C. elegans

Oxygen-Sensing Worms
May Help Humans

Marletta

For life on our planet, the rule is simple: If you don't get the right amount of oxygen, you die. For humans, living as we do in an atmosphere with a rich and stable supply of oxygen, maintaining the correct levels in our bodies is a relatively routine task. For organisms that live in soil or water, however, where oxygen levels can wildly fluctuate, the task is far more challenging and pretty much of a mystery — until now. A multi-institutional collaboration of researchers, including Berkeley Lab Physical Bioscientist Michael Marletta, has learned how one soil dweller, the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, is able to sense oxygen levels in its environment and feed in areas where the concentration of oxygen is just right. Full story.

INCITE Proposals
Now Being Accepted

Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham announced that proposals are now being accepted for a Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science program to support innovative, large-scale computational science projects. Now in its second year, the Innovative and Novel Computational Impact on Theory and Experiment (INCITE) program will award a total of 5.5 million supercomputer processor hours and 100 trillion bytes of data storage space at the National Energy Research Scientific Computing (NERSC) Center at Berkeley Lab. The NERSC Center is the Office of Science's flagship facility for unclassified supercomputing. Full story.

Mozilla Alert: Security
Vulnerability Found

A security vulnerability affecting Mozilla browsers for the Windows operating system was verified on July 8. Mozilla released a configuration change, which resolves this problem by explicitly disabling the use of the shell external protocol handler. Note that the bug affects only users of Microsoft's Windows. The issue does not affect Linux or Macintosh users. This is a quick and easy update that does not require re-booting. If you use Mozilla, go here to patch your system.

Zettl's Hobby Takes Him
Up To Great Heights

Zettl

A UC Berkeley story about faculty who juggle their academic interests with all-consuming hobbies includes a feature on physics professor and Berkeley Lab materials scientist Alex Zettl, who is hooked on mountaineering. "When I was around 14, my dad used to do rock climbing, and he was interested in backpacking the Sierra Nevada with me. Then we did the Cascades, Mt. Rainier, moved to the Alps in Europe. It just slowly evolved into other countries. I've been on about 20 expeditions, in the Himalayas, both Pakistan and Nepal, near Mt. Everest; in South America; New Zealand; Africa; and lately, in Alaska." Full story.

The Employee Activities Association will tell you everything you want to know about its programs and procedures in an "Overview, Training, and Open Forum" at 11 a.m. in Perseverance Hall today. Want to join a club? Start a club? Then attend the annual "Meet the Clubs" fair on the cafeteria lawn from noon to 1 p.m. Representatives of the 19 recreational, cultural and wellness clubs will talk with visitors about their groups. Refreshments and entertainment will be provided. For more information, contact the EAA Coordinator or visit the EAA website. For more details on the forum, go here.

Great America
Tickets For Sale

It is not to late to purchase your Great America tickets for the Berkeley Lab Family Day at Paramount's Great America, featuring their new water park Boomerang Bay. Tickets will be on sale in the cafeteria lobby today from noon to 1 p.m. Tickets are $18 for the Saturday, July 17 event. Checks only will be accepted for payment.

Vehicle Mileage
Reports Due

Fleet Operations requests that all vehicle custodians report their monthly mileage by this Friday. Custodians are asked to report their mileage even if they have gone to the pumps, since the computer system that usually provides this information is currently unavailable. E-mail your report to Leslie Striplin. For information, call x5475.