UC Science Today

In the last two decades, astrophysicist David Schlegel of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has explored the uncharted universe via space mapping. Using special imaging cameras, his team is creating the largest possible map of the sky to study a mysterious force called dark energy.

"I like to call myself one of the world leading experts on dark energy, which is – it’s easy to be because we know so little about it. We’re not just mapping dark energy directly, but we’re really just mapping its effects on the size of the universe."

Einstein’s theory of gravity suggests the universe’s expansion should gradually decelerate. But it seems that dark energy is beating out dark matter, a particle believed to slow this expansion. Schlegel’s team will use their map for the DESI project, or Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument.

"And what DESI will be doing is it will be taking these two-dimensional maps of the sky and then turning that into a three-dimensional map."

Could liquid biopsies for cancer be the end of invasive needle biopsies? This is Science Today. Researcher John Witte of the University of California San Francisco says this might become a reality. By detecting tumor cells or mutated DNA circulating in the blood stream, liquid biopsies would indicate the presence, type, and possibly even the location of the cancer. The basis is similar to prenatal tests, which screen for genetic disorders by examining fetal DNA in a mother’s blood.

"So the hope would be for kind of screening, you’d be able to find that someone has a cancer based on the tumor DNA that’s picked up in their liquid biopsy, in their blood, or in their urine."

Liquid biopsies could also be used for cancer patients who are having a recurrence. There’s still more work to be done, but so far, Witte says these tests are promising.

"We’re able to pick up tumor in blood. There’s no question about that. The sensitivity, and the specificity, and how valuable it will really be, is the wide open question."

In the last two decades, astrophysicist David Schlegel of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has explored the uncharted universe via space mapping. Using special imaging cameras, his team is creating the largest possible map of the sky to study a mysterious force called dark energy.

"I like to call myself one of the world leading experts on dark energy, which is – it’s easy to be because we know so little about it. We’re not just mapping dark energy directly, but we’re really just mapping its effects on the size of the universe."

Einstein’s theory of gravity suggests the universe’s expansion should gradually decelerate. But it seems that dark energy is beating out dark matter, a particle believed to slow this expansion. Schlegel’s team will use their map for the DESI project, or Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument.

"And what DESI will be doing is it will be taking these two-dimensional maps of the sky and then turning that into a three-dimensional map."

Could liquid biopsies for cancer be the end of invasive needle biopsies? This is Science Today. Researcher John Witte of the University of California San Francisco says this might become a reality. By detecting tumor cells or mutated DNA circulating in the blood stream, liquid biopsies would indicate the presence, type, and possibly even the location of the cancer. The basis is similar to prenatal tests, which screen for genetic disorders by examining fetal DNA in a mother’s blood.

"So the hope would be for kind of screening, you’d be able to find that someone has a cancer based on the tumor DNA that’s picked up in their liquid biopsy, in their blood, or in their urine."

Liquid biopsies could also be used for cancer patients who are having a recurrence. There’s still more work to be done, but so far, Witte says these tests are promising.

"We’re able to pick up tumor in blood. There’s no question about that. The sensitivity, and the specificity, and how valuable it will really be, is the wide open question."

One thing we love covering on Science Today is anything and everything to do with the human brain – how it develops, how it works and of course, what happens when things go wrong.

A while ago, we interviewed neuroscientist Steve Finkbeiner of UC San Francisco about his work studying the brain’s role in learning, memory and neurodegeneration. It was a great conversation, but we took advantage of the opportunity to ask him some basic questions about memory. Here’s that memorable conversation.

To get a better sense of how the brain is organized to allow us to make successful movements, cognitive neuroscientists at the University of California, Santa Barbara’s Action Lab are using functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI. Graduate student Deborah Barany studies the brain dynamics of goal-directed action.

"A goal-directed action is basically anything that involves the brain when you move. And so you can think of this in contrast to an involuntary movement or a reflex, where these can happen just with your spinal cord’s involvement."

Using fMRI, Barany says they can get a better sense of this whole network of brain regions and how they’re involved in movements.

"If my goal is to try to see how the brain differentially represents say, a right movement from a left movement. I can’t answer that question with a standard analysis because you would see the same amount of brain activation in both cases. So we can use these more advanced techniques to try and parse that out and figure out exactly what’s going on in these underlying patterns of brain activity."

One thing we love covering on Science Today is anything and everything to do with the human brain – how it develops, how it works and of course, what happens when things go wrong.

A while ago, we interviewed neuroscientist Steve Finkbeiner of UC San Francisco about his work studying the brain’s role in learning, memory and neurodegeneration. It was a great conversation, but we took advantage of the opportunity to ask him some basic questions about memory. Here’s that memorable conversation.

To get a better sense of how the brain is organized to allow us to make successful movements, cognitive neuroscientists at the University of California, Santa Barbara’s Action Lab are using functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI. Graduate student Deborah Barany studies the brain dynamics of goal-directed action.

"A goal-directed action is basically anything that involves the brain when you move. And so you can think of this in contrast to an involuntary movement or a reflex, where these can happen just with your spinal cord’s involvement."

Using fMRI, Barany says they can get a better sense of this whole network of brain regions and how they’re involved in movements.

"If my goal is to try to see how the brain differentially represents say, a right movement from a left movement. I can’t answer that question with a standard analysis because you would see the same amount of brain activation in both cases. So we can use these more advanced techniques to try and parse that out and figure out exactly what’s going on in these underlying patterns of brain activity."

One thing we love covering on Science Today is anything and everything to do with the human brain – how it develops, how it works and of course, what happens when things go wrong.

A while ago, we interviewed neuroscientist Steve Finkbeiner of UC San Francisco about his work studying the brain’s role in learning, memory and neurodegeneration. It was a great conversation, but we took advantage of the opportunity to ask him some basic questions about memory. Here’s that memorable conversation.

To get a better sense of how the brain is organized to allow us to make successful movements, cognitive neuroscientists at the University of California, Santa Barbara’s Action Lab are using functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI. Graduate student Deborah Barany studies the brain dynamics of goal-directed action.

"A goal-directed action is basically anything that involves the brain when you move. And so you can think of this in contrast to an involuntary movement or a reflex, where these can happen just with your spinal cord’s involvement."

Using fMRI, Barany says they can get a better sense of this whole network of brain regions and how they’re involved in movements.

"If my goal is to try to see how the brain differentially represents say, a right movement from a left movement. I can’t answer that question with a standard analysis because you would see the same amount of brain activation in both cases. So we can use these more advanced techniques to try and parse that out and figure out exactly what’s going on in these underlying patterns of brain activity."