Sam Bodman speaks after his nomination Friday in Washington

WASHINGTON (CNN) — President Bush on Friday nominated Sam Bodman for secretary of energy. Bodman has served as deputy secretary of commerce and deputy secretary of the treasury. If confirmed, Bodman would replace outgoing Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham, who announced his resignation on November 15. Full story. Read Bodman's biography here.

From left, Browning, Ziegler and Ritchie

Advanced ceramics are wonderful materials – they withstand temperatures that would melt steel and resist most corrosive chemicals. If only they weren’t so brittle. Poor resistance to fracture damage has been the major drawback to the widespread use of advanced ceramics as structural materials. Help, however, may be on the way. A collaboration of scientists, including Berkeley Lab researchers Robert Ritchie, Alexander Ziegler, Christian Kisielowski, and Nigel Browning, has uncovered clues at the atomic level that could lead to a new generation of much tougher advanced ceramics to be used in applications like gas turbine engines. Full story.

Lab, Community Colleges
Develop New Curriculum

Mills

Berkeley Lab scientist Evan Mills — with Environmental Energy Technologies — is teaming with educators at the Peralta Community College District in Oakland to train their students in the latest techniques of managing buildings for maximum energy efficiency. The program will be for students in two-year programs who want to be heating, ventilation, cooling and refrigeration (HVAC&R) technicians, as well as those in building facilities management programs. The work is funded by a three-year, $900,000 grant from the National Science Foundation. Full story.

Gay

University of Nebraska Professor Timothy Gay, who literally wrote the book on the physics of football, will share his unique insights into the game on Wednesday in a special noon Brown Bag talk in the Building 50 Auditorium. Physicist Gay, a guest at the Advanced Light Source this fall, is a specialist in polarized electron and neutrino physics. But what he began as a halftime feature at Nebraska football games has turned into a recently published book, “Football Physics: The Science of the Game.” Lab employees are invited to bring their lunch to the free one-hour program, sponsored by the ALS. Go here to see one-minute video clips.

Next Weight Watchers
Session Starts Jan. 12

The fall session of the Lab’s onsite Weight Watchers program is drawing to a close, and by all accounts it was a great success. Several participants said they not only lost weight, but found the meetings fun and supportive. The next 14-week session starts Jan. 12. Cost is $153.30 and checks are due by Wednesday, Dec. 22. Meetings are every Wednesday from 1:15 to 2 p.m. For more information, contact Cathy Wentworth (x5334).

Don't Use New Lycos
Anti-Spam Screensaver

Lycos Europe has recently released a free screensaver designed to fight spam by flooding Web sites referenced in spam messages with connections. This screensaver is actually a "strike back" tool that in effect launches an attack against these sites. Although fighting spam with such a “strike back” tool might seem like a good idea, the way in which Lycos' screensaver does this is not. The Lab's Computer Protection Program does not use strike back tactics; use of this screensaver on Lab machines or by machines not owned by the Lab but connected to Lab networks is therefore not allowed.