Top Stories:

Scientists Discover a New Kind of Neutrino Transformation

Some unprecedentedly precise measurements from the Daya Bay Neutrino Experiment are revealing how electron neutrinos and their antineutrino counterparts “oscillate” into different flavors as they travel. This finding may eventually solve the riddle of why there is far more ordinary matter than antimatter in the universe today. More>

Revealing the Secrets of Clean Coal

As the demand for power increases, and renewable energy sources remain years away from offsetting this need, one fact is clear: Coal is here to stay. So researchers supported by the Department of Energy are investigating relatively "clean" methods for extracting energy from coal—like gasification. Using NERSC systems, a scientist from the University of Utah has developed tools to model and validate the complex processes of coal gasification. More>

NewsBytes:

New to Berkeley Lab Computing Sciences

Introducing: Pardeep Pall and James Lee. More>

American Colleges Encouraged to Implement ESnet’s Science DMZ

The National Science Foundation released a new funding solicitation to help universities upgrade their networks to support the massive growth in science data expected over the next decade. The solicitation points to a strategy developed by the Energy Sciences Network (ESnet) called the “Science DMZ” in which a portion of a campus network is tailored for large science data transfers. ESnet interconnects more than 40 DOE sites, and links them to Internet2, which serves US universities. More>

CRD Researchers Participate in Workshop on Extreme-Scale Solvers

From March 8–9, the DOE Office of Advanced Scientific Computing Research sponsored a Workshop on Extreme-Scale Solvers: Transition to Future Architectures in Washington, DC. The objective was to bring together experts in the development of scalable solvers to determine research areas needed for extreme-scale algorithms and software to effectively utilize 100 petaflop systems and prepare for exascale systems. Osni Marques and Esmond Ng of Berkeley Lab's Computational Research Division were on the organizing committee for the workshop. Other CRD participants included John Bell, Sherry Li, Sam Williams, and CRD Division Director David Brown.

Kennedy High School Students Get a Lesson in Job Hunting

Berkeley Lab staffers Jon Bashor, Rachel Carl, Jeff Todd, Margie Wylie and Linda Vu gave a presentation on finding rewarding jobs to a group of junior and senior classmen at Kennedy High School in Richmond on Wednesday, Mar. 21. The session drew 80 students from the school’s IT Academy. Among the topics covered were where to look for jobs, who to call on for help, dressing for success, likely interview questions, Berkeley Lab’s CSEE program, and a “circle of support” exercise to identify people, organizations, and other support resources. More>

In the News:

ISGTW: Scientists and High School Girls Collaborate

Every Tuesday afternoon, a group of more than 60 high school girls from Berkeley and Albany, California, visits the U.S. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory for a series of 10 two-hour workshops to develop science education apps for Android smart phones. Split into five-member teams, the girls are being mentored by 20 women who work at Berkeley Lab.

The girls have the task of coming up with their own ideas for an app related to science education, then vetting the idea by running it by potential users. Once they develop the app, they will also need to come up with a business plan and pitch their idea to a panel of judges on April 28. Judges will select one app to compete in a similar judging of winning apps from sessions held around the Bay Area and in other states. The winning app will be professionally developed and distributed on the Android Market. More>

Nanowerk: Engineered Piezoelectric Graphene Could Yield Control in Nanotechnology

With the help of supercomputers at NERSC, researchers at Stanford University have discovered that with a little chemical doping, graphene could be transformed into a controllable piezoelectric material. This discovery could lead to a wide variety of graphene-based nanoscale devices from electronics to chemical sensors. More>

Environmental Research Web: US to Use Climate to Help Cool Exascale Systems

Simulations performed at the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC), indicate that invading shrubs will increasingly warm the northern high latitudes at a rate that depends on the height of the plants. More>

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