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The Search for the Earliest Signs of Alzheimer’s

By Guest PostMay 30, 2012Health, Sciencealzheimer's disease, alzheimers, azheimers patient, berkeley lab, beta amyloid, beta amyloid plaque, brain checkup, brain function, c 11 pib, city of berkeley, cognitive decline, computed tomography, ct scanner, dan krotz, destructive protein, earliest signs, functional mri scans, hippocampus atrophy, magnetic resonance imaging, mri scans, PET, pet image, positron emission tomography, radiotracer, william jagust

Berkeley Lab scientists help paint a more complicated picture of the devastating disease

For the past five years, volunteers from the City of Berkeley and surrounding areas have come to Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory to participate in an ongoing study that’s changing what scientists know about Alzheimer’s disease.

The volunteers, most over the age of 70, undergo what can best be described as a brain checkup. They’re asked to solve puzzles and memorize lists of words. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans image the structure of their brains in exquisite detail. Functional MRI scans allow scientists to watch portions of their brains light up as they form memories. And Positron emission tomography (PET) scans measure any accumulation of beta-amyloid, a destructive protein that’s a hallmark of Alzheimer’s. (more…)

Berkeley Lab Scientists Generate Electricity From Viruses

By Guest PostMay 19, 2012Scienceberkeley lab, bone, byung yang lee, ceramics, crystals, dan krotz, DNA, electric charge, electric cigarette, electricity, electricity from viruses, futuristic scenario, m13 bacteriophage, mechanical energy, mechanical stress, nano building block, nano devices, nanoamperes, nanoscale, piezoelectricity, proteins, ramamoorthy ramesh, seung wuk lee, Technology

New approach is a promising first step toward the development of tiny devices that harvest electrical energy from everyday tasks

Imagine charging your phone as you walk, thanks to a paper-thin generator embedded in the sole of your shoe. This futuristic scenario is now a little closer to reality. Scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have developed a way to generate power using harmless viruses that convert mechanical energy into electricity.

The scientists tested their approach by creating a generator that produces enough current to operate a small liquid-crystal display. It works by tapping a finger on a postage stamp-sized electrode coated with specially engineered viruses. The viruses convert the force of the tap into an electric charge. (more…)

A Better Way to ID Extreme Weather Events in Climate Models

By Guest PostDecember 11, 2011Environmentatmospheric river, berkeley lab, bill collins, cam5, category 5 hurricane, climate simulation, community atmospheric model, computer models, cray xe6 supercomputer, dan krotz, data, effects of climate change, floods, frequency of extreme weather events, global atmosphere models, global climate model, hawaiian islands, heavy precipitation, high resolution simulation, hopper, hurricane, large datasets, library of congress, michael wehner, models, North America, pacific coast, pattern detection algorithm, prabhat, satellite images, simulation, weather, weather phenomenon, wes bethel

*Berkeley Lab scientists help automate the search for hurricanes and other storms in huge datasets*

You’d think that spotting a category 5 hurricane would never be difficult. But when the hurricane is in a global climate model that spans several decades, it becomes a fleeting wisp among mountains of data.

That’s a problem. As scientists develop ever-more sophisticated computer models to predict the effects of climate change, one of the things they’ll look for are changes in the frequency of extreme weather events such as hurricanes and heavy precipitation. The more data generated by models, however, the more difficult it is to quantify these rare but potent events. (more…)

Tag Archives: dan krotz

The Search for the Earliest Signs of Alzheimer’s

Berkeley Lab Scientists Generate Electricity From Viruses

A Better Way to ID Extreme Weather Events in Climate Models