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Some assembly required: Scientists piece together the largest US-based dark matter experiment

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Most of the remaining components needed to fully assemble an underground dark matter-search experiment called LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) arrived at the project's South Dakota home during a rush of deliveries in June. When complete, LZ will be the largest, most sensitive US-based experiment yet that is designed to directly detect dark matter particles.

Light dark matter is a thousand times less likely to bump into regular matter

DOE/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

A team led by scientists from the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Stanford University has narrowed down how strongly dark matter particles might interact with normal matter. Based on the number and distribution of small satellite galaxies seen orbiting our Milky Way, the team found this interaction to be at least a thousand times weaker than the strongest interaction allowed by previous astrophysical analyses.

New sensor could shake up earthquake response efforts

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

An optical sensor developed at Berkeley Lab could speed up the time it takes to evaluate whether buildings are safe to occupy after a major earthquake. After four years of extensive peer-reviewed research and simulative testing, the Discrete Diode Position Sensor (DDPS) will be deployed for the first time this summer in a multi-story building at Berkeley Lab -- which sits adjacent to the Hayward Fault, considered one of the most dangerous faults in the United States.

Funder: DOE/US Department of Energy

SLAC makes 'electron camera' available to scientists worldwide for ultrafast science

DOE/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

Over the past few years, the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory has developed a new tool to visualize physical and chemical processes with outstanding clarity: an ultra-high-speed "electron camera" capable of tracking atomic motions in a broad range of materials in real time. Starting this week, the lab has made this tool available to researchers worldwide.

Epic research endeavor reveals cause of deadly digestive disease in children

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Nearly 10 years ago, a group of Israeli clinical researchers emailed Berkeley Lab geneticist Len Pennacchio to ask for his team's help in solving the mystery of a rare inherited disease that caused extreme, and sometimes fatal, chronic diarrhea in children. Now, following an arduous investigative odyssey that expanded our understanding of regulatory sequences in the human genome, the multinational scientific group has announced the discovery of the genetic explanation for this disease.

Journal: Nature

Can't take the heat? 'Cool walls' can reduce energy costs, pollution

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

A study by scientists at Berkeley Lab modeled several different types and ages of homes, retail stores, and office buildings in cities across California and the US and found that sunlight-reflecting 'cool' exterior walls can save as much or more energy than sunlight-reflecting cool roofs in many places.

3 Sky Surveys Completed in Preparation for Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

It took three sky surveys - conducted at telescopes in two continents, covering one-third of the visible sky, and requiring almost 1,000 observing nights - to prepare for a new project that will create the largest 3D map of the universe's galaxies and glean new insights about the universe's accelerating expansion.

With little training, machine-learning algorithms can uncover hidden scientific knowledge

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have shown that an algorithm with no training in materials science can scan the text of millions of papers and uncover new scientific knowledge. They collected 3.3 million abstracts of published materials science papers and fed them into an algorithm called Word2vec. By analyzing relationships between words the algorithm was able to predict discoveries of new thermoelectric materials years in advance and suggest as-yet unknown materials as candidates for thermoelectric materials.

Journal: Nature

Science snapshots: A toxin antidote in frogs, atomic motion in 4D, and better biofuels

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

In new research from Berkeley Lab and our collaborators, scientists discovered how a protein produced by bullfrogs inhibits the deadly neurotoxin involved in red tide events, glimpsed how atoms move in four dimensions, and identified a bacterial gene that could be engineered into biofuel-producing microbes to greatly boost process efficiency.

Journal: Nature

First snapshots of trapped CO2 molecules shed new light on carbon capture

DOE/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Scientists from the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Stanford University have taken the first images of carbon dioxide molecules within a molecular cage -- part of a highly porous nanoparticle known as a MOF, or metal-organic framework, with great potential for separating and storing gases and liquids.

Journal: Matter

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