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Ethanol Stirs Eco-Debate
In 2004, approximately 3.57 billion gallons of ethanol were used as a gas additive in the United States, according to the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA). During the February State of the Union address, President George Bush urged Congress to pass an energy bill that would pump up the amount to 5 billion gallons by 2012. UC Berkeley geoengineering professor Tad W. Patzek thinks that's a very bad idea.
Pinhead Petri Dishes
During the 1970s, UC Berkeley pioneered the tools and techniques that enabled hundreds of thousands of components to be packed onto a tiny computer chip. Thirty-years later, a similar revolution is taking place on campus. Bioengineering professor Luke Lee and his colleagues are developing integrated circuits for biology rather than bits. The new technology could lead to automated "laboratories" the size of fingernails that accelerate drug discovery, synthetic biology, stem cell research, and the development of new biomaterials for implants.
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Wittier Wireless
In UC Berkeley electrical engineer Ali Niknejad's imagination, tomorrow's personal computers will look more like iPods than laptop PCs. You'd carry all of your data in your pocket. Need a monitor? Walk up to a wall screen and forge an instant wireless link. Inside your office, the device might connect to the local WiFi network for online access. Step outside and the Internet connection seamlessly switches to cellular. Such a device would require either several radios capable of operating at different frequencies, or a single radio with a bit of brains and a lot of flexibility. Niknejad is working on the latter.
Cool Alumni: Darren Bleuel, creator of an atomic comic
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