The second talk of Berkeley Lab's Science at the Theater fall series takes place next Monday at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre with a talk by three Lab scientists — including Art Rosenfeld — entitled "Cool Cities, Cool Planet." Rosenfeld and fellow Environmental Energy Technologies Division scientists Ronnen Levinson and Melvin Pomerantz will discuss how white roofs can cool your building, your city, and our planet. The event starts at 7 p.m. Go here for more information and a complete lineup of this fall's Science at the Theater events.
At the moment, the best evidence we've got indicates that the universe began in a Big Bang, and has been expanding outward since at an ever-increasing rate. There's nothing to suggest that it won't keep doing that forever, resulting in an infinite, eternal universe. But a group of physicists disagree with this, arguing that the laws of physics simply wouldn't work in an infinite universe. For them to work, the Universe has to end, and so they've calculated the most likely time for that to happen. "Time is unlikely to end in our lifetime, but there is a 50 percent chance that time will end within the next 3.7 billion years," says says Berkeley Lab physicist Raphael Bousso. For reference, the Earth and Sun are predicted to last nearly five billion years. More>
EH&S: Limiting Distractions is Theme of 'Drive Safe to Work' Week Today is the start of “Drive Safely to Work Week,” an event aimed at improving the safety and health of employees. This year’s campaign focuses on driver distraction. As drivers spend more time on the road, they want to be more productive behind the wheel by multitasking, but this significantly increases their crash risk: distraction is responsible for 20 to 30 percent of all accidents. Driving is a complex task and requires the full attention and concentration of the driver. Safe driving tips and information will appear in Today at Berkeley Lab everyday this week. More>
Research: EETD Contributes to New Appliance Efficiency Standards for Fridges, Freezers New efficiency standards proposed to take effect in 2014, announced recently by the Department of Energy, continue a 40-year trend of improving energy efficiency of refrigerators and freezers. The Environmental Energy Technologies Division’s Energy Efficiency Standards Group was a major contributor to DOE's technical and economic analysis, including conducting the analysis of life-cycle costs and consumer national impacts. This is the third 25-percent or greater increase in efficiency from U.S. standards (1993 and 2001 were the other implementation dates). Energy Analysis Department Head James McMahon says, “a new top-freezer refrigerator in 2014 will consume less than 22 percent of the electricity annually of a new refrigerator sold in 1974.” More>
Special Event: Lee Mun Wah Gives Diversity Talk on Wednesday On Wednesday, the second installment of the Diversity Council-sponsored "Perspectives on Diversity" series will be held at noon in the Building 50 Auditorium. The speaker is Lee Mun Wah, founder and director of StirFry Seminars & Consulting and a nationally-acclaimed lecturer, who will speak on "Unlearning Stereotypes: Initiating Diversity Conversations in the Workplace." Wah is a Chinese American community therapist, documentary filmmaker, special-education provider, performing poet, Asian folk-teller, and author.
Berkeley Lab invites individuals with a disability, and covered veterans, to self-identify as part of the federal mandate for institutions to take affirmative action when hiring and promoting individuals. Submitting such information is voluntary and will be kept confidential. Employees who wish to accept the invitation can go to the Employee Self-Service website. They may also fill out a hard copy of the EEOC Self-Identification Form and mail it to the Equal Employment Opportunity Office/Affirmative Action (EEO/AA), Mail Stop 90K-0119. For questions, call 486-7443.
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