Submarines and ships rely on towed sonar arrays(TSAs)for underwater exploration and security operations,but dragging these sensors through water,especially at high cruising speeds,creates excess noise that can mask target signals and compromise the sonar’s detection capabilities.Now,a team of Berkeley engineers is attempting to solve this problem with alittle inspiration from Mother Nature.In astudy recently published in Extreme Mechanics Letters,researchers from Berkeley,in collaboration with MIT Lincoln Laboratory,demonstrate how atextured surface designed to mimic shark skin can reduce drag and mitigate flow-based noise,potentially opening the door to anew generation of more effective and efficient TSAs.“Past studies have shown that the unique patterns on shark skin,known as riblets,can reduce drag,”said Grace Gu,assistant professor of mechanical engineering and principal investigator of this study.“We hypothesized that such bioinspired topographies could similarly reduce noise production in an underwater context and set out to adapt these naturally occurring designs to the surfaces of sonar arrays.”According to the researchers,the idea of using riblets for noise suppression was inspired by yet another natural texture,serrations,which are known to help owls achieve silent flight and used on surfaces to mitigate noise in aeronautic systems.To test their theory,the researchers used computational modeling to simulate riblet surfaces with different shapes and patterns and then simulated the movement of water around these engineered riblet surfaces on the arrays.This virtual testing environment enabled them to assess how different riblet designs affect fluid behavior and the acoustic properties of the sonar arrays under various flow conditions—from smooth,predictable laminar flows to the more common,chaotic turbulent flows encountered in natural marine environments. 查看详细>>

A panel of the nation‘s top particle physicists,chaired by University of California,Berkeley,theoretician Hitoshi Murayama,has issued its final report recommending how the U.S.government should commit its high-energy physics research funds for the next decade and beyond,focusing on neutrinos,dark matter and the cosmic microwave background.The report by the Particle Physics Project Prioritization Panel(P5)was approved on Friday,Dec.8,by the High Energy Physics Advisory Panel(HEPAP)and will be sent to the two main funding agencies for physics in the U.S.—the Department of Energy(DOE)and the National Science Foundation(NSF)—to aid them in their decisions about which research to fund.The HEPAP,a permanent advisory committee to DOE and NSF,constitutes aprioritization panel every 10 years.The panel,consisting of 31 members and one ex-officio member from the U.S.and abroad,considered only large-and medium-sized physics research projects—the kind that can take years or decades to plan and build,enlist contributions from thousands of scientists and cost billions of dollars.To fit within budget constraints—likely less than$5 billion from the two agencies over 10 years for new projects—the panel had to combine or reconfigure many proposed projects and turn down perhaps two-thirds of them."Fiscal responsibility has been abig thing on our mind to make sure that the recommendations are actionable by agencies and can be followed up,"said Murayama,the MacAdams Professor of Physics at the UC Berkeley."We had to be really realistic about our plan."The five recommended projects with estimated budgets exceeding aquarter of abillion dollars each are:The Cosmic Microwave Background Stage IV experiment(CMB-S4),which will use telescopes sited in Chile and Antarctica,supported by U.S.infrastructure at the South Pole,to study the oldest light from the beginning of the universe.The polarization of the CMB can tell cosmologists about the gravitational waves generated during inflation in the early universe and help them understand what was going on when the cosmos was still microscopic.Enhancements,including an upgrade in power and experimental capabilities,to the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment(DUNE)in South Dakota.The DUNE is the centerpiece of adecades-long program to reveal the mysteries of elusive neutrinos.The U.S.