Read the story, "How antibiotic-laden poop helps ‘bessbug’ beetles ward off infection," on Berkeley News: https://news.berkeley.edu/2021/05/26/how-antibiotic-filled-poop-helps-bessbug-beetles-stay-healthy/
Music: "Tarte Tatin" by Blue Dot Sessions

Matthew Traxler describes the 'friendly' bessbug beetle

To better understand how the brains of social mammals process group communication, neuroscientists at the University of California, Berkeley, used wireless neural recording devices to track the brain activity of Egyptian fruit bats as they socialized in small groups, and occasionally vocalized to each other. This audio recording from the study gives a sense of the type of “chatter” that is going on between the bat group members during social interactions. Read the story on Berkeley News: https://news.berkeley.edu/2021/10/21/bat-study-reveals-secrets-of-the-social-brain/.

Listen to the social chatter of Egyptian fruit bats

Transcript: 

My relationship with my older brother was really close. I didn't really have a father figure growing up. And my older brother was that father figure to me. He would often mentor me, spend time with me and hold me accountable.

Every time I would get in trouble or cut classes, he would often be there to pick me up from the principal's office and also give me a sense of lecture, which wasn't criticizing, but more so letting me know, "Hey, you know you messed up and you know what you gotta do."

You know, many times we would just go out to fish in the Delta River and sometimes we would come to the Bay Area in San Francisco and do some crabbing. 

It wasn't just about the activity; it was more so about him wanting to spend time with me and also teaching me that there's life outside of the city. That's a way that you can balance and also escape a lot of the things going on in your surroundings.

Photo courtesy of Danny Thongsy. 

Music: "Felt Lining" by Blue Dot Sessions: https://app.sessions.blue/browse/track/38a694f6-6405-4370-98bc-a828c229c256

Read the story on Berkeley News: https://news.berkeley.edu/2023/01/20/student-danny-thongsy-we-can-look-within-ourselves-to-find-strength-and-persevere/

For Danny, his older brother was his father figure

Transcript:

So, on the day that my brother, my older brother, passed away... I remember I was at a friend's house partying, drinking alcohol, gambling and just joking around with each other.

And a friend from the neighborhood rode his bike all the way from the place that my older brother was shot. Once I received that news, I was in shock. And afterwards, I found a phone, called my family and they told me that my older brother was in the hospital.

I remember going through the room where he was lying. And other family members were there crying, as well. And me, I was just staring at him with tears coming out of my eyes and just telling myself, "Wow, this can't be happening. This cannot be happening."

I whispered something into my brother's ear while he was just lying there, saying, "Whoever did this, they're going to pay for this."

When he passed away, he was 26 years old. His name was Mee "Danny" Thongsy. So, the name Danny is also his name, which I took up after his passing.

Photo courtesy of Danny Thongsy.

Music: "Again in the Spring" by Blue Dot Sessions https://app.sessions.blue/browse/track/4c72ce2f-6716-4b19-b3a2-24a425076b70

Read the story on Berkeley News: https://news.berkeley.edu/2023/01/20/student-danny-thongsy-we-can-look-within-ourselves-to-find-strength-and-persevere/

The day Danny's older brother was killed

Transcript:

So, for my family, our economic condition, we didn't really have much. We came over with just pretty much nothing. For work, my parents, they were farmworkers, working with local farmers — I think because of the skills they learned from the homeland being rice farmers.

As my parents got older, their health started deteriorating and they couldn't go out to the fields and work. So, what they would do, they would find ways to make income by us cooking food, selling food: egg rolls, lemon grass chicken, spring rolls, bảo.

Bảo itself is... we call it Lao Bảo, but in different Asian cultures, they have a little twist to it, which itself is just a steamed flour bun with some stuffing inside. It could be meat, mushroom or some vegetables.

That's one of the staple meals I grew up on, as well. Aside from eating sticky rice. Yeah, it's still my favorite today (laughs). 

Photo courtesy of Danny Thongsy.

Music: "Algea Tender" by Blue Dot Sessions https://app.sessions.blue/browse/track/2e2ae0c8-f17c-4688-a3f5-ba2645e79f55

Read the story on Berkeley News: https://news.berkeley.edu/2023/01/20/student-danny-thongsy-we-can-look-within-ourselves-to-find-strength-and-persevere/

How Danny's family survived as Laotian refugees

Transcript:

(Heavy breathing and running footsteps on the ground outside)

Philip Stark: I'm in a very entitled position in this world, right? I'm a white, male, European ancestry, educated, job at one of the world's best universities. All those things give me a podium that a lot of people don't get and I try to use it for good. I sort of take advantage of that to try to spread messages that I think are worth hearing — about sustainable agriculture and food waste and all these things. Even the delight, the physical delight of doing this and connecting to the part of your brain that is really wired for this. It all feels good. 

So, I mean, do I have pangs of guilt about it? Yes — there are other people who are more deserving of the attention than I am. But given that I've got the attention, I'll try to use it for something of value. 

---

UC Berkeley photo by Jason Pohl.

