Scientists have long puzzled over the many hours we spend in light, dreamless slumber. But a new study from Berkeley psychology and neuroscience researchers suggests we're busy recharging our brain's learning capacity during this traditionally undervalued phase of sleep, which can take up half the night.
Newt season is on at the Botanical Garden's Japanese Pool, which offers front-row viewing of these migratory amphibians and their late-winter mating frolics. Garden director and zoologist Paul Licht's podcast about the critters is online here; he'll lead a newt tour for garden members Thursday.
Marwan Nader was a Berkeley engineering grad student when the Bay Bridge was crippled in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. Two decades later, he is lead design engineer of the pioneering self-anchored suspension bridge that is rising just east of Treasure Island.
