Want to have lunch with someone at the forefront of science? You can, thanks to the 2009 Berkeley Lab summer lecture series. These illuminating talks take place Tuesdays in Building 66. The lectures are designed for Lab staff, visiting students and teachers, and anyone who is curious about cutting-edge research explained in everyday language. Bring a bag lunch and questions.

July 7

Bob Schoenlein
Ultrafast Science: Using Lasers and X-rays to Reveal the Motion of Atoms and Electrons

Schoenlein

The ultrafast motion of atoms and electrons lies at the heart of chemical reactions, advanced materials with exotic properties, and biological processes such as the first event in vision. Bob Schoenlein, Deputy Director for Science at the Advanced Light Source, will discuss how such processes are revealed by using laser pulses spanning a millionth of a billionth of a second, and how a new generation of light sources will bring the penetrating power of x-rays to the world of ultrafast science.

July 21

Curtis Oldenburg
Geologic Carbon Sequestration: Mitigating Climate Change by Injecting CO₂ Underground

Oldenburg

Climate change provides strong motivation to reduce CO₂ emissions from the burning of fossil fuels. Carbon dioxide capture and storage involves the capture, compression, and transport of CO₂ to geologically favorable areas, where it’s injected into porous rock more than one kilometer underground for permanent storage. Oldenburg, who heads Berkeley Lab’s Geologic Carbon Sequestration Program, will focus on the challenges, opportunities, and research needs of this innovative technology.

JULY 28

Alexie Leauthaud and Reiko Nakajima
What is Gravitational Lensing?

Alexie Leauthaud and Reiko Nakajima

Gravitational lensing is explained by Einstein's general theory of relativity: galaxies and clusters of galaxies, which are very massive objects, act on spacetime by causing it to become curved. Alexie Leauthaud and Reiko Nakajima, astrophysicists with the Berkeley Center for Cosmological Physics, will discuss how scientists use gravitational lensing to investigate the nature of dark energy and dark matter in the universe.

AUGUST 4

Joe Gray
Genome Science and Personalized Cancer Treatment

Gray

Results from the Human Genome Project are enabling scientists to understand how individual cancers form and progress. This information, when combined with newly developed drugs, can optimize the treatment of individual cancers. Joe Gray, director of Berkeley Lab’s Life Sciences Division and Associate Laboratory Director for Life and Environmental Sciences, will focus on this approach, its promise, and its current roadblocks — particularly with regard to breast cancer.

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