-hosted international project will exploit aunique underground laboratory,the Sanford Underground Research Laboratory,now nearing completion,and neutrino beams produced at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Illinois.A Higgs boson factory,located in either Europe or Japan,to advance studies of astill mysterious particle that was only discovered in 2012,yet which gives mass to all other forms of matter.An accelerator that produces lots of Higgs bosons would allow precise measurements of the boson‘s properties and help physicists understand how the particle fits into current models of the universe and whether it is connected with dark matter.A Generation 3(G3)Dark Matter experiment that would combine four different international experiments—including the LZ experiment led by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory—into one comprehensive program to probe the enigmatic nature of dark matter,which makes up asignificant portion of the universe’s mass and energy and has been one of the most enduring mysteries in modern physics.The panel recommended that this experiment be built in the U.S.Expansion at the South Pole of aneutrino observatory,which earlier this year mapped for the first time the sources of neutrinos from the Milky Way galaxy and outside our galaxy.Called IceCube-Gen2,it would be an international collaboration operated by the University of Wisconsin–Madison.The observatory now consists of detectors embedded in 1cubic kilometer of ice;the expansion would increase the observatory‘s sensitivity by afactor of 10.The panel also recommended investing in studies of afuture muon collider.While most particle accelerators today rev up electrons or protons and smash them together,a muon collider would accelerate short-lived muons,which are fundamental particles like electrons(they‘re both leptons),but much heavier.A muon collider could explore new frontiers of physics with much less energy input than aproton collider.The panel proposed Fermilab as agood place to build ademonstration collider to test the unique technology. 查看详细>>

The University of California,Berkeley,is teaming up with NASA‘s Ames Research Center and developer SKS Partners to create research space for companies interested in collaborating with UC Berkeley and NASA scientists and engineers to generate futuristic innovations in aviation,space exploration and how we live and work in space.The Berkeley Space Center,announced today(Monday,Oct.16),aims to accommodate up to 1.4 million square feet of research space on 36 acres of land at NASA Ames‘Moffett Field in Mountain View,leased from NASA.The new buildings,some of which could be ready for move-in as early as 2027,will house not only state-of-the-art research and development laboratories for companies and UC Berkeley researchers,but also classrooms for UC Berkeley students.These students will benefit from immersion in the Silicon Valley start-up culture and proximity to the nation‘s top aeronautical,space and AI scientists and engineers at Ames."We would like to create industry consortia to support research clusters focused around themes that are key to our objectives,in particular aviation of the future,resiliency in extreme environments,space bioprocess engineering,remote sensing and data science and computing,"said Alexandre Bayen,a UC Berkeley professor of electrical engineering and computer sciences and associate provost for Moffett Field program development."We‘re hoping to create an ecosystem where Berkeley talent can collaborate with the private sector and co-locate their research and development teams,”he added.“And since we will be close to NASA talent and technology in the heart of Silicon Valley,we hope to leverage that to form future partnerships."Ever since Naval Air Station Moffett Field was decommissioned in 1994 and NASA Ames acquired an additional 1,200 acres,NASA has been focused on developing those acres into aworld-class research hub and start-up accelerator.Initiated in 2002,NASA Research Park now has some 25 companies on site,including Google‘s Bay View campus."We believe that the research and the capabilities of amajor university like Berkeley could be asignificant addition to the work being done at Ames,"said NASA Ames Director Eugene Tu."In amore specific way,we would like the potential of having proximity to more students at the undergraduate and graduate level.We would also like the possibility of developing potential partnerships with faculty in the future.The NASA mission is twofold:inspiring the next generation of explorers,and dissemination of our technologies and our research for public benefit.Collaboration between NASA and university researchers fits within that mission."UC Berkeley hopes eventually to establish housing at Moffett Field to make working at the innovation center easier for students—without a47-mile commute each way.Bayen noted that Carnegie Mellon University already occupies ateaching building at Moffett Field.With the addition of UC Berkeley and the proximity of Stanford University,he expects the intensity of academic activities in the area,both instructional and research,to increase immensely."We have major facilities here at Ames—the world‘s largest wind tunnel,NASA‘s only plasma wind tunnel to test entry systems and thermal protection systems,the agency‘s supercomputers—and the university will likely build facilities here that that we might leverage as well.So,I look at that as atriad of students,faculty and facilities,"Tu added."Then the fourth piece,which is equally important:If the project is approved to move forward,the university will likely bring in partners,will bring in industry,will bring in startups,will bring in incubators that could be relevant to NASA‘s interest in advancing aeronautics,science and space exploration.""What they‘re doing at NASA Ames is transformational,but in order to make it heroic,in order to make it even larger than what is now possible,they have to use the combined resources of the number one public university in the world,private industry and the most innovative place on the planet,which is Silicon Valley,"said Darek DeFreece,the project’s founder and executive director at UC Berkeley. 查看详细>>

