Alameda County reporter

Chase Hunter

Chase Hunter is the Alameda County reporter for the Bay Area News Group. Hunter grew up in the West Valley of Phoenix and moved to Sonoma County in 2021 where he reported for the Sonoma Index-Tribune and the Santa Rosa Press Democrat on wildfires, crime, city government, agriculture, and the environment. In 2023, Hunter produced a three-part series as a California Health Equity fellow for the Health Center at the Annenberg School of Journalism at the University of Southern California. He is a class of 2021 graduate of the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University.

This is an artist’s impression of an asteroid, and is not intended to reflect the characteristics of any specific known asteroid. (image furnished by NASA)

The researchers charged with defending the planet against asteroids

May 12, 2025 at 10:23 a.m.

Though astronomers have known about the threat posed by near-Earth objects since the 1970s, efforts to catalogue potentially dangerous asteroids and meteors have only seriously materialized in the past decade.

The Mayall Telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory, where the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) is attached, in Tucson, Arizona. This image was taken using multiple long exposures with a camera on a tripod to capture the stars that appear to be traveling around the star Polaris as the earth rotates. Later, in post-production, the images were layered, creating a spiral image. (Luke Tyas/Berkeley Lab and KPNO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA)

Einstein called it his “biggest blunder.” Now a Berkeley Lab breakthrough is shedding light on the mysteries of dark energy and cosmic expansion

April 2, 2025 at 10:58 a.m.

If dark energy were a universal constant, then the separation between galaxies would be uniform over time. But the latest findings show a strong indication that dark matter is weakening...

Chase Hunter

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The researchers charged with defending the planet against asteroids

Einstein called it his “biggest blunder.” Now a Berkeley Lab breakthrough is shedding light on the mysteries of dark energy and cosmic expansion

This new molecule could point the way to safe disposal of nuclear waste

As EV vehicles get heavier, they’re also getting more dangerous, safety experts say

How lullabies are improving health care for Black women and their babies