Science, Etc.
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'Health Detectives' Topic of Next Science at the Theater on April 23

Learn how Berkeley Lab scientists are uncovering the mysteries of disease in unlikely places at the next Science at the Theater on Monday, April 23, from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre. How has the cellular microenvironment in breast cancer changed how the disease is researched? How does DNA instability cause disease? What can an insect tell us about our own health? Why is your biological destiny not determined by your DNA. Berkeley Lab health detectives will help provide answers to these questions. More>

Did you miss the last Science at the Theater on 'Extreme Science?' Go here to watch a video of the event. 
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Santa Rita Jail to Demonstrate the Power of Microgrids

When the next "big one" hits Northern California, chances are good that the power will be knocked out across large swaths of the Bay Area. Except, perhaps, Alameda County's Santa Rita Jail in Dublin. If all goes according to plan, this "mega-jail," housing about 4,000 inmates, will seamlessly disconnect itself from the electric grid and switch over to its own microgrid, powering itself for the duration. Berkeley Lab researchers are using software they developed called DER-CAM (Distributed Energy Resources-Customer Adoption Model), which looks at electricity and heat requirements, to help analyze and develop an optimal plan for the Jail to meet its needs at minimum cost. More>
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Lab Staff Mentor Teen Girls in Smartphone App Development

 

Late Tuesday afternoons, a group of more than 60 high school girls from Berkeley and Albany heads up to Berkeley Lab for a Technovationseries of 10 two-hour workshops to develop science education apps for Android smart phones. The girls are being mentored by 20 women who work at the Lab. After vetting the idea with potential users, the girls must then develop a business plan and pitch their idea to a panel of judges on April 28. Judges will select one app to compete against apps from sessions held around the Bay Area and in other states. The winning app will be professionally developed and distributed on the Android Market. More>
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Lab Launches New Institute to Build Low-Carbon Paths to Prosperity for Developing Countries

 

To some, the problems in developing countries may seem intractable: unsafe drinking water, subpar sanitation systems, limited access to electricity, low agricultural yields due to poor irrigation, environmentally unsustainable use of resources, and so on. Yet Berkeley Lab has proven not only that technology can solve many of these problems, but also that the right low-carbon, affordable technology can be effectively and widely deployed. To broaden and accelerate its efforts at poverty alleviation Berkeley Lab announces the launch of the Lab Institute for Globally Transformative Technologies (LIGTT, pronounced "light"). This program was recently announced by the White House's Office of Science and Technology Policy. More>
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Moraga's Campolindo HIgh School Wins Regional Science Bowl Competition

Sixty-five students from thirteen local schools competed in the DOE Regional Science Bowl at Berkeley Lab last month, with Campolindo High School (Moraga) emerging as the winner. Last year's winner Albany High School came in second, and Acalanes High School (Lafayette) placed third. In late April, the Campolindo team will travel to Washington, D.C., to compete at the DOE National Science Bowl.
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Mayan Cosmology Cycle Ends: Precision Cosmology Progresses
In a public talk in front of the Great Pyramid of Kukulcan at Chichen Itza last month, Berkeley Lab's Nobel Prize-winning astrophysicist George Smoot discusses the remarkable precision that ancient Mayan astronomers achieved solely with the naked eye and comments on the significance of the approaching end of the current World Age of the 5,000-year-long Mayan Long-Count Calendar, due to conclude on the 2012 winter solstice. 

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Scientists Quantify Effect of Soot on Snow and Ice

A new study from Berkeley Lab scientists has quantitatively demonstrated that black carbon-also known as soot, a pollutant emitted from power plants, diesel engines and residential cooking and heating, as well as forest fires-reduces the reflectance of snow and ice, an effect that increases the rate of global climate change. Soot can travel great distances and settle back to earth in remote areas far from the emission source. If it deposits on snow-covered areas such as the poles or glaciers, it darkens the snow and ice, with the result that less solar radiation is reflected back into space. More heat is retained near the earth's surface, speeding up global warming. More>
 
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