The Future of Oral History
There is an odd
inconsistency in the way today's oral historians work. For those
who study recorded interviews of personal experiences and recollections,
the essential artifact is, of course, the recording of their subject.
Why then do these audiotapes and video clips gather dust in the
tombs of research libraries while the oral historians toil over
reams of paper transcripts?
A Hot Topic in Space Travel
NASA is looking to Berkeley researchers to help solve a burning problem in spacecraft design. With increasingly longer missions on the horizon, mechanical engineering professor Carlos Fernandez-Pello and his team are testing the flammability of the materials used aboard spacecraft to help minimize the likelihood of a blaze in space.
Nanocrystals,
Quantum Dots, and Nature's Own Assembly Line
Chemist Paul Alivisatos's pioneering research into tiny nanocrystals
and nanorods is paying off in big ways. Chemically-pure clusters
of anywhere from 100 to 100,000 atoms, Alivisatos's nanocrystals
and nanorods have myriad applications that impact the macroworld
— from tagging biological samples for genetic analysis and
drug discovery to the creation of plastic solar cells that can be
painted onto any surface.
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Courtesy
Brian A. Barksy |
Do You See What I See?
For
more than two decades, computer science professor Brian A. Barsky
has suffered from an eye disease that blurs his vision and increases
sensitivity to glare. But in 1992, Barsky — a leader in developing
the computer graphics techniques that bring Hollywood blockbusters
to life — took a look at his own research and noticed a possible
solution to his vision problem.
Daniel
Jurafsky (Liguistics '83, EECS '92), winner of a 2002 MacArthur
Fellowship
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