Tag Archives: berkeley lab

Nanocrystals Go Bare: Berkeley Lab Researchers Strip Material’s Tiny Tethers

By Guest PostDecember 12, 2011Scienceanna llordes, april sawvel, berkeley lab, brett helms, carbon hydrogen bonds, chemical solution, delia milliron, devices, diodes, electronic conductivity, energy storage, environments, evelyn rosen, hydrocarbon, ink jet printer, lawrence berkeley national laboratory, ligand free nanocrystal, ligands, meerwein salt, metal oxides, metallic, molecular foundry, molecular vibrations, naked nanocrystals, nano ir, nanocrystal, nanoscale infrared spectroscopy, orders of magnitude, organic compound, organic ligands, organometallic molecules, oxidizing agents, photovoltaics, raffaella buonsanti, selenide nanocrystal, semiconductors, smart windows, solar fuels, spin, spray coating, stripping nanocrystals, strong acids, supercapacitor materials, surface ligands, tether like molecules, triethyloxonium tetrafluoroborate, universal technique, unstripped nanocrystal films, variety of applications

Researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have discovered a universal technique for stripping nanocrystals of tether-like molecules that until now have posed as obstacles for their integration into devices. These findings could provide scientists with a clean slate for developing new nanocrystal-based technologies for energy storage, photovoltaics, smart windows, solar fuels and light-emitting diodes.

Nanocrystals are typically prepared in a chemical solution using stringy molecules called ligands chemically tethered to their surface. These hydrocarbon-based or organometallic molecules help stabilize the nanocrystal, but also form an undesirable insulating shell around the structure. Efficient and clean removal of these surface ligands is challenging and has eluded researchers for decades. (more…)

Today’s Severe Drought, Tomorrow’s Normal

By Guest PostDecember 7, 2011Environmentatmospheric greenhouse gases, balance, benjamin santer, berkeley lab, canada, century, climate models, david easterling, drought, dust bowl, evapotranspiration, global climate, jay lawrimore, Mexico, michael wehner, noaa, normal occurrence, North America, oklahoma, precipitation, richard heim, russell vose, severe drought conditions, simulations, state-of-the-art, texas, united states, warming planet

*Berkeley Lab scientists part of team that analyzed 19 state-of-the-art climate models.*

While the worst drought since the Dust Bowl of the 1930s grips Oklahoma and Texas, scientists are warning that what we consider severe drought conditions in North America today may be normal for the continent by the mid-21^st century, due to a warming planet.

A team of scientists from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) came to this conclusion after analyzing 19 different state-of-the-art climate models. Looking at the balance between precipitation and evapotranspiration—the movement of water from soil to air—they found that no matter how rainfall patterns change over the next 100 years, a warming planet leads to drought. Their results were published in the December 2011 issue of the American Meteorological Society’s Journal of Hydrometerology. (more…)

On the Road to Plasmonics with Silver Polyhedral Nanocrystals

By Guest PostNovember 26, 2011Scienceasaph widmer cooper, beam of light, berkeley lab, cuboctahedra, exotic superlattices, helical motifs, joel henzie, michael grünwald, microscopes, nanophotonics, nanoscale objects, octahedral, peidong yang, phenomenon, phillip geissler, photocatalysis, plasmonics, polyhedral nanocrystals, polyol synthesis technique, silver, silver nanocrystals, silver polyhedral crystals, supercrystals

*Berkeley Lab Researchers Find Simpler Approach to Making Plasmonic Materials*

The question of how many polyhedral nanocrystals of silver can be packed into millimeter-sized supercrystals may not be burning on many lips but the answer holds importance for one of today’s hottest new high-tech fields – plasmonics! Researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) may have opened the door to a simpler approach for the fabrication of plasmonic materials by inducing polyhedral-shaped silver nanocrystals to self-assemble into three-dimensional supercrystals of the highest possible density. (more…)

Berkeley Lab Researchers Create First of Its Kind Gene Map of Sulfate-reducing Bacterium: Work Holds Implications for Future Bioremediation Efforts

By Guest PostNovember 13, 2011Environment, Scienceadam arkin, aindrila mukhopadhyay, anaerobic bacterium, bacteria, berkeley lab, biofouling, bioremediation, d vulgaris, dap chip, department of energy, desulfovibrio vulgaris, dna affinity purified chip, doe, ecological niches, Environment, environmental signals, eric luning, five senses, generate enzymes, genetic secrets of a bacterium, genomic dna, how bacteria respond to environmental changes, lara rajeev, lawrence berkeley national laboratory, mapping of the genes, microbial systems, model organism, molecular signaling systems, morgan price, network of a microbe, new gene map, non hazardous forms, oil drilling, paramvir dehal, potential for removing toxic and radioactive waste, researchers, sight, smell, sound, sulfate reducing bacteria, sulfate reducing bacterium, taste, touch, toxic heavy metals and radioactive nuclides

Critical genetic secrets of a bacterium that holds potential for removing toxic and radioactive waste from the environment have been revealed in a study by researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab). The researchers have provided the first ever map of the genes that determine how these bacteria interact with their surrounding environment.

