News By Location

News from CA

Select a state to view local articles and features

New pictures show fourth planet in giant version of our solar system

DOE/Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Astronomers have discovered a fourth giant planet, joining three others that, in 2008, were the subject of the first-ever pictures of a planetary system orbiting another star other than our sun.

Journal: Nature

The future of metabolic engineering -- designer molecules, cells and microorganisms

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Jay Keasling, a leading authority on metabolic engineering, envisions a future in which microorganisms are tailor-made to produce specific chemical products, such as biofuels and pharmaceuticals, from inexpensive and renewable starting materials. He has written a paper on the subject for the journal Science.

Journal: Science
Funder: DOE/US Department of Energy

From toxicity to life: Arsenic proves to be a building block

DOE/Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Arsenic -- an element that triggers death for most Earthly life forms -- is actually allowing for a bacterium to thrive and reproduce. In a study that may prompt the rewriting of textbooks, a team of astrobiologists and chemists has found the first known living organism that can use arsenic in place of phosphorus in its major macromolecules. The new findings, published in the Dec. 2 Science Express, could redefine origins of life research and alter the way we describe life as we know it.

Journal: Science

Strange discovery: Bacteria built with arsenic

DOE/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

In a study that could rewrite biology textbooks, scientists have found the first known living organism that incorporates arsenic into the working parts of its cells. What's more, the arsenic replaces phosphorus, an element long thought essential for life. The results, based on experiments at the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource, were published online today in Science Express.

Journal: Science
Funder: DOE/US Department of Energy, NASA, US Geological Survey

Berkeley Lab scientists receive time on nation's fastest computer for energy research

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Grant and Award Announcement

Berkeley Lab scientists have been awarded massive allocations on the nation's most powerful supercomputer to advance innovative research in improving the combustion of hydrogen fuels and increasing the efficiency of nanoscale solar cells. The awards were announced today by Energy Secretary Steven Chu as part of DOE's Innovative and Novel Computational Impact on Theory and Experiment program.

Ultrathin alternative to silicon for future electronics

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Berkeley researchers have successfully used ultra-thin layers of the semiconductor indium arsenide to create a nanoscale transistor with excellent electronic properties. The technique could be applied to other III–V semiconductors for future high-speed, low-power electronic devices.

Journal: Nature
Funder: DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Reading the signs: Plants and animals found common ground in response to microbial threats

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Contrary to long-held beliefs, plants and animals have developed remarkably similar mechanisms for detecting microbial invasions. This holds promise for the future treatment of infectious diseases in humans.

Journal: Science
Funder: Joint BioEnergy Institute, National Institutes of Health

Antimatter atoms stored for the first time

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Berkeley Lab researchers have made crucial contributions to the ALPHA collaboration at CERN, an international team who have trapped and stored atoms of antihydrogen for the first time. The key is an octupole magnet proposed, designed, and tested at Berkeley Lab and UC Berkeley.

Journal: Nature

A new twist for nanopillar light collectors

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Berkeley Lab researchers have created unique dual-diameter nanopillars -- narrow at the top, broad at the bottom -- that absorb light as well or even better than commercial thin-film solar cells, using far less semiconductor material and without the need for anti-reflective coating.

Journal: Nano Letters
Funder: DOE/US Department of Energy, National Science Foundation

NERSC supercomputing center breaks the petaflops barrier

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

The Department of Energy's National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center, already one of the world's leading centers for scientific productivity, is now home to the fifth most powerful supercomputer in the world and the second most powerful in the United States, according to the latest edition of the TOP500 list, the definitive ranking of the world's top computers.