UC Science Today

What if your smartphone could double as a seismometer? Thanks to your phone’s sensors and a team of researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, now it can. The app is called MyShake, and it can quickly issue a warning to those in danger zones when the shaking starts. Graduate student Qingkai Kong developed the algorithm, which works by gathering information from a worldwide network of phones.

"We can identify the location, magnitude, and also the origin and time of the earthquake. The benefit is that at places where we don’t have a traditional seismic network…we can monitor the earthquake, and we can issue the earthquake early warning to reduce the earthquake hazard."

MyShake’s algorithm can distinguish natural human activity from earthquake movement. The app is currently available for Android, but Kong hopes iPhones will be next.

"So we are now considering we expand it to iPhones and other platforms very soon in the future."

What if your smartphone could double as a seismometer? Thanks to your phone’s sensors and a team of researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, now it can. The app is called MyShake, and it can quickly issue a warning to those in danger zones when the shaking starts. Graduate student Qingkai Kong developed the algorithm, which works by gathering information from a worldwide network of phones.

"We can identify the location, magnitude, and also the origin and time of the earthquake. The benefit is that at places where we don’t have a traditional seismic network…we can monitor the earthquake, and we can issue the earthquake early warning to reduce the earthquake hazard."

MyShake’s algorithm can distinguish natural human activity from earthquake movement. The app is currently available for Android, but Kong hopes iPhones will be next.

"So we are now considering we expand it to iPhones and other platforms very soon in the future."

Clinical and animal studies have long suggested a link between depression in mothers and their daughters. Now, cognitive neuroscientist Fumiko Hoeft from the University of California, San Francisco has found that mothers do in fact pass down the brain region associated with emotion to their daughters.

"In general, it’s very difficult to do an in vivo study, or studying how brain networks are passed on from parent to offspring… so that’s where neuroimaging came in. We decided to scan everyone in the family, which no one has done, or published in the past."

In each of these family members, Hoeft looked at the volume of the corticolimbic system, which is believed to govern emotions and has been implicated in mood disorders.

"We looked at how they’re similar between mothers and daughters, mothers and sons, fathers and sons, and fathers and daughters. And what we found was that mothers and daughters had very similar amounts of corticolimbic system."

This study has paved the way for future brain imaging studies on inheritance patterns.

Photo: Tang Ming Tung via Getty Images

Clinical and animal studies have long suggested a link between depression in mothers and their daughters. Now, cognitive neuroscientist Fumiko Hoeft from the University of California, San Francisco has found that mothers do in fact pass down the brain region associated with emotion to their daughters.

"In general, it’s very difficult to do an in vivo study, or studying how brain networks are passed on from parent to offspring… so that’s where neuroimaging came in. We decided to scan everyone in the family, which no one has done, or published in the past."

In each of these family members, Hoeft looked at the volume of the corticolimbic system, which is believed to govern emotions and has been implicated in mood disorders.

"We looked at how they’re similar between mothers and daughters, mothers and sons, fathers and sons, and fathers and daughters. And what we found was that mothers and daughters had very similar amounts of corticolimbic system."

This study has paved the way for future brain imaging studies on inheritance patterns.

Photo: Tang Ming Tung via Getty Images

Clinical and animal studies have long suggested a link between depression in mothers and their daughters. Now, cognitive neuroscientist Fumiko Hoeft from the University of California, San Francisco has found that mothers do in fact pass down the brain region associated with emotion to their daughters.

"In general, it’s very difficult to do an in vivo study, or studying how brain networks are passed on from parent to offspring… so that’s where neuroimaging came in. We decided to scan everyone in the family, which no one has done, or published in the past."

In each of these family members, Hoeft looked at the volume of the corticolimbic system, which is believed to govern emotions and has been implicated in mood disorders.

"We looked at how they’re similar between mothers and daughters, mothers and sons, fathers and sons, and fathers and daughters. And what we found was that mothers and daughters had very similar amounts of corticolimbic system."

This study has paved the way for future brain imaging studies on inheritance patterns.

