Household Chores
Kick Up a Dust Storm
By Michael Hopkin

Sippola

Simply walking around your home can increase your exposure to particulate pollution, research reveals. The study measured the amount of dust kicked up by household activities such as walking, dancing, making a bed and vacuum cleaning. "You're pulling small particles out of the carpet, through the vacuum cleaner's filter, into your air and into your lungs," explains Mark Sippola, an environmental engineer at Berkeley Lab. So how do you keep exposure to a minimum? Full story.

DOE Science Budget
Request Up 2 Percent

A total of $3.431 billion was requested for the Department of Energy's Office of Science in President Bush's FY 2005 budget request. This represents a reduction of 2percent, or $68.5 million, from FY04 funding of $3.5 billion. However, according to DOE Science Director Ray Orbach, the cut reflects the elimination of $140.7 million in congressionally-directed earmarks, making the request an actual increase of 2.2 percent, or $72.3 million, over FY04 in core programs. Read the American Institute of Physics analysis here.

‘Today at Berkeley Lab’
Has First Anniversary

The daily e-newsletter “Today at Berkeley Lab” passed a significant milestone last week when it published its 150th issue on Feb. 4, a day after its one-year anniversary. On this occasion, TABL would like to thank the employees whose creativity and dedication have contributed to its development and success, including: Cheryl Ventimiglia, Caitlin Youngquist, Eva Cohen and Erik Richman of Technical and Electronic Information; Gayle Peuser and Michelle Dunleavy of Information Systems and Services; Ed Ritenour, Ken Berg and Linda Smith of Networking and Telecommunications; and Pam Patterson, Lyn Hunter, Ron Kolb, and Dan Krotz of the Communications Department.

Confab on Fractured Rock
Fluid Dynamics at Lab

The Earth Science Division is hosting a three-day symposium on “Dynamics of Fluids in Fractured Rock,” beginning today through Wednesday. According to program information, “The challenge of adequately characterizing fluid flow and chemical transport in fractured media is a formidable one for geoscientists and engineers. Understanding this is crucial for the exploitation of petroleum and geothermal reservoirs, the management of contaminated groundwater, and the isolation of radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel in underground repositories.” Go here for more information.

City of Oakland's Scott Wentworth (L), Johnson (R)

Stephen Johnson, of EETD’s Lighting Research Group, recently received a check from the City of Oakland’s Public Works Department to quantify the amount of savings between high-efficiency electronic street-lighting ballasts and the magnetic ballasts that are currently used. Testing will be performed on life-test racks that approximate real-life conditions for streetlights. Johnson is optimistic the high-efficiency electronic ballasts will extend the lifetime of the lamps by as much as 5 percent while reducing electricity usage and maintenance.

William Harris
Retirement Party

After 33 years of helping ensure that some of the world’s fastest supercomputers are up and running, William Harris has retired and will now put his energy into his two fast cars. Harris will be feted with a BBQ lunch at the Oakland Scientific Center on Thursday, Feb. 19. Reservations are due by tomorrow. Contact Yeen Mankin for details. Go here to read more about Harris’ career at Berkeley Lab and LLNL.