Portrait of a scientific glassblower

For the past 16 years, Jim Breen, the highly-skilled artisan, has created glass apparatuses and other vessels for Berkeley researchers — not just those in chemistry, but in engineering, earth and planetary science, physics and other fields. Breen, who’s blown glass for about 40 years, is one of a dwindling number of scientific glassblowers in the United States. Fifty years ago, the American Scientific Glassblowers Society had roughly 1,000 members; for the past 25 years, the number’s circled 500. But Breen says only about 50 work at colleges or universities. To read the full story, visit: https://news.berkeley.edu/2019/06/10/... Video by Stephen McNally Music: "Eureka" by Huma Huma, "The Sun is Scheduled to Come Out Tomorrow" by Chris Zabriskie, and "Flickering" by Yven http://news.berkeley.edu/   / ucberkeley     / ucberkeley     / ucberkeleyofficial