Director Chu to Kick Off Summer Lecture Series

Chu

Berkeley Lab Director Steve Chu, who won a Nobel Prize in Physics in 1997, will inaugurate a summer-long tribute to his discipline as this year’s Summer Lecture Series begins on Wednesday. Chu’s talk, “Physics Meets Biology,” will be the first of seven noontime lectures dedicated to the international “World Year of Physics,” in which outstanding Lab speakers will illustrate what the field of physics contributes to our daily lives and to other scientific efforts. Employees, visitors and guests are encouraged to bring their lunches and enjoy the talks, all of which will be held in the Building 50 Auditorium.

JGI, Lab Help Find
Ailment's Genetic Origin
By Sandy Kleffman

East Bay scientists have identified the biological trigger for Van Buchem disease, a disfiguring bone condition that can cause pain, deafness and blindness. The scientists hope their findings will eventually lead to treatments for osteoporosis and other crippling bone disorders. The team included researchers from Lawrence Livermore and Lawrence Berkeley laboratories, the Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute in Walnut Creek, and Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research in Switzerland. Full story.

San Jose Firm
To Fight ‘Vampires’

	Meier

Energy vampires are a drain on household budgets. These are power-hungry battery chargers, adapters and power supplies that consume a lot of juice even when they're not being used. Estimates put the cost for the average house at $50 a year. Power Integrations of San Jose is doing its part to vanquish the vampires. The company recently hit a milestone as it announced that its power-saving chips have knocked an estimated $1 billion off electricity bills in almost eight years. Alan Meier, a researcher at Berkeley Lab who was among the first to identify these “vampires,” said in an e-mail that 10 percent of electricity is wasted on unused devices, based on studies he did in 1999. Full story.

Retracted Article Shows
Scientific Method Works

In a letter to Science magazine published last Friday, Priscilla Cooper, of Berkeley Lab’s Life Sciences Division, and two co-authors retracted a 1997 paper linking effects of Cockayne syndrome to failure of DNA repair mechanisms. A fourth author, Steven Leadon of the University of North Carolina, was found by an investigatory committee of that university to have fabricated and falsified research findings in several other papers. Subsequently Cooper determined that some of the paper's findings based on information provided by Leadon was invalid. The text of the retraction is here.

Berkeley Lab Deputy Director Graham Fleming, in praising Cooper’s exhaustive efforts to replicate the tainted results, said the case illustrates the success of the scientific profession’s self-policing and peer review procedures. “This clearly shows that the scientific method works,” Fleming said. “Priscilla was extremely courageous in correcting the record and ensuring the credibility of her research.” Leadon, who no longer works for UNC, worked at Berkeley Lab from 1986 to 1991 but did none of the discredited research here.

Order New Furniture
Before Fiscal Year-End

Planning to order new furniture with FY05 funds? To ensure your order is delivered by the close of FY05 (Sept. 30, 2005) orders must be received into the Facilities Work Request Center by the following deadlines: July 15 for all orders requiring design work, including all wood furniture, furniture layouts with partitions, or multiple components that require installation; and August 15 for orders requiring no design work and minimal installation, including single items such as chairs and bookcases. For more information on ordering new furniture, go here, or contact Nick Peterson at ext. 6314.