News By Location

News from CA

Select a state to view local articles and features

Going underground to monitor carbon dioxide

DOE/Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A technique originally, applied to monitor the flow of contaminants into shallow groundwater supplies, has been repurposed to monitor carbon dioxide pumped deep underground for storage.

Following the sugar right from the start

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Berkeley researchers successfully attached imaging probes to glycans -- the sugar molecules that are abundant on the surfaces of living cells -- in the embryos of zebrafish less than seven hours after fertilization. This new technique enables scientists to study the physiological changes cells undergo during embryogenesis without invading and doing damage to the embryos.

Journal: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Funder: National Institutes of Health

The search for improved carbon sponges picks up speed

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A new class of materials with a record-shattering internal surface area may have the right stuff to efficiently strip carbon dioxide from a power plant's exhaust. Berkley Lab scientists hope to find out soon.

DOE JGI produces new QC tool for microbial genomes

DOE/Joint Genome Institute
Peer-Reviewed Publication

To assist in checking the quality of the microbial genomic DNA sequences generated before they are submitted to the federally funded public archive GenBank, the DOE Joint Genome Institute has introduced a quality-control tool known as the Gene Prediction IMprovement Pipeline or GenePRIMP.

Journal: Nature Methods

Putting teeth into forensic science

DOE/Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

In a large natural disaster, such as the Haitian earthquake earlier this year, or in an unsolved homicide case, knowing the birth date of an individual can guide forensic investigators to the correct identity among a large number of possible victims. Livermore researcher Bruce Buchholz and colleagues at the Karolinska Institute are looking at victim's teeth to determine how old they are at the time of death.

Journal: Molecular & Cellular Proteomics

Study raises new concerns about radiation and breast cancer

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A new study on human breast cells shows that even when radiation exposure does no direct genetic damage, it can alter the environment surrounding the cells so that future cells are more likely to become cancerous. This is further evidence for the treatment of cancer as a "systems biology" disease.

Journal: Breast Cancer Research
Funder: NIH/National Cancer Institute, NASA

Biofuel combustion chemistry more complex than petroleum-based fuels

DOE/Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Understanding the key elements of biofuel combustion is an important step toward insightful selection of next-generation alternative fuels.

Journal: Angewandte Chemie

Untangling the quantum entanglement behind photosynthesis

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Berkeley reserchers have carried out the first study in which the quantum phenomenon known as "entanglement" has been observed and characterized in a real biological system. Quantum entanglement is thought to be a critical factor behind the ability of green plants and certain bacteria, through photosynthesis, to transfer energy from sunlight and initiate its conversion into chemical energy with near 100-percent efficiency.

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

X-rays reveal chemical link between birds and dinosaurs

DOE/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Using the bright X-ray beam of the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource, located at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, an international team of researchers has found that a 150-million-year-old "dinobird" fossil, long thought to contain nothing but fossilized bone and rock, has been hiding remnants of the animal's original chemistry.

Journal: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

LLNL receives Recovery Act funding for carbon capture technology

DOE/Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Grant and Award Announcement

New and existing coal-fired power plants could more easily capture carbon dioxide emissions with help from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory researchers.