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California's energy future: Aggressive efficiency and electrification needed to cut emissions

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

In the next 40 years, California's demand for energy is expected to double. So can it really reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050, as required by an executive order? Scientists from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory who co-wrote a new report on California's energy future are optimistic that the target can be achieved, though not without bold policy and behavioral changes as well as some scientific innovation.

Funder: California Energy Commission, the S.D. Bechtel Foundation and the California Air Resources Board

Atomic-scale structures of ribosome could help improve antibiotics

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

In a development that could lead to better antibiotics, scientists from several institutions including Berkeley Lab derived atomic-scale resolution structures of the cell's protein-making machine, the ribosome, at key stages of its job. The structures reveal that the ribosome's ability to rotate an incredible amount without falling apart is due to the never-before-seen springiness of molecular widgets that hold it together.

Journal: Science

Nuclear magnetic resonance with no magnets

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) is a powerful tool for chemical analysis and, in the form of magnetic resonance imaging, a valuable technique for medical diagnosis. But its applications have been limited by the need for big, expensive, superconducting magnets producing strong magnetic fields. Now scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and their colleagues have demonstrated NMR in a zero magnetic field without using any magnets at all.

Journal: Nature Physics
Funder: DOE/US Department of Energy, National Science Foundation

Sharpening the nanofocus

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Berkeley Lab researchers have developed an antenna-enhanced plasmonic sensing technique for the observation of single catalytic processes in nanoreactors, or the optical detection of low concentrations of biochemical agents and gases.

Journal: Nature Materials
Funder: DOE/US Department of Energy

New form of girl's best friend is lighter than ever

DOE/Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

By combining high pressure with high temperature, Livermore researchers have created a nanocyrstalline diamond aerogel that could improve the optics something as big as a telescope or as small as the lenses in eyeglasses.

Journal: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Same fungus, different strains

DOE/Joint Genome Institute
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Aspergillus niger is an integral player in the carbon cycle, it possesses an arsenal of enzymes that can be deployed in breaking down plant cell walls to free up sugars that can then be fermented and distilled into biofuel, a process being optimized by US Department of Energy researchers. This well-understood fungal fermentation process that could inform the development of a biorefinery where organic compounds replace the chemical building blocks normally derived from petroleum.

Journal: Genome Research
Funder: US Department of Energy's Office of Science

Striking the right balance: JBEI researchers counteract biofuel toxicity in microbes

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Researchers at the Joint BioEnergy Institute have created a library of microbial efflux pumps that reduce toxicity and boost production of biofuels in engineered strains of microbes. This library and the bioprospecting strategy behind it should serve as valuable new tools for the development of advanced biofuels and other areas of biotechnology as well.

Journal: Molecular Systems Biology
Funder: DOE/US Department of Energy

Laboratory scientists win 3 Office of Science Early Career Research Program awards

DOE/Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Grant and Award Announcement

Three Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory scientists have earned $7.5 million in funding through the Department of Energy Office of Science Early Career Research Program (ECRP).

JGI's Susannah Tringe receives prestigious $2.5M DOE Early Career Research Award

DOE/Joint Genome Institute
Grant and Award Announcement

The US Department of Energy Office of Science Early Career Research Program has awarded a $2.5M grant to DOE Joint Genome Institute scientist Susannah Green Tringe to conduct genomic studies of microbial communities (metagenomes) in restored wetlands around the San Francisco Bay-Delta region of California.

Funder: US Department of Energy's Office of Science

Proton dripping tests a fundamental force in nature

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A recent discovery of an extremely exotic, short-lived nucleus called fluorine-14 in laboratory experiments may indicate that scientists are gaining a better grasp of the rules of strong interaction.

Journal: Physics Letters B