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Dark Energy Instrument's Lenses See the Night Sky for the First Time

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

On April 1 the dome of the Mayall Telescope near Tucson, Arizona, opened to the night sky, and starlight poured through the assembly of six large lenses that were carefully packaged and aligned for the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument project.

Breakthrough study of cell signaling holds promise for immune research and beyond

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

For the first time ever, scientists have imaged the process by which an individual immune system molecule is switched on in response to a signal from the environment, leading to the critical discovery that the activation process involves hundreds of proteins suddenly coming together to form a linked network through a process known as a phase transition.

Journal: Science

A mile-long graveyard of Jurassic fossils sparks a new international science collaboration

DOE/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

The Children's Museum of Indianapolis announced plans this week for Mission Jurassic, a project that will support paleontological excavation of a fossil-rich plot of land in northern Wyoming. The project will bring together scientists from around the world, including the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, to reveal dramatic new secrets about the world of millions of years ago.

The best topological conductor yet: Spiraling crystal is the key to exotic discovery

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A team of researchers working at Berkeley Lab has discovered the strongest topological conductor yet, in the form of thin crystal samples that have a spiral-staircase structure. The team's result is reported in the March 20 edition of the journal Nature.

Journal: Nature

Bright skies for plant-based jet fuels

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

With an estimated daily fuel demand of more than 5 million barrels per day, the global aviation sector is incredibly energy-intensive and almost entirely reliant on petroleum-based fuels. However, a new analysis by Berkeley Lab shows that sustainable plant-based bio-jet fuels could provide a competitive alternative to conventional fuels if current development and scale-up initiatives continue to push ahead successfully.

Journal: Energy & Environmental Science

Engineering living 'scaffolds' for building materials

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Researchers at DOE's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have developed a platform that uses living cells as 'scaffolds' for building self-assembled composite materials. The technology could open the door to self-healing materials and other advanced applications in bioelectronics, biosensing, and smart materials.

Journal: ACS Synthetic Biology

Uncovering uncultivated microbes in the human gut

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A human's health is shaped both by environmental factors and the body's interactions with the microbiome, particularly in the gut. Genome sequences are critical for characterizing individual microbes and understanding their functional roles. However, previous studies have estimated that only 50 percent of species in the gut microbiome have a sequenced genome, in part because many species have not yet been cultivated for study.

Journal: Nature

Researchers watch shock waves travel through silicon

DOE/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

When silicon, an element abundant in the Earth's crust, is subjected to extreme heat and pressure, an initial 'elastic' shock wave travels through the material, leaving it unchanged, followed by an 'inelastic' shock wave that irreversibly transforms the structure of the material. Using a new technique, researchers were able to directly watch and image this process for the first time.

A new way to watch atoms move in a single atomic sheet

DOE/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

Scientists have found a new way to use some of the world's most powerful X-rays to watch how atoms move at ultrafast speeds within a single atomic sheet.

Nature's own biorefinery

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

New research from Berkeley Lab shows how an insect common to the Eastern U.S., the long-horned passalid beetle, has a hardy digestive tract with microbes to thank for turning its woody diet into energy, food for its young, and nutrients for forest growth. These insights into how the beetle and its distinct microbiome have co-evolved provide a roadmap for the production of affordable, nature-derived fuels and bioproducts.

Journal: Nature Microbiology
Funder: Department of Energy

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