metals like lead and cadmium from water.

AI-powered Berkeley robot among Popular Science’s ‘Best of What’s New’

12/03/19 — Pieter Abbeel, professor of electrical engineering and computer sciences, led a team of researchers to develop Blue, the Berkeley robot for Learning in Unstructured Environments.

Building a world where data privacy exists

11/18/19 New York Times — Electrical engineering and computer sciences professor Dawn Song, a leading expert in computer security and trustworthy artificial intelligence, is building a platform in which people control their own data online and are compensated for its use by corporations.

Weill Neurohub to fuel race for new brain disease treatments

11/14/19 Berkeley News — The newly launched Weill Neurohub, supported with a $106 million gift from the Weill Family Foundation, will bring together researchers in engineering, computer science, physics, chemistry and mathematics to speed the development of new therapies for brain and neural diseases.

close-up of the fault interface, as viewed through the slider block from a high angle.

At fault

10/25/19 — A team of earthquake engineers, working out of the lab of professor Steven Glaser, is taking research on asperities to a new level by studying fault mechanics at nanoscale.

A surprising twist

10/25/19 — Materials scientists have created new inorganic crystals made of stacks of atomically thin sheets that spiral like a card deck.

Mirror mirror

10/25/19 — Researchers broke another record in thermophotovoltaics, raising the efficiency of converting heat into electricity from 23% to 29%.

Illustration detail of human cisculatory system

Mass-producing biomaterials

10/25/19 — A new 3D printing technique may allow whole organs, living tissue, bone and blood vessels to be printed on demand.

Eye exams being performed at a hospital in China.

Better eye screening

10/25/19 — Researchers from the RADAR Lab have developed algorithms that can help with the diagnosis of diabetic retinopathy — the most common cause of vision loss among people with diabetes — by detecting features in retinal images with better than 97% accuracy.