Our Pacific Northwest: An Unexpected Face Makes His Case For Citizenship

Our Pacific Northwest

An Unexpected Face Makes His Case For Citizenship

Photo via San Jose Mercury News

Among the millions of undocumented immigrants in this country are the faces of friends and colleagues we’d never expect, as was the case for the UC Berkeley Math Club. The San Jose Mercury News has reported today that Terrence Park, math club president and bio-statistics student at UC Berkeley, came out to his fellow students about being an undocumented citizen. According to the report, Park arrived in California with his family from South Korea at the age of 10 on temporary visas, which expired. His coming out is part of “The Dream is Now” campaign, an advocacy group captained by Laurene Powell Jobs, widow of the late Apple founder Steve Jobs. The report mentioned Park is one of dozens of students around the state and being video tapped in order to persuade Americans to develop a pathway to citizenship. Park told the Mercury News if the Dream Act passes, he plans on continuing his graduate education at either Brown or Yale University. Empirical commends Terrence for his pioneering courage, and for revealing one of the millions of faces of the undocumented in our Pacific Northwest.

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Newts Renew Their Love in Berkeley

Our Pacific Northwest: Newts Renew Their Love in Berkeley

Our Pacific Northwest

Newts Renew Their Love in Berkeley

 

There is plenty of love in the air this Valentine’s Day, and homo sapiens aren’t the only ones feeling it. The Oakland Tribune has reported this week the newts of UC Berkeley’s Botanical Garden have returned, keeping their prompt annual schedule for mating season. According to the report, these newts return to the pools on the Berkeley campus yearly to reproduce in the same pools they were conceived in. The Botanical Garden’s website states the pools are home to two different species of newt, the Taricha torosa (California newt) and the Taricha granulosa (rough-skin newt). In a report filed by the Contra Costa Times, the newts were first spotted in 1964 by a zoology undergrad and have been an attraction to students, professors, and amphibian enthusiasts ever since. Empirical wishes you and your special newt a happy Valentine’s Day . If you don’t have one keep your head up and keep swimming, they may be only be just a pond away.

 

 

 

Our Pacific Northwest: Artificial Leaves Lead The Way To a Sustainable Future

Our Pacific Northwest

Artificial Leaves Lead The Way To a Sustainable Future

Scientists at the University of California, Berkeley have found inspiration in something we all take for granted on a daily basis. In a report filed by the San Francisco Chronicle this week, scientists have developed a rough prototype of artificial leaves that have the ability to convert sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide into a chemical fuel. The process, which mimics the process of photosynthesis, has the potential to develop what they call a “drop-in” fuel which could power our automobiles and mass transit without releasing greenhouse gases into the air. The article went on to state that this process of artificial photosynthesis has the ability to retain more of the sun’s energy than other bio-fuels and can be easily compacted into a dense fuel which could fuel automobiles over long distances. Although the process is still in its early stages and faces many challenges ahead, we congratulate the scientists of our Pacific Northwest in pioneering a technique which could prove effective in combating our nation’s carbon footprint.