The cockroaches coming out of UC Berkeley aren’t from the entomology department but the university’s Biomimetic Millisystems Lab.

Ronald Fearing, UC Berkeley associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science, and researcher Paul Birkmeyer built a robot dubbed DASH—Dynamic Autonomous Sprawled Hexapod, according to Wired Magazine. The bot weighs only 16 grams, can reach speeds of about five feet per second and can be dropped from about 92 feet without breaking.  Aside from such feats, its most intriguing feature is six legs and a body that acutely resembles a cockroach.

The researchers modeled their creation after what the pair’s YouTube video calls one of “nature’s greatest runners,” Periplaneta americana, or the cockroach.

DASH was designed to demonstrate the benefits of smart composite microstructures, which in laymen’s terms is a quicker, more cost-effective process of producing “microrobots.”

But the cockroach-bot is only one of many the lab is working on. Other 2009 research projects include, the Ornithopter Project—a bioinspired flying machines; the Micromechanical Flying Insect, which is self-explanatory; and the Millirobot Rapid Prototyping—a kit allowing users to build their own robots.

UC Berkeley doctoral student Stacy Jackson, who conducts research at the Energy & Resources Group at UC Berkeley, said world leaders meeting in Copenhagen for the December climate summit should address the use of other pollutants like soot and ozone.

The summit is said to focus on limiting carbon dioxide emissions in its treaty, but Jackson said soot to ozone  are also major contributors to global warming. She said it would be beneficial to set up institutional frameworks that deal with these pollutants too before the anticipated “threshold” in which climate change would be irreversible .

Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have developed an acoustic hyperlens that can increase the magnification power of ultrasound and underwater sonar devices.

The acoustic hyperlens is made from 36 brass fins which are arranged in the shape of a hand-held fan.

The hyperlens resolves details by capturing information contained in evanescent waves, which carry more details and higher resolution than propagating waves, and manipulating imaging sound wave.

Support for hyperlens research came from the Office of Naval Research, which promotes science and technology programs of the United States Navy and Marine Corps, and provides technical advice to the Chief of Naval Operations and the Secretary of the Navy.

A report published by researchers at the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab has shown that the cost of switching to solar power from traditional fuel sources at power plants has been dropping in the past 10 years.

The report indicated that the cost of switching to solar power has dropped by over 30 percent since 1998. Installation costs fell from $10.80 per watt to $7.50 per watt, the study said.

The report said the fall of the price of the panels themselves has pushed the total cost down as well.

UC Berkeley Professor of Astronomy Geoffrey Marcy has been awarded the 2009 Carl Sagan Prize for Science Popularization due to his efforts to publicize his scientific discoveries.

He will receive the award at Wonderfest 2009 at Stanford University, an annual science festival sponsored by an independent high school in Marin County, California.

According to a Wonderfest press release, the award is in recognition of Marcy’s “exceptional contributions to the public understanding of science.”

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A recent blog post by associate professor of business and public policy Steve Tadelis commented on the reasons why his colleague Oliver Williamson won the Nobel Prize in economics.

The post detailed how Williamson’s theories “basically changed the way microeconomists viewed the function of firm governance, and did so in a way that can help firms design their outsourcing strategy.”

Williamson’s theories focused on the benefits and disadvantages of businesses outsourcing production of goods.

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Popular Science named UC Berkeley professor Ting Xu as one of their “Brilliant 10” ranking of young researchers in the world.

Xu, 35, developed a technique of building up polymers from the molecule level on up. Xu’s work would completely alter data storage devices. The information from hundreds of DVDs could eventually be stored on a chip the size of a quarter.

More recently, Xu is using her nano-scale construction technique to make solar cells the thickness of a pieces of paper. These cells would be much more efficient than current devices.

Also on Popular Science’s list is UC Santa Cruz anthropologist Nathaniel Dominy, 33, for his study of the effect of food on human evolution. He showed that potatoes and other starchy vegetables were important for fueling a larger brain. He used evidence from early human teeth and the modern human DNA that controls saliva.

Other scientists who made the list include Virginia Tech engineering professor Dennis Hong made for his study of robotics. Thirty-three-year-old Carlos Guestrin of Carnegie Mellon University created an algorithm which could be widely used to stop waterborne disease or design self-adjusting chairs.

The head of the UC Berkeley College of Letters and Science stressed the benefits of the UC system in an open letter as state legislators look to resolve a $1.1 billion shortfall.

Acting Executive Dean Janet Broughton highlighted parts of the California economy that crucially depend on quality higher education. She also tied UC contributions to democracy and the betterment of society.

Broughton claimed that one fourth of all California biotech firms were founded by UC graduates or faculty. UC research websites echo that sentiment with their report that one in four US biotech companies are within 35 miles of a UC campus.

Besides business creation, the UCs offer even more important improvement to society, according to Broughton. UC Berkeley, for instance, offers students a multitude of language programs and a library system among the best in the world. The level of schooling available at California public universities has rarely been available to any but the very wealthy.

Broughton goes on to explain how democracy itself is dependent upon a UC style education. She asserts that “tough-minded” yet “open-minded” citizens are needed to properly engage in public service and that the UC system provides these kinds of individuals.

According to a new research from UC Berkeley and the University of Southern California, bosses under duress tend to lash out at their subordinates more due to feelings of inadequacy. Though it has been assumed that obnoxious bosses are influenced by ambition and power, this new study presents bosses as abusive only when they perceive themselves as incompetent.

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UC Berkeley developers, Michel Maharbiz and Hirotaka Sato, recently successfully tested a “cyborg beetle” that can be controlled via electronic operation. The “radio-equipped miniature neural stimulating system,” according to Maharbiz and Sato in the current edition of Frontiers in Neuroscience magazine, is implanted when the beetle is in its pupal stage. *

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