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6-Jan-2016

Renewable energy for state renewable portfolio standards yielded sizable benefits

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A new study estimates that billions in dollars in benefits come from reduced greenhouse gas emissions and from reductions in other air pollution for state renewable portfolio standard policies operating in 2013. RPS policies require utilities or other electricity providers to meet a minimum portion of their load with eligible forms of renewable electricity.

Funder: US Department of Energy's Strategic Programs Office within the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy

6-Jan-2016

Lab researcher helps team that may have a key solution to reducing carbon dioxide emissions

DOE/Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Business Announcement

Meeting the Paris Climate Agreement goal of limiting the increase in the global average temperature to well below two degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial levels will require increased use of renewable energy and reducing the CO2 intensity of fossil energy use.

4-Jan-2016

Q&A: Biologist describes milestone toward a universal flu vaccine

DOE/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

Scientists from The Scripps Research Institute and the Crucell Vaccine Institute have now designed a protein fragment called mini-HA that stimulates the production of antibodies against a variety of influenza viruses. A key part of the work took place at the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource, a DOE Office of Science User Facility at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, where the scientists used a technique called X-ray crystallography to look at the atomic structure of the mini-HA at each stage of its development.

4-Jan-2016

How to train your bacterium

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Berkeley Lab researchers are using the bacterium Moorella thermoacetica to perform photosynthesis and also to synthesize semiconductor nanoparticles in a hybrid artificial photosynthesis system for converting sunlight into valuable chemical products.

Journal: Science
Funder: DOE/US Department of Energy

22-Dec-2015

Cool roofs in China offer enhanced benefits during heat waves

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

It is well established that white roofs can mitigate the urban heat island effect, reflecting the sun's energy back into space and reducing a city's temperature. In a new study of Guangzhou, China, Lab researchers Dev Millstein, Ronnen Levinson, and Pablo Rosado working with Chinese scientists found that during a heat wave, the effect is significantly more pronounced.

Journal: Environmental Science & Technology
Funder: DOE/US Department of Energy

22-Dec-2015

Nature's masonry: The first steps in how thin protein sheets form polyhedral shells

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Scientists have for the first time viewed how bacterial proteins self-assemble into thin sheets and begin to form the walls of the outer shell for nano-sized polyhedral compartments that function as specialized factories. The new insight may aid scientists who seek to tap this natural origami by designing novel compartments or using them as scaffolding for new types of nanoscale architectures, such as drug-delivery systems.

Journal: Nano Letters
Funder: DOE/US Department of Energy, National Institutes of Health

21-Dec-2015

New hybrid electrolyte for solid-state lithium batteries

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Scientists at the US Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have developed a novel electrolyte for use in solid-state lithium batteries that overcomes many of the problems that plague other solid electrolytes while also showing signs of being compatible with next-generation cathodes.

Journal: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Funder: DOE/US Department of Energy

17-Dec-2015

Some like it hot: Simulating single particle excitations

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Understanding and manipulating plasmons is important for their potential use in photovoltaics, solar cell water splitting, and sunlight-induced fuel production from CO2. Researchers with Berkeley Lab have used a real-time numerical algorithm to study both the plasmon and hot carrier within the same framework. That is critical for understanding how long a particle stays excited, and whether there is energy backflow from hot carrier to plasmon.

Journal: Nature Communications
Funder: Joint Center for Artificial Synthesis, Department of Energy's Office of Science

16-Dec-2015

New weapon in the fight against breast cancer

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Berkeley Lab researchers have developed the first clinically-relevant mouse model of human breast cancer to successfully express functional estrogen receptor positive adenocarcinomas. This model should be a powerful tool for testing therapies for aggressive ER+ breast cancers and for studying luminal cancers -- the most prevalent and deadliest forms of breast cancer.

Funder: NIH/National Cancer Institute

16-Dec-2015

Diamonds may be the key to future NMR/MRI technologies

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Berkeley Lab researchers have demonstrated that diamonds may hold the key to the future for nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technologies. NMR/MRI signals were significantly strengthened through the hyperpolarization of carbon-13 nuclei in diamond using microwaves.

Journal: Nature Communications
Funder: US Department of Energy's Office of Science