The Supernova Cosmology Project’s Union2 compilation and reanalysis of decades of the world’s best supernova surveys, with the addition of six high-redshift supernovae, puts new bounds on possible values for the nature of dark energy. Einstein’s cosmological constant comfortably fits the data, but there’s still plenty of room at the top for dynamical theories. More>
Fashion and the Advanced Light Source aren’t exactly synonymous — though arguably some of the Lab’s most nattily dressed scientists work there — but it’s where the editors of Vogue magazine decided to do a photo shoot of Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s chief operating officer. A story and stunning shot of her in front of the microARPES endstation of the new Maestro beamline (Sector 7), appears in the April issue. The apparatus is used for high-profile studies of electronic properties of materials. It is believed the location was chosen for its “hi-tech” look, and the conveniently located bank of computer monitors on which Facebook pages could be posted. “This is the most widely read publication on this beamline we’ll ever have,” jokes Eli Rotenberg, who works there and tidied up the spot before the photo shoot.
The University of California Post-Employment Benefits Task force will present possible pension and health benefit recommendations and the results of a recent employee survey at a forum at Berkeley Lab on Wednesday, April 28, from 10 a.m. to noon in the Building 50 Auditorium. This presentation will also be available via a live webcast for those unable to attend. This is a follow-up meeting to the task force's first presentation last fall. More>
Nigel Quinn, leader of the Earth Sciences Division’s HydroEcological Engineering Advanced Decision Support group, was recently selected as a Fellow of the International Environmental Modeling and Software Society. Quinn's research focuses on the development of environmental modeling and decision support tools to advance the science and decision making related to resource and environmental issues. His current collaborative research interests include technical and resource assessment of algae biofuel technology. He will be inducted at the society's annual meeting in Ottawa, Canada in July.
Users of the Firefox browser for FMS and eBuy are advised that the Lab's current version of FMS is not certified by the vendor (Oracle Corporation) for operation with version 3.6 of Firefox. Specific problems have been observed with eBuy supplier Staples. A technical upgrade of FMS, scheduled for completion in mid-June, is under way to reestablish vendor certification and hopefully address this issue. Those who use Firefox with FMS might prefer to wait until this problem has been solved before upgrading. Staff who have already upgraded to Firefox 3.6 and are experiencing problems can use Internet Explorer or Safari as an alternative browser.
As announced in yesterday’s edition of Today at Berkeley Lab, the Badge Office will be closed today. Also, individual buildings will experience a brief two-minute card access outage, during which readers will not function and normally unlocked doors will be secured. All functions will return to normal shortly.
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