“Knowing how bacteria respond to environmental changes is crucial to our understanding of how their physiology tracks with consequences that are both good, such as bioremediation, and bad, such as biofouling,” says Aindrila Mukhopadhyay, a chemist with Berkeley Lab’s Physical Biosciences Division, who led this research. “We have reported the first systematic mapping of the genes in a sulfate-reducing bacterium – Desulfovibrio vulgaris – that regulate the mechanisms by which the bacteria perceive and respond to environmental signals.” (more…)

Berkeley Lab to Build Cost Model for Fuel Cells

By Guest PostNovember 2, 2011Scienceadam weber, analytica, ballard power systems, benefits of fuel cells, berkeley lab, carbon cycle 2, chris marnay, coal, eric masanet, fossil fuels, fuel cell design, fuel cell manufacturer, fuel cells, geographic factors, human health benefits, ideal energy source, jim mcmahon, julie chao, kilowatts, lawrence berkeley national laboratory, max wei, model, power from hydroelectricity, powerful public tool, software platform, university of california, washington state, west virginia

*A $2-million award from DOE will help bring down the cost of next-generation fuel cells.*

Fuel cells seem like an ideal energy source—they’re clean, efficient, silent and don’t require transmission lines. The hitch? They can be costly. Now scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) hope to change that equation by building a sophisticated cost model that will take into account the total cost of ownership.

With a $2-million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy, a team of scientists led by Eric Masanet will perform a detailed assessment of fuel cell design and manufacturing that takes into account both intrinsic and external benefits. The aim is to quantify not only traditional manufacturing costs but also benefits that may previously have been overlooked and may ultimately bring down the cost of fuel cells. (more…)

Berkeley Lab Scientists Develop New Tool for the Study of Spatial Patterns in Living Cells

By Guest PostNovember 2, 2011Scienceartificial membranes, berkeley lab, biology is a game of nanometers, breast cancer cells, cancer and the immune system, cancer metastasis, cellular molecules, chemical signals, chemist, fluid bilayer of lipid molecules, football, game of inches, geoff o donoghue, gold nanoparticles, golden membranes, hhmi, howard hughes medical institute, impact of spatial patterns on living cells, jay groves, lawrence berkeley national laboratory, mda mb 231, michael coyle, nanoparticles, natural lipid bilayer membranes, qian xu, sara triffo, spacing of proteins, substrate of solid silica, t cell immunology, theobald lohmuller

*Golden Membranes Pave the Way for a Better Understanding of Cancer and the Immune System*

Football has often been called “a game of inches,” but biology is a game of nanometers, where spatial differences of only a few nanometers can determine the fate of a cell – whether it lives or dies, remains normal or turns cancerous. Scientists with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have developed a new and better way to study the impact of spatial patterns on living cells.

Berkeley Lab chemist Jay Groves led a study in which artificial membranes made up of a fluid bilayer of lipid molecules were embedded with fixed arrays of gold nanoparticles to control the spacing of proteins and other cellular molecules placed on the membranes. This provided the researchers with an unprecedented opportunity to study how the spatial patterns of chemical and physical properties on membrane surfaces influence the behavior of cells. (more…)

Shaken, not Stirred: Berkeley Lab Scientists Spy Molecular Maneuvers

By Guest PostOctober 24, 2011Scienceandrew cho, atomic precision, babak sanii, berkeley lab, biomimetic materials, catalyze a reaction, development of peptoids, gloria olivier, james bond, langmuir blodgett trough, lawrence berkeley national laboratory, liquid, membrane for filtration, misfolded proteins, molecules, nanomaterials, nanoscale ropes, nanosheet, neeraja venkateswaran, peptoid nanosheets, peptoids, protein like structures, romas kudirka, ron zuckermann, shake, synthetic polymers, two dimensional nanomaterials

Stir this clear liquid in a glass vial and nothing happens. Shake this liquid, and free-floating sheets of protein-like structures emerge, ready to detect molecules or catalyze a reaction. This isn’t the latest gadget from James Bond’s arsenal—rather, the latest research from the U. S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) scientists unveiling how slim sheets of protein-like structures self-assemble. This “shaken, not stirred” mechanism provides a way to scale up production of these two-dimensional nanosheets for a wide range of applications, such as platforms for sensing, filtration and templating growth of other nanostructures.

“Our findings tell us how to engineer two-dimensional, biomimetic materials with atomic precision in water,” said Ron Zuckermann, Director of the Biological Nanostructures Facility at the Molecular Foundry, a DOE nanoscience user facility at Berkeley Lab. “What’s more, we can produce these materials for specific applications, such as a platform for sensing molecules or a membrane for filtration.” (more…)

Berkeley Lab’s Saul Perlmutter wins Nobel Prize in Physics

By Guest PostOctober 4, 2011Science2011 nobel prize in physics, accelerating expansion of the universe, adam riess, anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background radiation, astrophysicist, berkeley lab, brian schmidt, Chile, dark energy, department of energy, expansion of the universe, france, george smoot iii, gravity, high z supernova search team, international supernova cosmology project, Japan, knowledge, lawrence berkeley national laboratory, mysterious force, nature of dark energy, nobel prize, nobel prize in physics, paul alivisatos, saul perlmutter, spain, supernova cosmology project, supernovae, Sweden, swedish kroner, united kingdom, united states, university of california at berkeley

BERKELEY, CA — Saul Perlmutter, an astrophysicist at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and a professor of physics at the University of California at Berkeley, has won the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics “for the discovery of the accelerating expansion of the universe through observations of distant supernovae.” Perlmutter heads the international Supernova Cosmology Project, which pioneered the methods used to discover the accelerating expansion of the universe, and he has been a leader in studies to determine the nature of dark energy.

Perlmutter shares the prize with Brian Schmidt and Adam Riess, leader of the High-z Supernova Search Team and first author of that team’s analysis, respectively, which led to their almost simultaneous announcement of accelerating expansion. (more…)