UC Berkeley

UC Berkeley researchers have developed a wireless, autonomous, closed-loop neurostimulator that sits outside the head, monitoring electrical activity in the brain and intervening with electrical stimulation to ward off seizures.

​The superhero-like abilities of the humble gecko have inspired countless avenues of scientific research, and biologists have uncovered yet another incredible talent to add to the list – the enterprising lizard species also has the ability to run on water.

Currently, if you want to measure someone's blood oxygen levels, you have to use an oximeter that clips onto their finger. An experimental new system, however, is able to check those levels anywhere on the body – and that could mean big things for the field of medicine.

​We first saw UC Berkeley's remarkable jumping robot Salto in December 2016, but a new video released by the university's Biomimetic Millisystems Lab shows an equally remarkable new ability: precise hopping, pogo-style.

Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley have now developed “spacesuits” that wrap around bacteria to not only protect them from the elements, but turn them into biohybrids that capture carbon dioxide and turn it into useful chemicals.

The diverse microbes that live in your gut keep turning up new surprises. Now researchers at UC Berkeley have found that some species of gut-dwelling bacteria can generate electricity.

​When it rains heavily, even in arid places where water is scarce, the stormwater typically just runs off the streets and down the sewer drains. Thanks to a new "engineered sand," though, that road-polluted liquid could soon be cleaned up and used for drinking water.

Carbon atoms can form graphene sheets and buckyballs. Scientists have theorized that a third variation should exist with negative curvature, known as schwarzite. An international team has now found a way to create these structures, which may have unusual electrical, magnetic and optical properties.

How does human activity impact the creatures we currently share the planet with? A new study has found that mammals across the globe are increasingly turning nocturnal, in a bid to avoid contact with us pesky humans.

Although there are trillions of liters of water floating around in the air, it’s not easily accessible. Now engineers have developed a device powered by the Sun that can pluck practical quantities of drinkable water out of thin air, and they've successfully field-tested it in the Arizona desert.

​Although we've seen robotic fish designed to unobtrusively study marine life, scientists more often use remote-operated vehicles with noisy propellers that scare animals. That could eventually change, however, thanks to the development of a totally silent, transparent, soft-bodied robotic eel.

Researchers at UC Berkeley have now mapped out the structure of telomerase – an enzyme known to play a key role in aging and cancer – in more detail than ever before, and the breakthrough could inform a new generation of highly-targeted drugs.