berkeley lab – Page 4 – Shamskm: A site to exchange knowledge and solutions

Bright Future for Protein Nanoprobes

By Guest PostMay 2, 2014Sciencealexis ostrowski, berkeley lab, biology, brighter future, bruce cohen, building blocks, daniel gargas, doe, elektronische fussfessel, emory chan, erbium, fluorescent, free asymmetric, future, gewaltdelikte, heterocontact, james schuck, joerg kinzig, laboratory, mexican men, mexico murder rate, molecular foundry, nanocrystals, photobleach, polly myer, single molecules, sodium yttrium fluoride, ytterbium

Berkeley Lab Researchers Discover New Rules for Single-Particle Imaging with Light-Emitting Nanocrystals

The term a “brighter future” might be a cliché, but in the case of ultra-small probes for lighting up individual proteins, it is now most appropriate. Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have discovered surprising new rules for creating ultra-bright light-emitting crystals that are less than 10 nanometers in diameter. These ultra-tiny but ultra-bright nanoprobes should be a big asset for biological imaging, especially deep-tissue optical imaging of neurons in the brain.

Working at the Molecular Foundry, a DOE national nanoscience center hosted at Berkeley Lab, a multidisciplinary team of researchers led by James Schuck and Bruce Cohen, both with Berkeley Lab’s Materials Sciences Division, used advanced single-particle characterization and theoretical modeling to study what are known as “upconverting nanoparticles” or UCNPs. Upconversion is the process by which a molecule absorbs two or more photons at a lower energy and emits them at higher energies. The research team determined that the rules governing the design of UCNP probes for ensembles of molecules do not apply to UCNP probes designed for single-molecules. (more…)

Vast Gene-Expression Map Yields Neurological and Environmental Stress Insights

By Guest PostApril 20, 2014Scienceberkeley lab, cadmium, environmental challenges, environmental stress, fruit fly, genome, geodynamo, heavy metals, hermann neumann, magnetic polarity, model organism, nervous system, neurological, peter driscoll, rna molecules, superchron, warmes bad

Berkeley Lab scientists lead broadest survey yet of RNA activity in any animal

A consortium led by scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has conducted the largest survey yet of how information encoded in an animal genome is processed in different organs, stages of development, and environmental conditions. Their findings paint a new picture of how genes function in the nervous system and in response to environmental stress. (more…)

New Insight into an Emerging Genome-Editing Tool

By Guest PostMarch 11, 2014Scienceactinomyces naeslundii, anacas9, bacteria, bacterial immune system, berkeley lab, biochemist, biophysicist, cas9, cas9 enzymes, crispr, david taylor, DNA, enzyme, eva nogales, fuguo jiang, genetic element, genetically engineered, genome editing tool, guide rna, jennifer doudna, microbes, spycas, streptococcus pyogenes

Berkeley Researchers Show Expanded Role for Guide RNA in Cas9 Interactions with DNA

The potential is there for bacteria and other microbes to be genetically engineered to perform a cornucopia of valuable goods and services, from the production of safer, more effective medicines and clean, green, sustainable fuels, to the clean-up and restoration of our air, water and land. Cells from eukaryotic organisms can also be modified for research or to fight disease. To achieve these and other worthy goals, the ability to precisely edit the instructions contained within a target’s genome is a must. A powerful new tool for genome editing and gene regulation has emerged in the form of a family of enzymes known as Cas9, which plays a critical role in the bacterial immune system. Cas9 should become an even more valuable tool with the creation of the first detailed picture of its three-dimensional shape by researchers with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the University of California (UC) Berkeley. (more…)

How a Shape-shifting DNA-repair Machine Fights Cancer

By Guest PostMarch 2, 2014Scienceals beamline, berkeley lab, broken dna, cancer, cancer cells, dna repair functions, dna repair machine, fight, fix, john tainer, mre11 rad50, mutation, protein complex, shape shifting, sybils, tanya paull, university of texas

Berkeley Lab’s Advanced Light Source reveals inner-workings of essential protein found throughout life.

Maybe you’ve seen the movies or played with toy Transformers, those shape-shifting machines that morph in response to whatever challenge they face. It turns out that DNA-repair machines in your cells use a similar approach to fight cancer and other diseases, according to research led by scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab).

