News By Location

News from CA

Select a state to view local articles and features

Theorists reveal path to true muonium

DOE/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

True muonium, a long-theorized but never-seen atom, might be observed in future experiments, thanks to recent theoretical work by researchers at the US Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Arizona State University. True muonium was first theorized more than 50 years ago, but until now no one had uncovered an unambiguous method by which it could be created and observed.

Journal: Physical Review Letters
Funder: DOE/US Department of Energy, National Science Foundation

DOE JGI releases expanded version of Phytozome.net

DOE/Joint Genome Institute
Business Announcement

An enhanced version of Phytozome.net, a Web portal for comparative plant genomics geared to advance biofuel, food, feed and fiber research, has been released by the US Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute. Phytozome provides a central "hub" for Web access to a rapidly growing number of plant genomes, and includes tools for visualization of plant genomes and associated annotations, sequence analysis, and bulk, as well as targeted plant data retrieval.

Funder: DOE/US Department of Energy

The coming of biofuels: Study shows reducing gasoline emissions will benefit human health

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A "Life Cycle Impact Assessment" has shown that a biofuel eliminating even 10-percent of current gasoline pollutant emissions would have a substantial impact on human health in this country, especially in urban areas.

Funder: Energy Biosciences Institute
Meeting: Society for Industrial Microbiology

Berkeley Lab scientist co-leads breast cancer 'dream team'

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Grant and Award Announcement

Life Sciences Division Director Joe Gray of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory will co-lead a biological, genomic and computational study of breast cancer, with the goal of matching a tumor's genetic and molecular profile with the therapy that has the best chance of treating it.

Funder: Stand Up To Cancer, American Association for Cancer Research

Multiferroics -- making a switch the electric way

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Berkeley Lab researchers have demonstrated that electric fields can be used as on/off switches in multiferroic materials, a development that holds promise for future magnetic data storage and spintronic devices.

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

Cosmology's best standard candles get even better

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

The international Nearby Supernova Factory based at the US Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has discovered an efficient method for standardizing the intrinsic brightness and thus the distance to the cosmic milestones known as Type Ia supernovae. The discovery underlines the crucial importance of excellent supernovae spectra in the quest to understand dark energy.

Funder: DOE/US Department of Energy, CNRS, AAS, Berkeley-France Fund, National Science Foundation, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation

Integrated microbial genomes expert review goes primetime

DOE/Joint Genome Institute
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Scientists at the US Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute and the Biological Data Management and Technology Center at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have launched the Expert Review (ER) version of the Integrated Microbial Genomes (IMG) system. IMG ER supports and enhances the review and revision of annotations for both publicly available genome datasets and those newly released from private institutions.

Funder: DOE/US Department of Energy

Ocean carbon: A dent in the iron hypothesis

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Oceanographers in the Earth Sciences Division of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory analyzed data from deep-diving Carbon Explorer floats that reported continuously for over a year following the SOFeX iron-fertilization experiment in the Southern Ocean. Most of the carbon from lush plankton blooms, both artificially fertilized and natural, never reached the deep ocean.

Journal: Global Biogeochemical Cycles
Funder: DOE/US Department of Energy, US Office of Naval Research, Biological and Environmental Research Program, National Oceanographic Partnership Program

Blurring the lines between magic and science: Berkeley researchers create an 'invisibility cloak'

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Never mind Harry Potter, researchers at Berkeley have made an invisibility cloak of their own. A team led by Xiang Zhang of Berkeley Lab and UC Berkeley has taken a major step towards a true invisibility device with the creation of a carpet cloak from nanostructured silicon that conceals the presence of objects placed under it from optical detection.

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

Plants could override climate change effects on wildfires

DOE/Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Rising temperatures may lead to more tinder-dry vegetation, but that doesn't mean there will be a higher risk for wildfires in a particular area.

Journal: Ecological Monographs