Avenali Chair in the Humanities Wendell Berry, a farmer, conservationist, essayist, novelist and poet, spent a few days at UC Berkeley recently at the invitation of the Townsend Center for the Humanities. Videos of two appearances - a conversation with four professors on "An Agro-Ethical Aesthetic," and a reading and discussion - have been posted online.
A long-abandoned fermentation process is being resurrected by UC Berkeley chemists and chemical engineers to use sugar to feed a catalytic reaction that produces a fuel that looks and acts just like diesel. The fuel has a higher energy content than ethanol and could help replace nonrenewable transport fuels.
What do you do when a diabetes diagnosis means no more sugary soda - or its caffeine jolt? Radiation-safety specialist Phil Broughton put his tinkering tendencies to work and came up with coffee that delivers a punch so powerful he calls it "Black Blood of the Earth." No sugar needed.
