500 Caterpillars at Home: How UC Berkeley Scientists Are Saving Research During Blackout

While many Californians sat at home with flashlights and emergency radios during the power outages, Ph.D. student Aaron Pomerantz was home with 500 fuzzy caterpillars.

UC Berkeley was one of the nearly three-quarters of a million customers that lost power during the PG&E shutdown this week. Instead, the university relied on minimal emergency power. That sent researchers scrambling to save scientific specimens requiring temperature control to survive, representing millions of dollars in research.

Pomerantz got the word that his lab might go dark on Tuesday and immediately started considering what to do with the painted lady butterflies he studies in his lab.

“The announcement was kind of abrupt and sudden, so I noticed people were cleaning out their cages and moving them to other areas,” he said. “There really wasn’t a plan for a lot of people to have everything on backup power.”

Some UC Berkeley buildings have backup generators, but many older buildings lack an emergency power supply. The campus has a small power plant that runs on natural gas, but it can’t supply the entire campus. Administrators have been carefully balancing power needs so demand doesn’t overtax the system..

Pomerantz says with only a few power outlets linked to emergency power, he and other grad students packed up their specimens.

“These are living animals that need constant care and they represent months and months’ worth of my work as a Ph.D. student,” he said.

Luckily, the caterpillars are fairly easy to care for.

UC Berkeley grad student Aaron Pomerantz brought 500 caterpillars home to protect them during the power outage. (Aaron Pomerantz)

“I have them laid out on my floor of the apartment,” he said. “They’re getting some natural sunlight, which I’m sure they’re enjoying. They’re just chilling.”

One of his colleagues brought home 10,000 tiny swimming crustaceans, which live in aquariums with running filtration.

The stakes are especially high for researchers with frozen specimens, like cells and bacteria, which require preservation at -80 degrees Celsius. Those freezers represent decades of work and millions of dollars of research.

“They are priceless,” said Noah Whiteman, an associate professor of integrative biology. “A money amount cannot be put on them because they’re irreplaceable.”

While many Californians sat at home with flashlights and emergency radios during the power outages, Ph.D. student Aaron Pomerantz was home with 500 fuzzy caterpillars.

UC Berkeley was one of the nearly three-quarters of a million customers that lost power during thePG&E shutdown this week. Instead, the university relied on minimal emergency power. That sent researchers scrambling to save scientific specimens requiring temperature control to survive, representing millions of dollars in research.

Pomerantz got the word that his lab might go dark on Tuesday and immediately started considering what to do with the painted lady butterflies he studies in his lab.

“The announcement was kind of abrupt and sudden, so I noticed people were cleaning out their cages and moving them to other areas,” he said. “There really wasn’t a plan for a lot of people to have everything on backup power.”

Some UC Berkeley buildings have backup generators, but many older buildings lack an emergency power supply. The campus has a small power plant that runs on natural gas, but it can’t supply the entire campus. Administrators have been carefully balancing power needs so demand doesn’t overtax the system..

Pomerantz says with only a few power outlets linked to emergency power, he and other grad students packed up their specimens.

“These are living animals that need constant care and they represent months and months’ worth of my work as a Ph.D. student,” he said.

Luckily, the caterpillars are fairly easy to care for.

“I have them laid out on my floor of the apartment,” he said. “They’re getting some natural sunlight, which I’m sure they’re enjoying. They’re just chilling.”

One of his colleagues brought home 10,000 tiny swimming crustaceans, which live in aquariums with running filtration.

The stakes are especially high for researchers with frozen specimens, like cells and bacteria, which require preservation at -80 degrees Celsius. Those freezers represent decades of work and millions of dollars of research.

“They are priceless,” said Noah Whiteman, an associate professor of integrative biology. “A money amount cannot be put on them because they’re irreplaceable.”

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