Science has been considered apurely objective field of study that has produced research to cure diseases,map out the anatomies of living things and explore our planet and the universe.But UC Berkeley Bioengineering Professor Aaron Streets says it is important for those who conduct that research“to represent the full diversity of human genetic variation.”And while equity and justice are important,he said,it goes beyond that.“Scientific research runs the risk of not comprehensively addressing the broad range of public need if our scientists only represent anarrow range of genotypes,”said Streets,whose bioengineering lab on campus conducts research on microscopy,microfluidics and single-cell genomics.“It matters who is doing the science.”Streets was recently honored with Berkeley’s 2023 Chancellor’s Award for Advancing Institutional Equity and Excellence.While certain states around the country are currently moving to eliminate public education funding for various diversity,equity and inclusion programs—efforts led by politicians who devalue the importance of that work and research—Streets has been atireless advocate for increasing diversity in STEM.Through his Next Generation Faculty Symposium—a joint initiative between Berkeley,Stanford University and UC San Francisco that aims to diversify faculty recruitment pools at universities—Streets has given STEM postdoctoral candidates from underrepresented communities an opportunity to showcase their work and research to the masses.And Streets’Bioengineering Scholars Program has introduced first-year undergraduates—many from historically underrepresented groups—to STEM research through amentoring program focused on recruitment and support.Berkeley News spoke with Streets recently about why Berkeley has become an ideal place for DEI work,how diversity can help bring new and necessary perspectives to STEM research and academia,and the intersection of his two passions,art and science.If researchers represent only anarrow composition of genotypes,then the things that those biologists and those doctors care about might only be applicable to anarrow range of stakeholders.Historically,we have seen researchers focus solely on demographics that reflect their own genotypes.But as we get more into the age of genomics,personalized medicine and rare diseases,there are potentially blind spots to that approach.What are those blind spots,and how do they impact society as awhole?Scientific experts,like biologists and bioengineers,are people that the government looks to for policy decisions and decisions about epidemiological responses,for example.We saw that especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.If they’re looking to our STEM academic community as experts to guide policy decisions,it’s important that we collectively understand the implications of those policy decisions in different ethnic and socioeconomic communities.Another example is if we’re trying to understand the relationship between one’s genome and the likelihood of getting adisease,and we’re only studying one sliver of genotype—one ethnicity,one type of ancestry—then we’re only going to understand the relationship between the disease and that specific group of people.Going even further,if we come up with adrug or therapeutic approach to that disease,and we test the efficacy of that intervention on ahomogeneous sample of human genomes,our data might not apply to abroader population.That is ahuge blind spot,because we won’t know the implications for people with different genotypes or from different ethnic groups or different lifestyle behaviors and diets.Our research is incomplete if our subjects aren’t diverse.And,oftentimes,it takes aresearcher from those underrepresented groups in STEM to point this out. 查看详细>>

In the year ahead,Jeff will continue to lead the Library while furthering anumber of ongoing strategic efforts:advancing the Library’s philanthropic fundraising,preparing anew five-year strategic vision,and promoting free and open access to scholarly articles.Additionally,in the coming year,the Library will begin anew construction phase toward completing the renovation of Moffitt Library.Please join me in thanking Jeff for his adroit leadership of the UC Berkeley Library in often exceedingly challenging circumstances,as well as for his substantial service and contributions to the university more generally,including as aBuilder of Berkeley with his wife,Janet S.Netz.We are also extremely grateful to Jeff for his efforts to reform academic publishing,which have succeeded in lowering the cost of accessing academic scholarship,thus making it more accessible,not only to students and scholars at the University of California,but around the globe.Jeff’s dedication,insights,and unique sense of style will be missed.Information about the search for the next university librarian will be announced in the coming weeks. 查看详细>>

