Top Stories:

Moving Business Computer Services
to Cloud Promises Energy Savings

A six-month study led by Berkeley Lab researchers with funding from Google has found that moving common software applications used by 86 million U.S. workers to the cloud could save enough electricity annually to power Los Angeles for a year. The report looks at three common business applications — email, customer relationship management software and bundled productivity software. More>

Emission Regulations Reduced Impact of Climate Change in CA

A first-of-its-kind study examing the impact of black carbon on California's climate found that reductions in emissions of black carbon since the late 1980s resulted in a measurable reduction of concentrations of warming pollutants in the atmosphere. The study ran simulations on NERSC's Hopper system. More>

Unusual Supernova Is Actually Perfectly Normal

August 2011 saw the dazzling appearance of the closest and brightest Type Ia supernova since Type Ia's were established as "standard candles" for measuring the expansion of the universe. Labeled SN 2011fe, the supernova was caught by the Palomar Transient Factory less than 12 hours after it exploded in the Pinwheel Galaxy with help from supercomputers and networks at NERSC and ESnet. Now, astronomers are using it to build a benchmark atlas for normal Type Ia's. More>

Newsbytes:

New to Berkeley Lab Computing Sciences

Introducing: Karen Schafer and Paul Porter More>

ESnet Joins World's First Intercontinental 100 Gbps R&E Demo

ESnet joined five of the world’s other leading research and education (R&E) networks and two commercial partners to demonstrate for the first time a Transatlantic 100 gigabits-per-second (Gbps) transmission link for research and education between North America and Europe during the TERENA Networking Conference 2013 (TNC2013), held in Maastricht, The Netherlands. These demonstrations showcased emerging technologies and advanced applications for science, research and education. More>

Development of New Advanced Materias Get a Boost

The Materials Project—an open-access Google-like database for materials research developed by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)—is working with Intermolecular, Inc. to enhance the tool’s modeling capabilities and thus accelerate the speed of new material development by tenfold or more over conventional approaches. New materials are key to addressing challenges in energy, healthcare and national security. The Materials Project is hosted on the NERSC's Science Gateway. More>

Director’s Achievement Awards Announced

The recipients of the Berkeley Lab Lifetime and Exceptional Achievement Awards have been announced. Arie Shoshani, head of the Scientific Data Management Group in the Computational Research Division, is one of two recipients of the Berkeley Lab Prize Lifetime Achievement Award. Exceptional Achievement honorees in the Science category include Peter Nugent, leader of the Computational Cosmology Group in CRD. And, Exceptional Achievement honorees in the Diversity category include Elizabeth Bautista, who leads NERSC's Operations Technology Group. More>

HPCWire: Network as a Scientific Instrument

In this HPCWire Question & Answer, ESnet and Berkeley Lab Scientific Networking Division Director Greg Bell argues that it is time to start thinking about research networks as instruments for discovery, not just infrastructures for service delivery More>

In the News:

NPR Science Friday: A Calculating Win for China's New Supercomputer

China's "Tianhe-2" (Milky Way 2) supercomputer took first place in one recent speed test, clocking in at 30 quadrillion calculations per second—about twice as fast as the best American machines. The U.S. still has more supercomputers than any other nation, but some experts say computer speed is a measure of a country’s scientific innovation, and worry the U.S. is lagging behind. Last week, NPR’s Science Friday discussed this situation with Berkeley Lab Deputy Director Horst Simon and Argonne’s Associate Lab Director Rick Stevens. More>

Live Science: Deadly Heat Waves Intensify As Summers Sizzle

In op-ed in Live Science discusses a new study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) showing that deaths caused by heat are on the rise in United States. The article includes comments by climate scientists Michael Wehner and Daithi Stone of the Computational Research Division. More>

Scientific American: Cloud Computing Saves Energy

When it comes to computing, the "cloud" may rain efficiency benefits. Researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Northwestern University unveiled a modeling tool yesterday that estimates the energy savings of moving local network software and computing into the server farms that make up the cloud. The article quotes Lavanya Ramakrishnan of the Computational Research Division. More>

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