Members of the European Parliament's Energy Forum visited the Lab for discussions on advanced energy research and a tour of the Advanced Light Source, the Molecular Foundry and National Center for Electron Microscopy yesterday.

Hugh Bradner, a physicist who revolutionized diving by inventing the neoprene wetsuit, died on May 5 at the age of 92. After World War II, Bradner joined the faculty of UC Berkeley and taught physics.

A team led by Richard Saykally, with the Chemical Sciences Division, has used the Advanced Light Source to study how biologically important, positively charged ions (cations) interact with negatively charged groups found in proteins (anions) to form salts.

Meet Greg Bell, a custodian working in the cafeteria. Bell says it’s quite a privilege to work among so many fascinating and brilliant people. But his environment was quite different some 10 years ago, when he was homeless, pushing a shopping cart around the streets of Richmond.

As part of an effort to upgrade Berkeley Lab’s web presence, the Communications Department (Public Affairs) will unveil a revamped home page and Today at Berkeley Lab e-mail, and launch a News Center in early June.

Nate Lewis, with Berkeley Lab’s Solar Energy Research Center, presents the next “Science at the Theatre” talk tonight at 5:30 p.m. in the Berkeley Repertory Theatre. He will discuss “Capturing Solar Energy for Transportation Fuel."

Tomorrow, between noon and 1 p.m., Cathy Moyer, the executive director of Volunteers for Outdoor California, will be stationed in the cafeteria lobby to answer questions about her organization.

This coming weekend marks the start of commencement season for neighboring UC Berkeley. These festivities, while joyous for those involved, can create traffic nightmares for those trying to get to and from the Lab.

In a study of the molecular mechanisms by which plants protect themselves from oxidation damage should they absorb too much sunlight during photosynthesis, a team of researchers has discovered a molecular “dimmer switch” that helps control the flow of solar energy moving through the system of light harvesting proteins.

Using ingenious molecular espionage, scientists have found how a single key enzyme, seemingly the Swiss army knife in HIV's toolbox, differentiates and dynamically binds both DNA and RNA as part of the virus's fierce attack on host cells.

Standard magnetic resonance imaging, MRI, is a superb diagnostic tool but one that suffers from low sensitivity, requiring patients to remain motionless for long periods of time inside noisy, claustrophobic machines.

When a form of cancer that begins in the milk ducts of the breast invades neighboring tissue to spread to other parts of the body, the cause lies not in the tumor cells themselves but in a group of abnormal surrounding cells that cause the walls of the duct to deteriorate like a rusty pipe, according to a new study led by Dana-Farber Cancer Institute researchers.

Excitement has permeated the Internet, as the LHC (Large Hadron Collidor) heads toward a startup this summer. On the U.S. LHC web site this week, six new scientists have joined the U.S. LHC blogs to expand and enhance coverage of the LHC project and U.S. participation in it. Among them is Berkeley Lab physicist Seth Zenz.

The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine yesterday awarded $20.18 million to UC Berkeley to build centralized stem cell laboratories on campus in a new biomedical research building now under construction.

UC Berkeley senior and Berkeley Lab employee Christopher Wootton was fatally stabbed during an altercation just off campus last Saturday. He was 21 and due to graduate later this month.

On April 28, Today at Berkeley Lab reported that Alan Meier, with the Lab’s Environmental Energy Technologies Division, was headed to Juneau, Alaska to work with community leaders on conservation measures in the wake of recent avalanches that took out transmission lines from a nearby hydroelectric facility.

Last Thursday and Friday, members of the Nuclear Science Division’s Neutrino Astrophysics group visited Piedmont Middle School. The visit was part of a pilot program to connect scientists and engineers with students, sponsored by the non-profit Community Resources for Science in Berkeley

The Energy Biosciences Institute, a partnership between Berkeley Lab, UC Berkeley, and the University of Illinois funded by BP, has announced an initial set of 49 research projects for funding during the first year of its 10-year program.

Berkeley Lab and UC Berkeley scientists have developed a way to detect explosives and other chemicals that promises to be as stubbornly effective as a bloodhound following a week-old scent.

