A Postcard from Jurassic Park

Picture a cockatoo and a crocodile. Which one is closer to a Tyrannosaurus Rex? If you guessed the latter, you were mistaken. The reality is that about 230 million years ago the lineage that produced crocodiles and their relatives split off from the evolutionary line leading to dinosaurs and, eventually, birds. So if birds are related to massive creatures like the T. Rex, how did they ever get off the ground? Answering these kinds of big evolutionary questions requires a trip deep into the fossil record. That's UC Berkeley integrative biologist Kevin Padian's favorite stomping grounds.

Mapping Cellular Signals

UC Berkeley professor Kevan Shokat is a chemist who thinks like a biologist. He's developing chemical tools to understand and manipulate the complex communications system at the heart of every cell. Eventually, his research could lead to a pharmacological map of the human cell that would guide the rapid development of new drugs to combat diseases like cancer and diabetes.

Geochemistry Underfoot

For most of us, the effects of a rainstorm fade shortly after the last drop falls. The sun shines through the clouds and the streets begin to dry. Dig a little deeper though and you'd realize that the end of a shower is really just the beginning of the Earth's interaction with the fallen water. Slowly, the rain seeps into the watershed and makes its way into nearby streams. UC Berkeley professor James Kirchner wants to know what happens along the way. His research on this and other earth and planetary science questions could someday aid environmental remediation efforts and inform decisions about sustainable land use.

Artist's conception of Stegosaurus stenops. (Image courtesy ©Melani McKim)