UC Berkeley Press Release

Letters & Science, Chemistry debut new online science magazine

By Robert Sanders, Media Relations | 30 June 2004

BERKELEY – The largest college at the University of California, Berkeley - the College of Letters & Science - has teamed up with the College of Chemistry to launch a monthly online research magazine to highlight groundbreaking research in the physical and biological sciences.

The Web site, ScienceMatters@Berkeley (http://sciencematters.berkeley.edu/), will feature research running the gamut of scientific fields, from biology and mathematics to physics and chemistry. It will complement a similar online research magazine, Lab Notes (http://www.coe.berkeley.edu/labnotes), launched three years ago by UC Berkeley's College of Engineering.

"An underlying theme of ScienceMatters@Berkeley will be the emerging unity of the natural sciences across traditional disciplinary lines, and the growing centrality of the physical and mathematical sciences in all of science and engineering," said Mark Richards, professor of earth and planetary science and the dean of physical sciences in the College of Letters & Science.

The first issue of ScienceMatters@Berkeley includes articles on a range of subjects:

* How a new research center will enable scientists to cook up state-of-the-art nanoscale materials, atom by atom, that will revolutionize science and industry
* New research on 'dark matter' that may aid our understanding of the evolution and destiny of the cosmos
* Innovative work on the structure and reproductive mechanisms of the hepatitis virus that could lead to the development of new treatments for the disease

Each month, ScienceMatters@Berkeley also will feature a great moment of discovery in the history of science at UC Berkeley.

The articles are researched and written by UC Berkeley writer-in-residence David Pescovitz, who also writes for Lab Notes. Pescovitz has had a long career writing about science and technology for publications such as Wired, Scientific American, New Scientist and The New York Times.

NOTE: The public can subscribe to an e-mail digest of each issue of ScienceMatters@Berkeley by using the Web site's online form.