Read the story on Berkeley News: news.berkeley.edu.

Using his privilege and platform for good

Vincent Medina, co-founder of the campus's 'ottoy initiative and an East Bay Ohlone cultural leader, says "xučyun ruwway" and explains its meaning.

Transcript:

xučyun ruwway (HOOCH-yoon ROO-why). xučyun ruwway (HOOCH-yoon ROO-why). xučyun is the name of a region in our East Bay Ohlone homeland that includes Berkeley and Albany. ruwway is the name for house or home in our Chochenyo language.

Read the story on Berkeley News: https://news.berkeley.edu/2024/04/22/new-uc-berkeley-housing-complex-to-be-called-xucyun-ruwway-honoring-ohlone-people

xučyun ruwway: Vincent Medina on how to say it and what it means

Thanks to a collaboration with UC Berkeley's Disabled Students' Program, nearly indecipherable slave ship logs are being digitized so that Will Carter, who has dyslexia, can listen to and study them.

Read the story and transcript on Berkeley News https://news.berkeley.edu/2024/06/12/with-newly-digitized-slave-ship-logs-berkeley-ph-d-student-examines-race-power-and-literacy/

Listen to screen reader audio of a slave ship logbook entry

Jeff Davis performs "Fiat Lux" on the carillon in UC Berkeley's Campanile. Davis composed the piece in 2010 at the request of then-Chancellor Robert Birgeneau. Read about Davis on news.berkeley.edu.

Jeff Davis performs "Fiat Lux" on the carillon

Jackson Crawford, a professor of Modern Icelandic at UC Berkeley, welcomes new students.

Read the story on Berkeley News: http://news.berkeley.edu/2015/08/25/modern-icelandic-gets-warm-reception-as-latest-berkeley-language/

Professor Jackson Crawford welcomes new students in Icelandic

Leonard Crow Dog, Jr. on the flute at the 7th Annual Native American Heritage Month luncheon at UC Berkeley.

Photos and story on Berkeley News: http://news.berkeley.edu/2015/11/05/native-american-heritage-month-2015/

Leonard Crow Dog, Jr. on the flute

UC Berkeley neuroscientists have now observed this re-tuning in action by recording directly from the surface of a person’s brain as the words of a previously unintelligible sentence suddenly pop out after the subject is told the meaning of the garbled speech. The re-tuning takes place within a second or less, they found.

Read the story on Berkeley News: news.berkeley.edu/2016/12/20/pop-o…ning-from-noise/

Try the garbled speech experiment yourself

"Kish’ rizhi Kalifornya" is the first stanza of Cal's fight song "Sons of California," translated into Dothraki by alumnus David J. Peterson, who developed the language for HBO's Game of Thrones. Peterson is teaching a summer 2017 course on language creation.

Read the story on Berkeley News: news.berkeley.edu/2017/04/21/dothr…ch-summer-class/
Photo by Peter Durand via Flickr bit.ly/2gR5rmM

Oski the Great

Cal's fight song "Sons of California" in Dothraki

Freshman Michael Sigua on why he's pursuing oncology as a profession.

Read the story about new student convocation on Berkeley News: http://bit.ly/2pseMDr
Listen to the Fiat Vox podcast: https://soundcloud.com/uc-berkeley-podcast-fiat-vox

Michael Sigua to improve cancer treatments in developing nations

"Myth of Coyote," told in Rumsen, recorded in 1902. Full citation below:

Item number: 24-522
Date: 1902 April
Contributors: A.L. Kroeber (researcher), Maria Viviena Soto (consultant)
Language: Rumsen
Availability: Online access
Description: Original cylinder 14-17a. 150 speed.
Collection: The Alfred L. Kroeber collection of American Indian sound recordings
Repository: Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology
Preferred citation: Myth of Coyote, 24-522, Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley, http://cla.berkeley.edu/item/12587

Read about a Native American student's journey of self-discovery on Berkeley News: http://news.berkeley.edu/2018/06/05/native-american-student-reclaiming-his-culture/

Myth of Coyote in Rumsen, 1902

"My Trip to San Francisco," a narrative told in Salinan, recorded in 1910. Full citation below: 

Item number: 24-2029
Date: 1910 December
Contributors: Pedro Encinales (consultant), J. Alden Mason (researcher)
Language: Salinan
Availability: Online access
Description: Keeling catalog note: "Interlinear translation in Mason (1918:98)." Original cylinder 14-1582. 180 speed.
Collection: The J. Alden Mason collection of Salinan sound recordings
Repository: Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology
Preferred citation: My trip to San Francisco (a narrative in Salinan), 24-2029, Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley, http://cla.berkeley.edu/item/11145

Read about a Native American student's journey of self-discovery on Berkeley News: http://news.berkeley.edu/2018/06/05/native-american-student-reclaiming-his-culture/

My Trip To San Francisco, a narrative in Salinan, 1910

Sounds, interviews and excerpts from UC Berkeley to accompany Berkeley News stories on news.berkeley.edu.

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