The Biden Administration today(Tuesday,March 28)named Darleane C.Hoffman and Gabor A.Somorjai as recipients of the Enrico Fermi Presidential Award,one of the oldest and most prestigious science and technology honors bestowed by the U.S.government.“Dr.Hoffman and Dr.Somorjai’s work to open the frontiers of radiochemistry and surface chemistry helped change what was possible,and advanced efforts to tackle some of the world’s greatest challenges,”said Arati Prabhakar,assistant to the President and director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.“They are world-class innovators and an inspiration to future generations of scientists,and Icongratulate each of them for alifetime of achievement.”“It is an honor to be able to recognize the outstanding achievements of Dr.Hoffman and Dr.Somorjai,”said Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm.“Their commitment to pushing the boundaries of science is not only inspiring,but will help us respond to the big challenges we anticipate in the future.We need leaders of this kind to provide the scientific foundation for the next generation.”Hoffman,UC Berkeley professor emerita of chemistry and former faculty senior scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory(Berkeley Lab),is anuclear chemist known for the study of transuranic elements—quickly decaying elements that are heavier than uranium.In 1993,she was among agroup of researchers who confirmed the existence of anew element,seaborgium 106,and was awarded the National Medal of Science in 1997.Hoffman,96,is recognized with the Fermi Award for scientific discoveries advancing the field of nuclear and radiochemistry,for distinguished service to the Department of Energy’s missions in national security and nuclear waste management,and for sustained leadership in radiochemistry research and education.Somorjai,a University Professor in Berkeley’s College of Chemistry and former faculty senior scientist at Berkeley Lab,conducted research that has advanced surface chemistry important for energy and clean water,in addition to arange of other contributions.He has been aleader in catalysis for more than 50 years and was awarded the National Medal of Science in 2001.Somorjai,87,is recognized with the Fermi Award for key contributions in molecular studies of surfaces through the use of single crystals,the development of techniques for quantitative determinations of surface structure,and establishing the molecular foundations of heterogeneous metal catalysis.The Enrico Fermi Presidential Award was established in 1956 as amemorial to the legacy of Enrico Fermi,an Italian-born naturalized American citizen and 1938 Nobel laureate in physics who achieved the first nuclear chain reaction in 1942.It is given to encourage excellence in research in energy science and technology benefiting humanity;recognize scientists,engineers and science policymakers who have given unstintingly over their careers to advance energy science and technology;and inspire people of all ages through the examples of Fermi,and the Fermi Award laureates who followed in his footsteps,to explore new scientific and technological horizons.Winners receive acitation signed by the President and the Secretary of Energy,a gold-plated medal bearing the likeness of Enrico Fermi,and an honorarium of$100,000.In the event the award is given to more than one individual in the same year,the recipients share the honorarium equally.The Fermi Award is administered on behalf of the White House by the U.S.Department of Energy. 查看详细>>

This Q&A is part of aseries of new student profiles for our 2022 back-to-school coverage.Have someone you think we should write about?Contact news berkeley.edu.Berkeley News:What year are you,and where are you from?I’m afirst-year student from San Jose,California.What are you interested in studying?I’m abioengineering major and maybe asociology double major.I’m really interested in gene editing—how we can use computer science and machine learning to improve gene design and gene editing.I’m also really interested in the socioeconomic causes of health disparities.Why did you decide to attend UC Berkeley?I really like Berkeley.I like the campus so much.I’m really such ahuge fan of the bioengineering department and the biology department,especially the research they’re doing right now.This is obviously where CRISPR was founded,so the