Lab Women's Group
To Meet April 22

The "Women at Berkeley Lab" group is hosting a forum to identify topics and issues of interest on Friday, April 22 from noon to 1 p.m. in the Building 66 Auditorium. The discussion will include a recap of last October's forum on "New Directions: Women of Influence in the National Laboratories." All employees are welcome to attend.

Reserve a Spot Now
For Shank Symposium

Shank

A symposium honoring former Lab Director Charles Shank will be held Tuesday, May 24. Reservations for the event are required, since space is limited. The daylong program,  "Science of the 21st Century," will include a talk by Presidential science advisor John Marburger. The $50 registration fee includes lunch and refreshments. Go here for more information and to register.

'Homestake' Topic
Of Campus Talk Friday

Lesko

For the next installment in the DUSEL lecture series, Berkeley Lab nuclear scientist Kevin Lesko will discuss the "Homestake Underground Laboratory" tomorrow at 10 a.m. in 127 Dwinelle Hall on campus. DUSEL, or Deep Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory, is a project initiated by the National Science Foundation that will allow scientists to conduct physics and earth sciences experiments in a deep and unique environment. For more information, contact Joe Wang. Go here to view webcasts of previous talks (click on DUSEL seminar).

Researchers who collaborate with people from remote sites or allow remote access to data or programs and need to ensure security can still sign up for tomorrow's tutorial on "Secure Collaboration: Concepts and Tools." Presented by the Lab's Distributed Systems Department, the free tutorial will be held from 1 to 4 p.m. in Perseverance Hall. The most common security threats and how to counter them will be discussed. Go here for more information. Send e-mail here to register.

Skybox Security Tool
Demonstration Today

Felix Santos and Tom Masucci of Skybox Security will be giving a demo of the Skybox vulnerability assessment tool at noon today in Perseverance Hall. The Skybox tool simulates attacks on networked systems and then determines how their security can be breached based on vulnerabilities in individual systems as well as relationships between systems.

Editorial on 'Shrinking Curiosity' in the U.S.
By Rick Weiss

The U.S. scientific enterprise is riddled with evidence that Americans have lost sight of the value of non-applied, curiosity-driven research — the open-ended sort of exploration that doesn't know exactly where it's going but so often leads to big payoffs. In discipline after discipline, the demand for specific products, profits or outcomes — "deliverables," in the parlance of government — has become the dominant force driving research agendas. Instead of being exploratory and expansive, science — especially in the wake of 9/11 — seems increasingly delimited and defensive. Full story.