Photo: Tang Ming Tung via Getty Images

What time did you eat last night, ladies? A team of researchers at the University of California, San Diego have found that fasting at least 12 hours overnight may reduce a woman’s breast cancer risk.

"There’s a lot of recent literature in popular press on various fasting regimens in human health. And many of these aren’t backed by rigorous scientific evidence, so this is kind of building on that knowledge base – or adding to that knowledge base."

That’s study leader Catherine Marinac, who adds that women who fasted longer had better control over their blood sugar concentrations. So, what’s the connection?

"We know that it influences inflammation. And many of these metabolic factors are related, so you’ll typically see abnormal glucose with inflammation. We know it influences some parameters related to Circadian rhythms and Circadian misalignment and all of these things are on the same cascade. So we don’t know the exact mechanisms, but that’s currently being investigated in animals."

Can the mutations found in tumors help unravel the mystery of cancer? Researcher John Witte of the University of California, San Francisco is using liquid biopsies to pick up a tumor’s DNA circulating in a cancer patient’s bloodstream.

"Tumors grow and they evolve. And to get a sense of the natural history of a tumor evolving, you’d have to take repeat biopsies and sequence that. But now with a liquid biopsy, you could go in and just draw blood every week, and sequence that, and see how things are changing with their tumor. So I think we’ll learn a lot more about…what drives cancer, the evolution of tumors."

Collecting the right amount of this DNA from the bloodstream is still a challenge, but liquid biopsies have shown promise with pancreatic, ovarian, and colorectal cancers.

"The next question is, well, if you’ve picked up the cancer, and you know what the mutations are, can that tell you, for example, whether or not someone should be treated immediately and how they should be treated?"

What time did you eat last night, ladies? A team of researchers at the University of California, San Diego have found that fasting at least 12 hours overnight may reduce a woman’s breast cancer risk.

"There’s a lot of recent literature in popular press on various fasting regimens in human health. And many of these aren’t backed by rigorous scientific evidence, so this is kind of building on that knowledge base – or adding to that knowledge base."

That’s study leader Catherine Marinac, who adds that women who fasted longer had better control over their blood sugar concentrations. So, what’s the connection?

"We know that it influences inflammation. And many of these metabolic factors are related, so you’ll typically see abnormal glucose with inflammation. We know it influences some parameters related to Circadian rhythms and Circadian misalignment and all of these things are on the same cascade. So we don’t know the exact mechanisms, but that’s currently being investigated in animals."

Can the mutations found in tumors help unravel the mystery of cancer? Researcher John Witte of the University of California, San Francisco is using liquid biopsies to pick up a tumor’s DNA circulating in a cancer patient’s bloodstream.

"Tumors grow and they evolve. And to get a sense of the natural history of a tumor evolving, you’d have to take repeat biopsies and sequence that. But now with a liquid biopsy, you could go in and just draw blood every week, and sequence that, and see how things are changing with their tumor. So I think we’ll learn a lot more about…what drives cancer, the evolution of tumors."

Collecting the right amount of this DNA from the bloodstream is still a challenge, but liquid biopsies have shown promise with pancreatic, ovarian, and colorectal cancers.

"The next question is, well, if you’ve picked up the cancer, and you know what the mutations are, can that tell you, for example, whether or not someone should be treated immediately and how they should be treated?"

What time did you eat last night, ladies? A team of researchers at the University of California, San Diego have found that fasting at least 12 hours overnight may reduce a woman’s breast cancer risk.

"There’s a lot of recent literature in popular press on various fasting regimens in human health. And many of these aren’t backed by rigorous scientific evidence, so this is kind of building on that knowledge base – or adding to that knowledge base."

That’s study leader Catherine Marinac, who adds that women who fasted longer had better control over their blood sugar concentrations. So, what’s the connection?

"We know that it influences inflammation. And many of these metabolic factors are related, so you’ll typically see abnormal glucose with inflammation. We know it influences some parameters related to Circadian rhythms and Circadian misalignment and all of these things are on the same cascade. So we don’t know the exact mechanisms, but that’s currently being investigated in animals."