The West Coast Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership (WESTCARB), which includes Berkeley Lab, received $65.6 million yesterday from the Department of Energy to test storing a California power plant’s carbon dioxide emissions deep underground in order to curb global warming. Larry Myer of the Lab’s Earth Sciences Division serves as the technical director of WESTCARB, which includes more than 70 organizations.

Accelerators and colliders depend on accelerating protons, heavy ions, or positrons to high energies and high currents. But accelerating positively charged particles can cause the formation of negatively charged electron "clouds" in the beam pipe, which can interfere with their motion and severely dilute the intensity of a positive-particle beam.

At the recent IEEE International Parallel and Distributed Processing Symposium held in Miami, the award for Best Paper in the “applications” category went to research exploring ways to make a popular scientific analysis code run smoothly on different types of multicore computers.

The genome analysis of Trichoderma reesei, a champion biomass-degrading fungus has revealed a surprisingly minimal repertoire of genes that it employs to break down plant cell walls, highlighting opportunities for further improvements in enzymes customized for biofuels production.

Using a supercomputer with low-power embedded microprocessors would overcome limitations posed by today’s conventional supercomputers and provide an innovative way to improve global climate change predictions, according to three Berkeley Lab computer scientists.

The 2008 season of the Lab Softball League is just around the corner, with games starting in mid-June and continuing through late August. Games are played on campus every Wednesday at 6, 7:15 and 8:30 p.m. Players who are looking for a team, or would like to form their own, can contact Commissioner Steve Blair.

The next session of Berkeley Lab’s onsite Weight Watchers program begins with an informational meeting tomorrow at noon in Building 26 (Health Services).

There’s a new building block in the nanoscience tool box. Scientists at the Molecular Foundry used a recently discovered, donut-shaped protein to build customizable nanotubes that can be lengthened, shortened, or sealed at both ends to form capsules.

National Drinking Water Week, which is May 4-10, is intended to highlight the importance of safe tap water. This year marks the 100th anniversary of the first use of chlorine as a primary disinfectant in drinking water in Jersey City, New Jersey.

Lawrence Livermore National Lab is hosting a symposium on the scientific legacy of Edward Teller as part of his centennial observance. The May 28 event will be held at the new Bankhead Theatre in downtown Livermore.

Steve Chu, director of Berkeley Lab, will deliver the keynote address at the Northwestern University-Argonne Energy Symposium today at Northwestern University. Chu will discuss "The World's Energy Problem and What We Can Do About It." The talk will focus on areas of research that may lead to transformative technologies needed to solve the problem.

A memorial for Daniel Chemla, the former director of Berkeley Lab’s Advanced Light Source, will be held Saturday, May 10, from 10 a.m. to noon in Pimentel Hall, located on the UC Berkeley campus.

A symposium on Radiation Measurements and Applications will be held on the UC Berkeley campus June 2-5. The symposium will offer a diverse program, encompassing the full breadth of ionizing radiation measurement applications and technologies, with both oral and poster presentations.

A hot topic in organic chemistry is the development of ways to neatly home in on a particular chemical group and cause a reaction to proceed extremely efficiently under mild conditions. Such highly optimized reactions have been grouped under the term "click chemistry."

Pier Oddone, former deputy director of Berkeley Lab and long-time mainstay of the Physics Division, has been elected as a fellow in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, one of the nation’s oldest and most prestigious honorary societies and independent policy research centers.

Thanks to an agreement with UC Berkeley, Berkeley Lab postdocs who work with campus faculty are now eligible for expanded campus services, including CalNet usernames and passwords and Cal 1 ID cards. 

4 p.m.
Life Sciences and Genomics
Building Gene Expression Networks in C. elegans Using Automated Lineage Analysis
Robert Waterston
Bldg. 66 Auditorium

Noon
Dance Club
Intermediate Night Club Two-Step Lesson
Bldg. 51 Lobby

12:30 p.m.
Yoga Club
Class with Chris Hoskins
Bldg. 70-191

4 p.m.
Seaborg Center
Understanding Uranium Distribution in Unsaturated Sediments After a Major Waste Liquid Spill at the Hanford Site
Jiamin Wan
Bldg. 70A-3377