Doudna Lab was abig draw.It’s so incredible,what’s happening here.What inspired you to learn about gene editing?My grandma has cancer,and it made me think alot about genetics and how certain genetic mutations cause cancer.So,I started looking into gene editing and how it can be used as atool for cancer research and treatment.What ways have you already been involved with gene editing research?There’s acompetition called iGEM(International Genetically Engineered Machine)that Ihave been apart of.It’s aworldwide synthetic biology competition for high school and university students,as well as entrepreneurs and community labs.They do alot of projects related to gene editing.Berkeley has an iGEM club.I’ve also been involved with an organization called the Open Insulin Project,which gene edits yeast and E.coli to produce insulin for really cheap.What is your dream job?What career do you plan to pursue after you graduate?I’m planning on applying to medical school.I really want to apply to physician scientist programs,which are combined M.D.and Ph.D.programs.Those programs are eight years long.That’s what Iwant to be doing:treating patients,helping people,but also working on research in my own lab. 查看详细>>

A dense,collapsed star spinning 707 times per second—making it one of the fastest spinning neutron stars in the Milky Way galaxy—has shredded and consumed nearly the entire mass of its stellar companion and,in the process,grown into the heaviest neutron star observed to date.Weighing this record-setting neutron star,which tops the charts at 2.35 times the mass of the sun,helps astronomers understand the weird quantum state of matter inside these dense objects,which—if they get much heavier than that—collapse entirely and disappear as ablack hole.“We know roughly how matter behaves at nuclear densities,like in the nucleus of auranium atom,”said Alex Filippenko,Distinguished Professor of Astronomy at the University of California,Berkeley.“A neutron star is like one giant nucleus,but when you have one-and-a-half solar masses of this stuff,which is about 500,000 Earth masses of nuclei all clinging together,it’s not at all clear how they will behave.”Roger W.Romani,professor of astrophysics at Stanford University,noted that neutron stars are so dense—1 cubic inch weighs over 10 billion tons—that their cores are the densest matter in the universe short of black holes,which because they are hidden behind their event horizon are impossible to study.The neutron star,a pulsar designated PSR J0952-0607,is thus the densest object within sight of Earth.The measurement of the neutron star’s mass was possible thanks to the extreme sensitivity of the 10-meter Keck Itelescope on Maunakea in Hawai’i,which was just able to record aspectrum of visible light from the hotly glowing companion star,now reduced to the size of alarge gaseous planet.The stars are about 3,000 light years from Earth in the direction of the constellation Sextans.Discovered in 2017,PSR J0952-0607 is referred to as a“black widow”pulsar—an analogy to the tendency of female black widow spiders to consume the much smaller male after mating.Filippenko and Romani have been studying black widow systems for more than adecade,hoping to establish the upper limit on how large neutron stars/pulsars can grow.“By combining this measurement with those of several other black widows,we show that neutron stars must reach at least this mass,2.35 plus or minus 0.17 solar masses,”said Romani,who is aprofessor of physics in Stanford’s School of Humanities and Sciences and member of the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology.“In turn,this provides some of the strongest constraints on the property of matter at several times the density seen in atomic nuclei.Indeed,many otherwise popular models of dense-matter physics are excluded by this result.”If 2.35 solar masses is close to the upper limit of neutron stars,the researchers say,then the interior is likely to be asoup of neutrons as well as up and down quarks—the constituents of normal protons and neutrons—but not exotic matter,such as“strange”quarks or kaons,which are particles that contain astrange quark.“A high maximum mass for neutron stars suggests that it is amixture of nuclei and their dissolved up and down quarks all the way to the core,”Romani said.“This excludes many proposed states of matter,especially those with exotic interior composition.”Romani,Filippenko and Stanford graduate student Dinesh Kandel are co-authors of apaper describing the team’s results that has been accepted for publication by The Astrophysical Journal Letters. 查看详细>>

