The questions "Why are we here?" and "Why do we exist?" may sound purely philosophical in nature. Scientists, however, believe answers to these questions lie in the sub-atomic world inhabited by quarks and neutrinos. These fundamental particles were created when the universe was formed and, to theoretical physicists like UC Berkeley's Hitoshi Murayama, they represent clues to life's ultimate mysteries.
Since the mid 18th century, botanists have determined a plant's place among the wild diversity of life on the planet primarily based on its morphology, or form. But to Bruce Baldwin, a professor of integrative biology at UC Berkeley, what a plant looks like isn't always the best indicator of its species or closest relatives; in fact, a plant's looks are often misleading.
From the moment bacteria invade a human cell, they launch a battle against the body to acquire iron—like humans, bacteria need this mineral to make energy and replicate their genes. UC Berkeley professor of chemistry Kenneth Raymond has been studying bacterial iron uptake for more than 30 years and says, "there have been more twists and turns in this field than an Agatha Christie novel."