As reported in a pair of new studies, the scientists gained new insights into how a protein complex called Mre11-Rad50 reshapes itself to take on different DNA-repair tasks. (more…)

Cooling Microprocessors with Carbon Nanotubes

By Guest PostFebruary 2, 2014Scienceaminopropyl trialkoxy silane, aps, berkeley lab, brett helms, carbon nanotubes, frank ogletree, heat transport efficiency, microprocessors, molecular foundry, nachiket raravikar, nanostructured systems, noble metals, ravi prasher, sumanjeet kaur, technology problems, thermal conductivity

Technique From Berkeley Lab’s Molecular Foundry Could Also Work with Graphene

“Cool it!” That’s a prime directive for microprocessor chips and a promising new solution to meeting this imperative is in the offing. Researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have developed a “process friendly” technique that would enable the cooling of microprocessor chips through carbon nanotubes.

Frank Ogletree, a physicist with Berkeley Lab’s Materials Sciences Division, led a study in which organic molecules were used to form strong covalent bonds between carbon nanotubes and metal surfaces. This improved by six-fold the flow of heat from the metal to the carbon nanotubes, paving the way for faster, more efficient cooling of computer chips. The technique is done through gas vapor or liquid chemistry at low temperatures, making it suitable for the manufacturing of computer chips. (more…)

Natural 3D Counterpart to Graphene Discovered

By Guest PostJanuary 26, 2014Science2d, 2d dirac fermions, 3d version, 3dtds, 3dtds systems, advanced light source, als, antiparticle, berkeley lab, bo zhou, bulk electrons behave, chinese academy, dirac semi metal, electron mobility, graphene, natural 3d counterpart, quantum matter, sciences, sheets of carbon, three-dimensional, topological, topological insulators, velocity, yulin chen, zahid hussain, zhongkai liu

Researchers at Berkeley Lab’s Advanced Light Source Find New Form of Quantum Matter

The discovery of what is essentially a 3D version of graphene – the 2D sheets of carbon through which electrons race at many times the speed at which they move through silicon – promises exciting new things to come for the high-tech industry, including much faster transistors and far more compact hard drives. A collaboration of researchers at the U.S Department of Energy (DOE)’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has discovered that sodium bismuthide can exist as a form of quantum matter called a three-dimensional topological Dirac semi-metal (3DTDS). This is the first experimental confirmation of 3D Dirac fermions in the interior or bulk of a material, a novel state that was only recently proposed by theorists. (more…)

Berkeley Lab-led Project Aims to Produce Liquid Transportation Fuel from Methane

By Guest PostJanuary 23, 2014Environmentbacteria, berkeley lab, carbon dioxide, christer jansson, e coli, energy source, global warming, john tainer, kiverdi, liquid hydrocarbons, liquid transportation fuel, methane, methanotrophs, microorganism, microvi biotechnologies, novici biotech, repeat the cycle, steve yannone, stranded natural gas, thermochemical process, vehicle

How’s this for innovative: A Berkeley Lab-led team hopes to engineer a new enzyme that efficiently converts methane to liquid transportation fuel.

“There’s a lot of methane available, and we want to develop a new way to harness it as an energy source for vehicles,” says Christer Jansson, a biochemist in Berkeley Lab’s Earth Sciences Division who heads the effort. (more…)

A Micro-Muscular Break Through

By Guest PostJanuary 13, 2014Scienceartificial muscles, berkeley lab, break through, carbon nanotubes, chromium, chun cheng, electronics industry, electrostatics, energy-efficient, helix, joonki suh, junqiao wu, kai liu, micro explosion, micro muscular, micro systems, milliseconds, motion, optical devices, pantheon of superstars, piezoelectrics, vanadium dioxide

Berkeley Lab Researchers Make a Powerful New Microscale Torsional Muscle/Motor from Vanadium Dioxide

Vanadium dioxide is poised to join the pantheon of superstars in the materials world. Already prized for its extraordinary ability to change size, shape and physical identity, vanadium dioxide can now add muscle power to its attributes. A team of researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has demonstrated a micro-sized robotic torsional muscle/motor made from vanadium dioxide that for its size is a thousand times more powerful than a human muscle, able to catapult objects 50 times heavier than itself over a distance five times its length within 60 milliseconds – faster than the blink of an eye. (more…)

Tag Archives: berkeley lab