Making Zero-Energy
Homes a Possibility

Selkowitz

Imagine a community for the deeply green. Walls half-a- meter thick keep temperatures comfortable year-round. Windows are triple-glazed. A wind-driven ventilation system feeds fresh air into each house—and grabs the heat from stale outgoing air. Outsize conservatories face south to trap the light and warmth of the sun. At Berkeley Lab, Environmental Energies Technology Division's Steve Selkowitz's windows-and-building- technology team has made incredible progress with such innovations as dimmable windows that can minimize hot sunlight while preserving the view; the windows could save homeowners thousands of dollars a year in air-conditioning costs. Full story.

Community Sequencing
Gets Chronicle Focus

Leeches are among organisms to be sequenced.

In his lab at UC Berkeley, evolutionary biologist Brent Mishler has spent a research lifetime studying a single group of obscure green mosses known, among other attributes, for their resistance to drought. They can withstand the kind of total desiccation that would kill virtually all other plants and shrivel their individual cells to death — and that quality has earned them a place in a new genome-sequencing effort at the Joint Genome Institute. Last week, after a detailed review by international experts, the institute agreed to dedicate its priceless machines to nearly 25 different gene-sequencing projects — all, according to Director Edward Rubin, himself a noted geneticist, "representing major contributions to ground-breaking science." Full story.

Responding to the increasingly data-intensive demands of the scientific community, the Department of Energy's (DOE) Energy Sciences Network (Esnet) is implementing a new architecture of connected Metropolitan Area Networks (MAN). Esnet, which is managed by Berkeley Lab, is a high-speed network serving thousands of DOE scientists and collaborators worldwide. Full story.

Ballpark Estimates Win
Lab Softball Crown

After a rousing round of playoff action, Berkeley Lab softball team Ballpark Estimates ended the season with a perfect 8-0 record, capturing the league's championships. SUDZ came in second, with Fully Loaded third and Rated X fourth. A hearty congratulations goes out to all who participated this year. Go here to see a list of the winning team's members.