Golden Nuggets: Nobel Prizes, Quick Away Game to Mars, and Rob interviewed who?
It was Ron Rivera. What a homecoming!
Hello and welcome to Golden Nuggets, our weekly recap article where we try to highlight all the fun, funny, or interesting things you might have missed roughly over the last week across Bear Territory (the whole damn world of course).
Another Nobel Prize
Yesterday, the Nobel Prize Committee honored John Clarke, an emeritus professor of physics at the Graduate School of UC Berkeley the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on quantum tunneling, one of many strange aspects of quantum mechanics. Clarke shared the award with two other UC Professors Michel H. Devoret and John M. Martinis who, at the time of the research were at UC Berkeley but are currently at Yale University and UC Santa Barbara. Still, got to update the Cal Football helmet stickers.
Alright this is the part where I’d try to explain it but man, it’s been a hot minute since I took Physics 8A and 8B, so sorry. So I’m just going to let them explain.
Quantum tunneling is the ability of particles, such as electrons, to move or tunnel through barriers that, according to classical physics, they should not be able to breach. This had been demonstrated many times in the atomic realm, as in the radioactive decay of atoms. In the early 1980s, the three Nobel laureates demonstrated this effect in a larger system — a simple electrical circuit incorporating a superconductor, which allows current to flow without resistance.
Do read the whole article here! And reread it a couple of times if you if it doesn’t make sense. I’m currently on read through 3 and I think I’ve nearly cracked it.
AND ANOTHER ONE
Early Wednesday morning, it was announced that Omar Yaghi, a Jordanian-American chemist at the University of California, Berkeley, was awarded the 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, sharing it with Richard Robson of the University of Melbourne, Australia, and Susumu Kitagawa of Kyoto University, Japan.
“The scientists were cited for creating “molecular constructions with large spaces through which gases and other chemicals can flow. These constructions, metal-organic frameworks, can be used to harvest water from desert air, capture carbon dioxide, store toxic gases or catalyze chemical reactions.””
Listen, I know even less about chemistry, so read the full article here.
Hot Links
Gavin Newsom on Campus
Unrelated, but yet related, to the Nobel Prize award, Gavin Newsom was on campus last week to sign a bill encouraging quantum innovation. No one expected campus to respond to quickly.
ACC Travel, Now Stopping at Mars
Missed this a few weeks ago, but some UC Berkeley researchers are part of a new satellite launch to Mars coming up in a few weeks! Read more here.
Jon Wilner…said…positive things??? about Cal?
I know, I’m as shocked as you, but Jon Wilner reflected on the one year anniversary of College GameDay visiting campus. Read the article here.
An Inside Look at Cal Football
The SF Chronicle took a look at what it will take for Cal to retain JKS. You can read it here.
Golden Bearcast Interviewed Who? Again?
Some Podcasters Got To Interview Ron Rivera. Listen to it here.
Golden Bear Honors
Men’s Swimming and Diving starts the season ranked #4 in the CSCAA Poll
Cal spotlighted Israel Cortez (Soccer) for Latino Heritage Month
Cal also spotlighted Carolina Visca (Track and Field) for Latina Heritage Month
Cal Athletics Recap
Men’s Soccer lost to SMU (0-4)
Volleyball lost to Louisville (0-3)
Football lost to Duke (21-45)
Women’s Soccer lost to SMU (1-2)
Volleyball lost to Notre Dame (0-3)
Rough week. Let’s look ahead to next week!
Cal Pros Recap
Football
Cam Jordan recovered a fumble (lol Dart rip my fantasy team). Jared Goff threw a high flying touchdown. Keenan Allen became the fastest Wide Receiver to catch 1,000 passes. All that and more. Catch the Cal Football recap video here.
Baseball
Andrew Vaughn hit a monster homerun to help the Brewers take a 2-0 lead over the Cubs.
Basketball
Jaylen Brown is going to be featured in Netflix’s “Starting Five.” Catch the trailer here.
Next Week in Bear Territory
Men’s Tennis continues the Fairfield Challenger (10/8-10/12) and plays in the Aggie Invitational (10/10-10/12
Women’s Soccer plays Virginia (10/9) and Virginia Tech (10/12)
Cross Country competes at the Bill Dellinger Invitational in Oregon (10/10)
Women’s Tennis competes in the ITA Northwest Regional Championships (10/10-10/14)
Men’s and Women’s Swimming & Diving competes at San Diego in the Triton Invitational (10/10)
Volleyball plays at Syracuse (10/10) and Boston College (10/12)
Field Hockey plays at Boston College (10/10) and Syracuse (10/12)
Rugby competes in the West Cost 7s at Stanford (10/11)
Softball competes at West Valley College (10/11), Cal State Monterey Bay (10/12), and Sacramento State (10/12)
Men’s and Women’s Golf competes at the St. Andrews Links Collegiate in Scotland (10/13-10/15)
Men’s Soccer play Wake Forest (10/11)
And so we find ourselves again at the end of Golden Nuggets. I appreciate you all reading this, and I have a ton of fun writing it. Last week’s most clicked link was George Smoot conducting the Cal Band Big Bang. Give it another watch here. Rest up. Enjoy the bye this weekend!
Fantastic. No matter what one thinks of his policies on myriad fronts, I recommend we get behind Gavin Newsom for 2028 because he has the courage and tenacity to call out the bs and inhumane, unconstitutional thuggery of the current administration.
We kind of won 4 Nobels on the first two days. Our faculty and alumni and research labs are kind of amazing. Berkeley is kind of the greatest university ever.