Tuskegee University and UC Berkeley recently announced the Berkeley-Tuskegee Data Science Initiative,a multi-year partnership to develop curriculum and collaborative research opportunities for students and faculty at both institutions.On June 21,Charlotte Morris,president of Tuskegee University,met with Berkeley Chancellor Carol Christ to discuss the new initiative.In areception at University House,Chancellor Christ greeted the Tuskegee delegation,including four faculty and staff representatives and the first cohort of Tuskegee Scholars,13 students in residence at Berkeley for eight weeks to take Data 6or Data 8courses.“We‘re excited to create our partnership with Tuskegee around the theme of community–community in the classroom,how we teach our students community in our research,how we explore challenging issues and fields at the intersection of data science and society and community at the university level between UC Berkeley and Tuskegee University,”said Chancellor Christ.President Morris noted Tuskegee’s pioneering legacy as atop historically Black college and university(HBCU),including atrack record for excellence in STEM fields.“We want to go beyond that legacy and take Tuskegee to the next level in terms of technology,in terms of what’s going on in the world today,so that our students will be marketable when they go across that stage at graduation,”she said.On June 28,faculty at both universities discussed the collaboration at the National Workshop on Data Science Education in both online and in-person sessions on the Berkeley campus.The Berkeley-Tuskegee Data Science Initiative events this summer are the culmination of two years of conversation and planning.In 2021,Google contributed$5 million to Tuskegee University in support of STEM initiatives,including the development of adata science program.The initial phases of the initiative are funded by part of this contribution.Deborah Nolan,emeritus professor of statistics and associate dean for faculty at the Division of Computing,Data Science,and Society(CDSS),was involved in the project from the outset.She and collaborators at Tuskegee and Berkeley have been exploring what shape educational and research collaborations could take between the two universities.Nolan said the initiative’s events last week were both alaunch and acelebration of this shared endeavor. 查看详细>>

Coming from along line of Iowa farmers,David Savage always thought he would do research to improve crops.That dream died in college,when it became clear that any genetic tweak to acrop would take at least ayear to test;for some perennials and trees,it could take five to 10 years.Faced with such slow progress,he chose to study the proteins in photosynthetic bacteria instead.But the advent of CRISPR changed all that.Savage is now pivoting to molecular crop breeding,hoping to find ways to improve their carbon uptake and the amount of carbon they return to the soil.And he hopes to see these improved crops in fields within his lifetime,helping to boost crop yields but also to draw down the excess carbon in the atmosphere that is warming the planet and stash it underground.“The advent of CRISPR basically allowed us to create new molecular tools for potentially skipping the slow aspects of plant tissue culture and plant genetic engineering,which are large barriers to doing experiments in plants,”said Savage,associate professor of molecular and cell biology at the University of California,Berkeley,an investigator in the Howard Hughes Medical Institute,and member of the Innovative Genomics Institute(IGI),which focuses on the myriad uses of CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing.One of his collaborators,Krishna Niyogi,UC Berkeley professor of plant and microbial biology,estimates that the suboptimal photosynthetic reactions in plants could be improved with CRISPR editing to be between 20%and 50%more efficient.That means more carbon captured from the air,complementing other efforts—in particular,halting the burning of fossil fuels—to reduce greenhouse gases.Agriculture could potentially sequester billions of tons of carbon each year.“Now,I’m really excited to create tools to eliminate the slow bottleneck,”Savage said.“Then we can start to do more molecular experiments again,like trying to improve photosynthesis in away that you could never do before.CRISPR enabled that.”A$11 million commitment from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative(CZI)announced this month will help Savage and IGI researchers at UC Berkeley,UC Davis and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory(LLNL)rapidly assess CRISPR gene editing in plants,primarily rice and sorghum,and hopefully get improved varieties into field trials in three to five years.“In crop breeding,a typical graduate student for their Ph.D.project might make mutations in 10 or 20 plants—they get 10 or 20 shots on goal.We know that’s not enough,”Savage said.“The power of CRISPR is,we now have the ability to essentially make all possible mutations,determine in the lab what the most promising mutations might be,then take that prioritized list and move it into the field and assess from there what would work.So,we still take 10 shots on goal,but they’re 10 really good shots on goal.” 查看详细>>