Top Stories:

A New Approach to Water Desalination

Using supercomputers at the Department of Energy’s National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC), researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have come up with a new approach for desalinating sea water using sheets of graphene, a one-atom-thick form of the element carbon. Team members say this method can be far more efficient and possibly less expensive than existing desalination systems. More>

New Computer Model Pinpoints Prime Materials for Carbon Capture

With help from NERSC's Petascale Initiative and DIRAC, Berkeley Lab and UC Berkeley researchers developed a computer model to screen solid materials for cost-effectively capturing carbon emissions from fossil fuel-burning power plants. The new model shows that the parasitic energy costs of carbon capture could be reduced by 30 percent with the use of more efficient materials. More>

 

NewsBytes:

New to Berkeley Lab Computing Sciences

Introducing: Cy Chan, Yingjie Lin and Matthew Emmett. More>

COSMOS Computer Security, Privacy and Cybervillainy Cluster Visits Berkeley Lab

On July 24, Berkeley Lab Computing Sciences hosted some two dozen students from the California State Summer School for Mathematics and Science, or COSMOS. A month-long summer program for high school students who excel at math and science, COSMOS allows participants to take subject-specific classes taught by UC faculty and researchers.

The visiting students were from the Computer Security, Privacy and Cybervillainy cluster, which was partly taught by Sean Peisert of CRD’s Complex Systems Group. As part of the Berkeley Lab tour, the students visited the NERSC facility where they got to see some of the world’s fastest supercomputers; they learned about NERSC's and Berkeley Lab cybersecurity, and toured the Advanced Light Source. Speakers and tour guides for the day included Jonathan Carter, Jim Mellander, Richard Gerber, David Turner, David Skinner, Jay Krous, Thomas Knight, Thomas Scarvie and Linda Vu.

In the News:

The Guardian: Michael Wehner Quoted in Article on Extreme Weather

Michael Wehner of CRD's Scientific Computing Group was one of eight climate scientists contacted by Leo Hickman of the Guardian newspaper in the UK for a blog about the relationship between extreme weather conditions and global climate change. Wehner frames his answer by saying "Whenever an extreme weather event occurs, it is natural for the public to ask, 'Is this event a result of global warming? 'This is not the quite the correct question to ask...The more relevant question to ask is 'How has the risk of this event changed because of climate change?' " More>

HPCWire: NERSC Signs Up for Multi-Petaflop "Cascade" Supercomputer

Following the June 27 announcement that NERSC has ordered a two-petaflop "Cascade" supercomputer, Cray's next-generation HPC platform, HPCwire editor Michael Feldman contacted Acting NERSC Division Director Kathy Yelick and NERSC Systems Department Head Jeff Broughton for more information on the decision. The system includes about 6.5 petabytes of the Cray's Sonexion storage and the contract covers both hardware and services, which will extend over multiple years. Installation is scheduled for 2013. More>

KTVU Channel 2 News: Michael Wehner Talks About Greenland's Melting Ice Sheets

Berkeley Lab's Climate Scientist Michael Wehner talks to KTVU Channel 2's heath and science reporter John Fowler about heatwaves and Greenland's melting ice sheets. The simulations shown in the segment were generated by Dan Martin. More>

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