Today at Berkeley Lab: January 25, 2005

Tuesday, January 25, 2005

Today

8 a.m.
Human Resources
New Employee Orientation
Bldg. 50 Auditorium

9 a.m.
EHS 348
Chemical Hygiene Safety
Bldg. 51-201

Noon
EETD
Linking Enviromental
Exposures to Health Effects
S.M. Rappaport, U. of North Carolina
Bldg. 90-3148

Employee Activities Assoc.
Dance Lesson
Joy Kono, Jeff Philliber
Bldg. 71-146J

1 p.m.
EHS 231
Compressed Gas & Cryogen Safety
Bldg.51-201

4 p.m.
Life Sciences
Alzheimer's Disease, Brain Imaging, and the Search for Prevention Therapies
Eric Reiman, Translational Genomics Research Institute
Bldg. 66 Auditorium

Tomorrow

12:15 p.m.
Employee Activities Assoc.
Yoga Class with Chris Hoskins($10/$12)
Bldg. 70A-3377

1:30 p.m.
Physics
B Meson Decays to Vector Particles: A new Window on Fundamental Interactions
Andrei Gritsan
Bldg. 50B-4205

Morning Editions: Ham & Smoked Cheddar Scramble with Potatoes & Bagel
Tomorrow's Breakfast: Banana Pancakes with Two Eggs and Sausage
Menutainment: Fiesta Taco Salad with Ground Turkey
The Fresh Grille: Grilled Club Sandwich with Side Green Salad
Market Carvery: Cheese Enchiladas with Rice & Beans
Special Deal: Pepsi, Diet Pepsi, Moutain Dew, Sierra Mist 12 packs for $2.99

B'fast:	6:30 a.m. - 9:30 a.m.
Lunch:	11 a.m. - 1:30 p.m.
Full menu

New Insights in Role
Of Genetics in Fitness
By Glennda Chui





Williams

Some people stay fit and live to a ripe old age, despite never bothering to exercise. Why? A recent report may provide an answer. Researchers ran rats on a treadmill, then bred the best runners, and did the same with the worst runners, until they had superjocks and superwimps. The average rodent jock could run 42 minutes without stopping; the average wimp, just 14 minutes. The least fit rats gained more weight as they aged and increased the chances of heart disease and diabetes. Paul Williams, a health researcher at Berkeley Lab who has been studying similar issues in humans, said the new study offers insights into the role of genetics in fitness. Full story.

MetaChip Will Allow
Rapid Drug Screening





Clark



Breast cancer cells on a MetaChip

Researchers at UC Berkeley and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have created a biotech chip that mimics the metabolic reactions in the human liver, allowing rapid screening of potential drugs to identify those activated by the liver and to weed out those made toxic. "The MetaChip would allow testing a backlog of compounds for toxicity earlier in the drug discovery process — faster and more efficiently — and help remove a current bottleneck in the drug discovery process," said Douglas Clark, UC Berkeley chemical engineering professor and Environmental Energy Technologies scientist at Berkeley Lab. Full story.

SLAC's Mount Discusses Data-Intensive Science





Mount

Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) Computing Director Richard Mount — the next speaker in the Computing Sciences Seminar Series — will discuss "A Leadership-Class Facility for Data-Intensive Science: Vision and First Steps" at 1 p.m. on Thursday in Building 50A-5132. "Future discoveries and scientific revolutions will require facilities and techniques that allow the agile analysis of vast volumes of complex data," Mount said. "I will describe the first steps that are being taken to develop a facility aimed at a 'huge-data-memory' architecture."

Bob Hinckley, Lawrence Assistant, Passes Away





Hinckley in the early 1960s

Robert "Bob" Hinckley, who worked at the Lab for 31 years before retiring in 1991, passed away on Jan. 17. He was 74 years old. He came to the Lab in 1960 to serve as assistant to then director E.O. Lawrence. He later went on to serve as the business manager of the Physics Division, then later, the Engineering Division, according to colleagues. There will be a memorial service for Hinckley tomorrow at 7 p.m. at St. Johns Episcopal Church, 114 Montecito Ave. in Oakland.

Nonsmoking Policy
Has Been Changed

The Lab has changed its nonsmoking policy to clarify where smoking is and is not allowed. This policy affects all employees, guests, contractors, and visitors, who are responsible for the safe disposal of their smoking materials. Go here to view the new policy (RPM Section 2.23(J). Instructions on how to obtain outdoor ash cans, request an EH&S review of smoking areas, and other information relating to this policy will soon appear on the Environment, Health & Safety Division web site.

WEATHER

Scattered showers.
Highs: upper 50s (14° C).

Extended Forecast

SECURITY CONDITION

SECON level 3

More Information

INFO