A sprinkle of this, a dash of that, sit back and let chemistry do its magic. Smells like a cooking analogy, but Berkeley Lab researchers have used just such a simple recipe to whip up ‘cage-like’ container structures to create complex molecular machines that can be programmed to rotate, switch and perform mechanical work. Previous research has shown efficient synthetic techniques can be used to construct complicated molecular machines that function by moving the individual parts within an overall molecular architecture. More>
Safety: Contact Health Services if Experiencing Flu-Like IllnessThe Lab’s Pandemic Response Team continues to monitor the H1N1 flu outbreak. While overall case numbers have increased within the U.S., symptoms continue to be mild and it is expected that most people will recover without needing medical care. In addition to continuing to practice good health hygiene, employees must contact Health Services (x6951) if they or an immediate family member experience flu-like illness, or return to work after illness or from travel in an affected country. Supervisors who send staff home for flu-like illness must also contact Health Services. Go here to view current travel recommendations.
[San Francisco Chronicle] Warp factor 3, Mr. Sulu? No can do. Engage cloaking device? We're working on it. Communicators? Definitely. Forty years after the original "Star Trek" series was canceled warp drives and transporter beams remain more science fiction than fact. But some of Star Trek's 23rd century gadgets, such as handheld medical scanners, language translators and high-tech weaponry are becoming a reality in the 21st century. Meanwhile, researchers are working on their own versions of a "cloaking device," including Berkeley Lab materials scientist Xiang Zhang. More>
People: CRD/NERSC Researchers Win Best Paper at Cray User Group ConferenceAt the recent Cray User Group annual meeting, a framework developed by Berkeley Lab computer scientists for speeding up the performance of scientific computing applications on multicore processors was recognized as the best paper presented at the conference. The paper, “A Generalized Framework for Auto-Tuning Stencil Computations,” was written by Shoaib Kamil, Cy Chan, Samuel Williams, Leonid Oliker, John Shalf, Mark Howison, Wes Bethel and Prabhat, who all have positions in the Lab’s Computational Research or National Energy Research Scientific Computing divisions. Kamil is a graduate student at UC Berkeley, and Chan is a grad student at MIT.
Special Event: Symposium on Energy Efficient Electronic Systems The Symposium on Energy Efficient Electronic Systems (E3S) will take place in the new Sutardja Dai Hall (CITRIS building) on the UC Berkeley campus, on June 11–12. The goal of the two-day meeting is to find ways of building future electronic information processing systems with major improvements in energy efficiency. The scope extends from new low-power nanoelectronic devices through circuit design, chip-scale architecture, short-range interconnects, long-range interconnects, networks, software, storage systems, servers, data centers, and supercomputers. More>
A portion of the downhill lane of Smoot Road near the Bevatron (Building 51) will be closed tomorrow morning to accommodate work in the Bevatron parking lot (B51). Flaggers will direct traffic. Drivers and pedestrians are urged to use caution when traversing this area and follow flagger instructions and posted signage.
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