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New clues about the risk of cancer from low-dose radiation

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Berkeley Lab scientists studied mice and found their risk of mammary cancer from low-dose radiation depends a great deal on their genetic makeup. They also learned key details about how genes and the cells immediately surrounding a tumor (also called the tumor microenvironment) affect cancer risk.

Journal: Scientific Reports

Scientists gather at SLAC to prepare for Large Synoptic Survey Telescope

DOE/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

When the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope begins in 2022 to image the entire southern sky from a mountaintop in Chile, it will produce the widest, deepest and fastest views of the night sky ever observed -- and a flood of 6 million gigabytes of data per year that are expected to provide new insights into dark matter, dark energy and other cosmic mysteries.

Biofuel proteomics

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

JBEI researchers used advanced proteomic techniques to identify 1,750 unique proteins in shoots of switchgrass, a native prairie grass viewed as one of the most promising of all the plants that could be used to produce advanced biofuels.

Journal: PROTEOMICS

Between micro and macro, Berkeley Lab mathematicians model fluids at the mesoscale

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

The math whizzes at the Berkeley Lab's Center for Computational Sciences and Engineering are at the forefront of a neglected corner of the scientific world, building mathematical models for fluids at the mesoscale. The little-known field of fluctuating hydrodynamics could have enormous impacts in applications ranging from batteries to drug delivery to microfluidic devices.

Characterizing permafrost microbes in a changing climate

DOE/Joint Genome Institute
Peer-Reviewed Publication

With global temperatures projected to rise over the coming centuries, the frozen Arctic soils may thaw completely, potentially causing the largest contribution of carbon transferred to the atmosphere by a single terrestrial process. To better characterize the microbial activities in the permafrost, scientists from the US Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute reported on the application of multiple molecular technologies -- 'omics' -- in a paper published online March 4, 2015, in Nature.

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

Metabolic path to improved biofuel production

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Researchers at the Energy Biosciences Institute have found a way to increase the production of fuels and other chemicals from biomass fermented by yeast without the need of environmentally harsh pre-treatments or expensive enzyme cocktails.

Funder: Energy Biosciences Institute

New research could lead to more efficient electrical energy storage

DOE/Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Lawrence Livermore researchers have identified electrical charge-induced changes in the structure and bonding of graphitic carbon electrodes that may one day affect the way energy is stored.

Journal: Advanced Materials

A new level of earthquake understanding

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Working at Berkeley Lab's Advanced Light Source, researchers studied quartz from the San Andreas Fault at the microscopic scale, the scale at which earthquake-triggering stresses originate. The results could one day lead to a better understanding of earthquake events.

Journal: Geology
Funder: US Department of Energy's Office of Science

Giant virus revealed in 3-D using X-ray laser

DOE/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

For the first time, researchers have produced a 3-D image revealing part of the inner structure of an intact, infectious virus, using a unique X-ray laser at the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. The virus, called Mimivirus, is in a curious class of 'giant viruses' discovered just over a decade ago.

Unlocking the key to immunological memory in bacteria

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A powerful genome editing tool may soon become even more powerful. Berkeley Lab researchers have unlocked the key to how bacteria are able to 'steal' genetic information from viruses and other foreign invaders for use in their own immunological memory system.

Journal: Nature
Funder: National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health