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What's killing the coral reefs?

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A DNA microarray developed at Berkeley Lab may help scientists learn how to preserve coral, one of the ocean's most important denizens. The technology tracks changes in microbial populations that indicate coral disease.

Funder: National Science Foundation

A supercharged metal-ion generator

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have developed a powerful new kind of sputter process for the electronics industry -- and for other, more exotic applications, including use in outer space -- which deposits high-quality metal films in complex, three-dimensional nanoscale patterns at a rate that by one important measure is orders of magnitude greater than most existing systems.

Journal: Physical Review Letters
Funder: DOE/US Department of Energy

Domain walls that conduct electricity

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Domain walls that conduct electricity, mere billionths of a meter wide, could be the ultimate nanoscale feature for future electronics. Scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of California at Berkeley, working with colleagues in other institutions, have not only discovered conducting domain walls -- never seen before -- but learned how to write, erase, and manipulate them.

Journal: Nature Materials
Funder: DOE/US Department of Energy

Scientists publish complete genetic blueprint of key biofuels crop

DOE/Joint Genome Institute
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Scientists at the US Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute and several partner institutions have published, in the Jan. 29 edition of the journal Nature, the sequence and analysis of the complete genome of sorghum, a major food and fodder plant with high potential as a bioenergy crop. The genome data will aid scientists in optimizing sorghum and other crops not only for food and fodder use, but also for biofuels production.

Journal: Nature
Funder: DOE/US Department of Energy

Helium rains inside jovian planets

DOE/Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Models of how Saturn and Jupiter formed may soon take on a different look. By determining the properties of hydrogen-helium mixtures at the millions of atmospheres of pressure present in the interior of Saturn and Jupiter, physicists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have determined the temperature at a given pressure when helium becomes insoluble in dense metallic hydrogen.

Journal: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Plasmonic whispering gallery microcavity paves the way to future nanolasers

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

The principle behind whispering galleries -- where words spoken softly beneath a domed ceiling or in a vault can be clearly heard on the opposite side of the chamber -- has been used to achieve what could prove to be a significant breakthrough in the miniaturization of lasers. Ultrasmall lasers, i.e., nanoscale, promise a wide variety of intriguing applications, including superfast communications and data handling (photonics), and optical microchips for instant and detailed chemical analyses.

Journal: Nature
Funder: US Air Force Research Laboratory, National Science Foundation

Scientists solve longstanding astronomy mystery

DOE/Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

New research by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, University of California, Santa Cruz, and UC Berkeley has shown how a massive star can grow despite outward-flowing radiation pressure that exceeds the gravitational force pulling material inward. The study appears in the Jan. 15 online edition of Science Express.

Journal: Science

LLNL and Chevron sign fuel catalysis agreement

DOE/Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Business Announcement

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has signed a research agreement with Chevron to develop the next generation of catalysts for production of clean, more efficient fuels from crude oil.

A better way to make nanotubes

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

A doughnut-shaped molecule synthesized by Berkeley Lab scientists could enable the targeted development of carbon nanotubes, which hold promise for faster electronic devices and other advanced technologies.

Two LLNL scientists selected as AAAS Fellows

DOE/Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Grant and Award Announcement

Don Correll and Edward Moses of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory have been awarded the distinction of Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.