Category: Science News

Are you developing technology that might have commercial value? DOE requires all inventions to be disclosed for patent filing consideration. IPO has now updated its online invention disclosure forms to be more user-friendly, while still meeting DOE requirements. Disclose your inventions here. https://ipo.lbl.gov/discloseinventions/

A team of Molecular Foundry researchers designed and made a nanocrystal system in which excitons can move a record distance of 200 nanometers, an order of magnitude larger than what was previously possible. They also built a custom microscope that can directly image the movement of excitons. https://foundry.lbl.gov/2020/08/04/seeing-is-believing/

A new Physics Frontier Center at UC Berkeley, supported by the National Science Foundation, expands the existing capabilities on campus and at the Lab in modeling one of the most violent events known in the universe: the merger of neutron stars and its explosive aftermath. https://newscenter.lbl.gov/2020/08/17/new-nsf-physics-frontier-center-will-focus-on-neutron-star-modeling-in-gravitational-wave-era/

Last month, an update on the global methane budget was published as part of the Global Carbon Project. Read this Q&A with Berkeley Lab scientist William Riley on the challenges in estimating methane emissions from wetlands and how nuanced computer models may help. https://newscenter.lbl.gov/2020/08/13/global-methane-emissions-soaring-but-how-much-was-due-to-wetlands/

Over the next five years, the Department of Energy will provide $57.5 million for two Scientific Discovery through Advanced Computing Institutes, with Esmond Ng as director of FASTMath and Lenny Oliker as deputy director of RAPIDS2. Click here to learn more. https://cs.lbl.gov/news-media/news/2020/berkeley-lab-staff-hold-leadership-roles-in-scidac-institutes/

California’s winter precipitation is expected to become 50% more variable by century’s end, based on a Berkeley Lab-led study of the impact of future greenhouse gas emissions on the Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO), a rainfall pattern that covers a quarter of the globe. https://newscenter.lbl.gov/2020/08/10/scientists-say-expect-more-rainfall-variability-for-california/

Heat waves are becoming a more regular occurrence across the country. Iain Walker, Leader of the Residential Building Systems Group at Berkeley Lab, has suggestions on efficient use of your air conditioner. Click here to read the full interview. https://newscenter.lbl.gov/2020/08/11/keeping-cool-efficiently-during-heat-waves/

A group of more than 260 scientists has produced one of the most stringent tests to date for the existence of theorized sterile neutrinos, which are theorized particles related to the three known types, or “flavors,” of neutrinos but that are not directly detectable. https://newscenter.lbl.gov/2020/08/10/international-physicists-join-forces-in-hunt-for-sterile-neutrinos/

Berkeley Lab bioscientists are part of a nationwide research project, called ENCODE, which has generated a detailed atlas of the molecular elements that regulate our genes. This enormous resource will help all human biology research moving forward. https://newscenter.lbl.gov/2020/08/05/interpreting-genome-instruction-manual/