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Life's smallest motor, cargo carrier of the cells, moves like a seesaw

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Life's smallest motor, a protein that shuttles cargo within cells and helps cells divide, does so by rocking up and down like a seesaw according to new high-resolution snapshots of a protein called kinesin. The result is the closest look yet at the structural changes kinesin proteins undergo as they ferry molecules.

Journal: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Laboratory research team awarded AAAS Newcomb Cleveland Prize

DOE/Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Grant and Award Announcement

A Laboratory researcher's paper published in November 2008 is a co-winner of this year's American Association for the Advancement of Science Newcomb Cleveland Prize. The paper is one of two outstanding papers published in Science from June 1, 2008 through May 31, 2009.

Meeting: 2010 AAAS Annual Meeting

Extreme jets take new shape

DOE/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Jets of particles streaming from black holes in far-away galaxies operate differently than previously thought, according to a study published today in Nature. The new study reveals that most of the jet's light -- gamma rays, the universe's most energetic form of light -- is created much farther from the black hole than expected and suggests a more complex shape for the jet.

Journal: Nature
Funder: DOE/US Department of Energy, NASA

Lawrence Livermore National Lab, Navistar work to increase semi-truck fuel efficiency

DOE/Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Business Announcement

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has teamed with Navistar Inc., NASA's Ames Research Center, the US Air Force and industry to develop and test devices for reducing the aerodynamic drag of semi-trucks. The devices could increase fuel efficiency by as much as 12 percent and could prevent 36 million tons of carbon dioxide from being released into the atmosphere annually, roughly the same amount of CO2 that is emitted from four 1-gigawatt power plants every year.

LLNL research at Marshall Islands could lead to resettlement

DOE/Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Through Laboratory soil cleanup methods, residents of Bikini, Enjebi and Rongelap Islands -- where nuclear tests were conducted on the atolls and in the ocean surrounding them in the 1950s -- could have lower radioactive levels than the average background dose for residents in the United States and Europe.

First wild grass species and model system for energy crops sequenced

DOE/Joint Genome Institute
Peer-Reviewed Publication

As the US Department of Energyworks toward developing sustainable sources of clean renewable energy, perennial grasses have emerged as major candidates for the commercial production of cellulosic biofuels from feedstocks. However, little is known about the specific biological traits of the grasses that might contribute to their usefulness for energy production, in part because such grasses typically have long lifecycles and possess large, complex genomes, making them difficult to study.

Journal: Nature
Funder: US Department of Energy's Office of Science
Meeting: 2010 Genomic Science Contractor-Grantee and Knowledgebase Workshop

Study reveals new details on the dangers of third-hand smoke

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Nicotine in third-hand smoke, the residue from tobacco smoke that clings to virtually all surfaces long after a cigarette has been extinguished, reacts with the common indoor air pollutant nitrous acid to produce dangerous carcinogens. This new potential health hazard was revealed in a multi-institutional study led by researchers with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Journal: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Funder: University of California

Madly mapping the universe

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

It takes special software to map the universe from noisy data. Berkeley Lab scientists developed a code called MADmap to do just that for the cosmic microwave background, then posted it on the web for other interested sky mappers. Scientists probing the sky with the PACS instrument aboard the Herschel satellite have adapted MADmap to make spectacular images of the infrared universe.

Funder: DOE/US Department of Energy, European Space Agency, NASA

Black carbon a significant factor in melting of Himalayan glaciers

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

The fact that glaciers in the Himalayan mountains are thinning is not disputed. However, few researchers have attempted to rigorously examine and quantify the causes. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory scientist Surabi Menon set out to isolate the impacts of the most commonly blamed culprit -- greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide -- from other particles in the air that may be causing the melting.

Journal: Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics
Funder: DOE/US Department of Energy

Microbes produce fuels directly from biomass

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Researchers with the Joint BioEnergy Institute have developed a microbe that can produce an advanced biofuel fuel directly from biomass. Deploying the tools of synthetic biology, the JBEI researchers engineered a strain of E. coli bacteria to produce biodiesel and other important chemicals derived from fatty acids. JBEI is a DOE Bioenergy Research center led by Berkeley Lab.

Journal: Nature
Funder: LS9, University of California