New fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
Eleven UC Berkeley faculty members have been elected lifetime fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world’s largest general scientific society and publisher of the journal Science. Rodolfo Mendoza-Denton, professor of psychology, “for outstanding contributions to the science on the causes and consequences of prejudice and the identification of factors […]
Alison Gopnik: Making AI more childlike
The renowned expert on how babies learn about the world through curiosity and exploration is now collaborating with artificial intelligence researchers to make AI systems smarter by being more like children.
Learning at the Intersection of Business and the Arts: Jeena Chong, Founder of Cityface, and the Inspiration of the Big Ideas Course “Collaborative Innovation”
The UC Berkeley community spans countless disciplines and provides a unique environment for creation and innovation. “Collaborative Innovation,” one of the College of Letters & Science’s Big Idea Courses, seeks to foster that culture by bringing together the disciplines of business, theater, design, and art practice. …
Saul Perlmutter: The Man Who Upended the Universe
After making the astonishing discovery that what he and his fellow cosmologists thought they knew about the universe was wrong, Saul Perlmutter began a course at his university explaining why catching mistakes is at the heart of science. It’s also a lesson in life for the rest of us.
“The Blank Page, the Open Mind and the Free Hand”: Forming New Perspectives Through the Art of Handwriting
To engage students in course materials, educators often turn to cutting-edge tools. As technology progresses, new methods offer an increasingly wide array of options for professors. …
A partnership with Moleskine and U.C. Berkeley: The Future of Handwriting
The evolution of handwriting has been a critical factor in preserving history and learning about the past. If it were not for the development of handwriting, some of the greatest thinkers of our time would not have been able to share their thoughts; thus, their stories never being told. …
The Future of Handwriting
In Fall of 2021, the 100 or so students in Greg Niemeyer’s “L&S 25: Creativity in Practice” course responded to a simple prompt with urgent creativity. The prompt: Write a note from the future to the present, by hand. …
Curious About Big Ideas?
One of my favorite parts about attending UC Berkeley is being challenged to learn and think in fun and unexpected ways. There are so many opportunities for this, including one I particularly enjoyed: Big Ideas Courses from the College of Letters & Science (L&S). …
Misinformation in and about science
Public engagement and understanding of science should be a priority for all scientists. This is not a matter of just teaching more astronomy or biology. Rather, it involves nurturing innate curiosity and teaching people to understand how science works, how to consider evidence when making conclusions, and how popular media distorts these conclusions. In our […]
What Makes Science Science?
In an undergraduate course that I’m teaching this semester, we introduce students to an unconventional definition of science. The course, Letters & Sciences 22: Sense and Sensibility and Science, comes from an interdisciplinary collaboration between a philosopher (John Campbell), a social psychologist (Robert MacCoun), a Nobel-prize-winning physicist (Saul Perlmutter), and a cognitive scientist (me). …