University of California, Berkeley, doctoral candidate Lawrence Wang, leader of the squirrel documentation project and his team refined efforts to produce the high quality cover images of the August 2021 issue of Science magazine. Their efforts produced some of the best high quality motion shots of fox squirrels showing off their stuff as they leap through the air.
The Committee on the International Prize for Biology decided to award the 37th (2021) International Prize for Biology to Dr. Timothy Douglas White, Professor of Integrative Biology and Director of Human Evolution Research Center, University of California at Berkeley, USA.
The Department of Integrative Biology and the University and Jepson Herbaria at the University of California, Berkeley invite applications for a tenure-track (assistant rank) or tenured (associate or full rank) professor in Plant Evolutionary Biology. This position includes appointment as Director of the University and Jepson Herbaria.
Applications open September 2nd, 2021 through Monday, Nov 8, 2021 at 11:59pm (Pacific Time)
Biologists like Robert Full at the University of California, Berkeley, have shown over the last few decades how animals like geckos, cockroaches and squirrels physically move and how their bodies and limbs help them in sticky situations — all of which have been applied to making more agile robots. But now they are tackling a harder problem: How do animals decide whether or not to take a leap? How do they assess their biomechanical abilities to know whether they can stick the landing?
A decade after scientists discovered that lab rats will rescue a fellow rat in distress, but not a rat they consider an outsider, new UC Berkeley research pinpoints the brain regions that drive rats to prioritize their nearest and dearest in times of crisis. It also suggests humans may share the same neural bias.
A new book entitled “What, if Anything, are Species?” by IB Professor Brent Mishler explores this controversial topic in detail, based on 40 years of investigation. He concludes that species are nothing special; entities currently given that rank are simply clades like taxa at all other levels on the tree of life, smaller or larger than the traditional species level. He goes into the advantages of fully rankless classification, and of a multi-level approach to ecology and evolution.
Join IB graduate student Tara Lepore on Thursday, June 10th for another exciting "Grounds for Science" event in UC Berkeley's Science at Cal series. Register for this free event here.
Check out the new Spring 2021 Newsletter, as we welcome the department's new co-chairs to Integrative Biology.
It is with sadness that we share the news that our beloved colleague and friend, David Wake, passed away yesterday morning, surrounded by his family. A native of South Dakota, Dave earned his Ph.D.
Congratulations to Professor Tyrone Hayes. One of six UC Berkeley faculty members and top scholars have been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS), a 241-year-old organization honoring the country’s most accomplished artists, scholars, scientists and leaders who help solve the world’s most urgent challenges.