Latest Berkeley Lab Stories

International Panel of Scientists Point the Way Forward Photosynthesis is one of nature’s finest miracles. Through the photosynthetic process, green plants absorb sunlight in their leaves and convert the photonic energy into chemical energy that is stored as sugars in the plants’ biomass. If we can learn from nature and develop an artificial version of photosynthesis we would have an energy source that is absolutely clean and virtually inexhaustible. “Solar energy is forecasted to...

A revolutionary conducting polymer enables the use of low-cost, high-energy silicon for the next generation of lithium-ion battery anodes Lithium-ion batteries are everywhere, in smart phones, laptops, an array of other consumer electronics, and the newest electric cars. Good as they are, they could be much better, especially when it comes to lowering the cost and extending the range of electric cars. To do that, batteries need to store a lot more energy. The anode is a critical...

Berkeley Lab Researchers Resolve Sub-nanometer Structure of Cascade, an Ally for Human Immune System A complex of proteins in the bacterium E.coli that plays a critical role in defending the microbe from viruses and other invaders has been discovered to have the shape of a seahorse by researchers with the U.S Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab). This discovery holds far more implications for your own health than you might think. In its...

The installed cost of solar photovoltaic (PV) power systems in the United States fell substantially in 2010 and into the first half of 2011, according to the latest edition of an annual PV cost tracking report released by the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab). The average installed cost of residential and commercial PV systems completed in 2010 fell by roughly 17 percent from the year before, and by an additional 11 percent within the first six...

High-performance networks speed data on explosion's early discovery A recent discovery by scientists at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the University of California, Berkeley, of a supernova within hours of its explosion was made possible by a specialized telescope, state-of-the-art computational tools – and the high-speed data transmissions network of UC San Diego's High-Performance Wireless and Research Education Network (HPWREN), as well as the Department...

Berkeley Lab scientists demonstrate a tunable graphene device, the first tool in a kit for putting terahertz light to work Long-wavelength terahertz light is invisible – it's at the farthest end of the far infrared – but it's useful for everything from detecting explosives at the airport to designing drugs to diagnosing skin cancer. Now, for the first time, scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the University of...

  Berkeley Lab researchers develop inexpensive technique for making high quality nanowire solar cells Solar or photovoltaic cells represent one of the best possible technologies for providing an absolutely clean and virtually inexhaustible source of energy to power our civilization. However, for this dream to be realized, solar cells need to be made from inexpensive elements using low-cost, less energy-intensive processing chemistry, and they need to efficiently and cost-competitively...

  A team of scientists has discovered a supernova closer to Earth than any of its kind in a generation. Astronomers believe the supernova they caught, which is about 21 million light years away from Earth, is just within hours of its explosion. Scientists around the world are scrambling to observe it with as many telescopes as possible, including the Hubble Space Telescope.  Andy Howell, adjunct professor of physics at University of California - Santa Barbara (UCSB) and staff...

Ability to probe deep below material surfaces should be boon for nanoscale devices The expression "beauty's only skin-deep" has often been applied to the chemistry of materials because so much action takes place at the surface. However, for many of the materials in today's high technologies, such as semiconductors and superconductors, once a device is fabricated it is the electronic structures below the surface, in the bulk of the material or in buried layers, that determine its...

Berkeley Lab Scientist's j5 program a hitDNA construction, also known as DNA cloning or recombinant DNA technology "“ among a host of other terms "“ is one of the principal tools of modern biotechnology, used for a wide variety of purposes, including genetic studies, medical research, and the development of advanced biofuels.  A number of software programs make the process faster and more efficient, but Nathan Hillson, a biochemist at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Joint...