Home / Kara J. Manke

I am a science writer at the University of California, Berkeley, where I write about engineering, the environment, and public health for Berkeley News. I got my start in science writing as a AAAS Mass Media Fellow working at the NPR science desk, and went on to work as a science communicator for Brookhaven National Lab and Duke University. I hold a Ph.D. in chemistry from MIT.

I love storytelling in all forms, and am as likely to be found with my nose in a novel as I am scrolling the latest science news.

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Duke’s biggest, oldest laboratory—past, present and future

Daniel Richter, usually soft-spoken, becomes animated when talking about the history of the soil that lies beneath our feet. For more than 30 years, Richter has studied the interactions between young Piedmont forests and the soils that sustain them. Though he now conducts most of his research at the Clemson Experimental Forest in South Carolina—a location whose history and ecology parallels that of the Duke Forest—his studies are “built directly on the work of Coile, Korstian, Peet and Christ

Historically redlined communities face higher asthma rates

An analysis of eight California cities shows that residents of historically redlined neighborhoods are more than twice as likely as their peers to visit emergency rooms for asthma.

With a hop, a skip and a jump, high-flying robot leaps through obstacles with ease

Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, first unveiled Salto’s high-flying capabilities in 2016. Now, they’ve equipped the robot with a slew of new skills, giving it the ability to bounce in place like a pogo stick and jump through obstacle courses like an agility dog. Salto can even take short jaunts around outside, powered by a radio controller.