Japan's Scientists Fight Proposed Budget Cuts

Nothing rouses a research community like a threat to its funding, as could be seen this week here in Japan after a task force recommended deep cuts ... in the Ministry of Education's budget for fiscal year 2010. Grass-roots efforts have sprung up to defend individual projects, while community leaders are asserting the importance of research to Japan's future. HITOSHI MURAYAMA, a Berkeley Lab physicist, started an international e-mail campaign for the World Premier International Research Center Initiative, facing a possible 50% funding cut, that supports the Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe at the University of Tokyo, wh!
ich he directs. He says fellow Lab physicist George Smoot has promised to personally write to Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama. More>

Protein motor springs to action

Using a state-of-the-art protein crystallography beamline at Berkeley Lab's Advanced Light Source, researchers have captured a critical action shapshot of an enzyme that is vital to the survival of all biological cells. The atomic-level action of a remarkable class of ring-shaped protein motors has been uncovered by researchers with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) using a state-of-the-art protein crystallography beamline at the Advanced Light Source (ALS). These protein motors play pivotal roles in gene expression and replication, and are vital to the survival of all biological cells, as well as infectious agents, such as the human papillomavirus, which has been linked to cervical cancer. More>

Benchmarking Tool Aims to Help Semiconductor Facilities Improve Energy Efficiency

Scientists at the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, in cooperation with the International SEMATECH Manufacturing Initiative (ISMI), are releasing for beta testing a computer-based tool to help the world's semiconductor manufacturing facilities ("fabs") evaluate and improve their energy efficiency. More>

Protein Motor Caught in Action

Scientists at the US Department of Energy's (DOE) Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have recently managed to decipher the structure and modus operandi of a remarkable class of ring-shaped protein motors. The team used the state-of-the-art protein crystallography beamline at the Advanced Light Source (ALS), in order to gain deeper insight into the way this small structure functioned, which, in turn, would allow them to understand how certain proteins were formed. More>

A story on this topic also appeared in Nanowerk.

Chemist named director of Lawrence Berkeley lab

Paul Alivisatos, a chemist whose pioneering research seeks promising new low-cost sources of solar energy, was named the director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory on Thursday. The UC regents, meeting in Los Angeles, confirmed the appointment recommended by UC President Mark Yudof after a special search committee had screened 140 candidates. More>

Stories on this topic also appeared in the Contra Costa Times, San Francisco Business Times, and Nanowerk.

Berkeley Lab lends expertise to India to promote energy efficiency

Experts from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in the US are lending their expertise to India to promote energy efficiency. Were not there preaching they should emulate the United States and our experience, said Ashok Gadgil, acting director of the Environmental Energy Technologies Division. In fact, just the opposite: were suggesting they should leapfrog our experience. Indias energy consumption is significantly lower than that of the U.S. and Europe, so they have an opportunity now to grow in a sustainable way, he added. More>

A story on this topic also appeared in Laboratory Equipment.

IBM researchers announce “Blue Matter” - software platform for neuroscience modeling

At the SC09 supercomputing conference in Portland, Orelando, an interdisciplinary team of researchers at IBM Wednesday announced the so-called “Blue Matter” – a landmark software platform for neuroscience modeling. Presenting their ‘cognitive computing’-related paper at the conference, the researchers, from five universities and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, described their extraordinarily analogous cortical simulator, C2, which they claim can simulate a brain with nearly 4.5 percent the cerebral cortex capacity of a human brain. More>

A story on this also appeared in Alibaba News Channel.