Category: Science News

When it comes to adopting heavy-duty electric trucks, battery limitations are often seen as the main barrier. A new analysis shows the lack of appropriate policies around incentives, infrastructure, and pricing that prevent widespread electrification of commercial trucking fleets. https://newscenter.lbl.gov/2021/03/16/commercial-truck-electrification-is-within-reach/

In this Q&A, Berkeley Lab bioscientist Paul Adams, who leads the development of a widely used data analysis software, discusses structural biology’s role in vaccine and antiviral research. https://newscenter.lbl.gov/2021/03/15/qanda-molecular-imaging-covid19/

The Department of Energy has formally approved a key milestone in the High-Luminosity LHC Accelerator Upgrade Project being carried out at eight U.S. institutions, including the Lab. https://newscenter.lbl.gov/2021/03/12/us-magnet-development-project-for-cern-particle-collider-upgrade-moves-forward/

Biosciences researchers performed hundreds of genome-wide fitness assays on Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron and identified new functions for 40 proteins, including antibiotic tolerance, polysaccharide degradation, and colonization of the GI tract in germ-free mice. https://biosciences.lbl.gov/2021/03/08/new-protein-functions-from-beneficial-human-gut-bacterium/

The deadly events in Japan’s Fukushima region drew upon Berkeley Lab’s expertise in radiation measurements and led to the creation of long-term radiation-monitoring programs, both locally and in Japan, including drone -and helicopter-based surveys, and vehicle-based and hand-carried measurements. https://newscenter.lbl.gov/2021/03/11/berkeley-labs-advanced-monitoring-capabilities-still-in-use-10-years-after-fukushima-earthquake-and-nuclear-power-plant-disaster/

Researchers at Berkeley Lab and UC Berkeley have found a new way to harness properties of lightwaves that could radically increase the amount of information that can be multiplexed, or simultaneously transmitted, by a coherent light source. The technique promises new advances in several areas. https://newscenter.lbl.gov/2021/03/04/new-optical-antennas-could-overcome-data-limits/

Researchers recently published a PET imaging study showing that the presence of aggregates of the protein tau in anterior temporal regions of the brains of cognitively normal older adults predicts Alzheimer disease related memory impairment and could be used as a marker of early disease progression. https://newscenter.lbl.gov/2021/03/04/tau-deposits-alzheimers/

A recent Lab report describes a new hybrid approach for estimating the economic costs of widespread, long-duration power interruptions, such as the one that occurred recently in Texas. Customer survey responses are used to create a model that calibrates the direct and indirect costs of these events. https://newscenter.lbl.gov/2021/03/04/assessing-the-costs-of-major-power-outages/