News By Location

Scientists have revealed never-before-seen details of how our brain sends rapid-fire messages between its cells. They mapped the 3-D atomic structure of a two-part protein complex that controls the release of signaling chemicals, called neurotransmitters, from brain cells. Understanding how cells release those signals in less than one-thousandth of a second could help launch a new wave of research on drugs for treating brain disorders.

Using physical chemistry methods to look at biology at the nanoscale, a Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) researcher has invented a new technology to image single molecules with unprecedented spectral and spatial resolution, thus leading to the first 'true-color' super-resolution microscope.

Working at the Molecular Foundry, Berkeley Lab researchers used their 'Campanile' nano-optical probe to make some surprising discoveries about molybdenum disulfide, a member of the transition metal dichalcogenides semiconductor family whose optoelectronic properties hold great promise for future nanoelectronic and photonic devices.

The installed price of distributed solar photovoltaic power systems in the United States continues to fall precipitously. This is according to the latest edition of Tracking the Sun, an annual PV cost tracking report produced by Berkeley Lab.

Wind energy pricing is at an all-time low, according to a new report released by the US Department of Energy and prepared by Berkeley Lab. The prices offered by wind projects to utility purchasers averaged under 2.5¢/kWh for projects negotiating contracts in 2014, spurring demand for wind energy.

To see proteins in their native environment, scientists can blast powerful X-rays at tiny volumes of proteins in solution. Resulting 'diffraction patterns' can then be interpreted to reconstruct information about the protein's molecular structure. An emerging technique called fluctuation X-ray scattering could provide more detail than traditional solution scattering. But a major limitation for FXS has been a lack of mathematical methods to efficiently interpret the data. That's where Berkeley Lab's M-TIP comes in.