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Common wisdom has it that protons only travel between molecules via hydrogen bonds: no hydrogen bonds, no proton transfer. Scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's Advanced Light Source and their colleagues at the University of Southern California investigating molecular components of RNA were surprised to find that protons can find ways to transfer even when hydrogen bonds are blocked. The discovery may open new opportunities for research in biology, environmental science, and green chemistry.

Researchers have created the first-ever system of "designer electrons" -- exotic variants of ordinary electrons with tunable properties that may ultimately lead to new types of materials and devices. Their first examples were hand-crafted, honeycomb-shaped structures inspired by graphene.

Joint BioEnergy Institute researchers have identified methyl ketones, chemical compounds known for their fragrance and flavor, as strong biofuel candidates. Methyl ketones produced from glucose by engineered E. coli yielded high cetane numbers -- a diesel fuel rating comparable to the octane number for gasoline.

The Daya Bay Reactor Neutrino Experiment collaboration has announced a precise measurement of the last of the unsolved neutrino "mixing angles," which determine how neutrinos oscillate among different types. The ground-breaking collaboration, led by the United States and China, is the most sensitive reactor neutrino experiment in the world. The results promise new insight into why enough ordinary matter survived after the big bang to form everything visible in the universe.

Scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have played leading roles in designing and operating ALPHA, the CERN experiment that was the first to capture and hold atoms of antihydrogen, a single antiproton orbited by a single positron. Now, by measuring antihydrogen's hyperfine structure, ALPHA has achieved another first in antimatter science with the very first measurements of the energy spectrum of an anti-atom.

Berkeley Lab Researchers are developing a promising treatment for safely decontaminating humans exposed to radioactive actinides from a major radiation exposure event, such as a nuclear reactor accident or a "dirty bomb" terrorist attack. The treatment, which can be administered as a pill that can result in the excretion of approximately 90-percent of the actinide contaminants within 24 hours, has been advanced through the initial pre-clinical phases.

Researchers working at the US Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory have used powerful X-rays to help decipher how certain natural antibiotics defy a longstanding set of chemical rules – a mechanism that has baffled organic chemists for decades.

A useful alloy of gold and silicon, called a eutectic, melts at a far lower temperature than either of its components. Until now, however, its odd behavior on the nanoscale has confounded researchers. By analyzing peculiar "nanoscale crop circles" formed from ultra-thin layers of gold on silicon, scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have discovered the eutectic alloy's unique properties, including its special promise for engineering and processing nanoscale materials.

LAMIS, a green chemistry laser spectroscopy technique from Berkeley Lab that is faster and less expensive than mass spectrometry and can be carried out from across vast distances. Among other applications, it can be used to date geological objects on Earth and beyond.