First Measurement of KamLAND Geoneutrinos

Freedman

Results from KamLAND, an underground neutrino detector in central Japan, show that antimatter emanating from the earth in the form of so-called geoneutrinos provide a unique window into the interior of our planet, revealing information that is hidden from other probes. "This is a significant scientific result," said Berkeley Lab's Stuart Freedman, of the Nuclear Science Division, who is a co-spokesperson for the U.S. team at KamLAND. A paper on this work was the cover story for the July 28 issue of Nature. Go here to read a press release on this development.

Turn-Away Crowd Can
Hear Director Monday

When Lab Director Steve Chu kicked off the 2005 Summer Lecture Series on June 22 with the talk "Physics Meets Biology," so many people tried to crowd into the Building 50 Auditorium that the fire marshall turned more than 100 of them away. As they were leaving, Chu promised that he would repeat his talk again so that they could all hear him. Thus, on Monday, Aug. 1, the Director will return to the auditorium at noon to present another talk, this one focused more on biology. Those planning to attend should arrive early to be assured a seat.

Desktop Phone Call
Validation to Begin

Based on Lab desktop telephone bills from August to October 2005, the Information Technology Division will begin requiring selected users to validate their outgoing calls starting Nov. 1. Two percent of Lab telephones will be randomly selected to validate an itemized phone bill, and indicate any non-business calling. Reimbursement for these calls will be required if it reaches a designated threshold. After Nov. 1, desktop validation will be ongoing using the most recent quarterly phone bills. The RPM (9.02(A)(2)) states that Lab desktop telephones are for business use only. Read FAQs here. Contact Telephone Services (x7997) for more information.

Lab Director Steve Chu reminds everyone that Laboratory policy requires that pay and time reporting be accurate and timely. Employees and supervisors have responsibilities in this regard. Deputy Director Graham Fleming and Chief Financial Officer Jeffrey Fernandez recently wrote to Division Directors about this issue (see memo); a complete text of the Laboratory's policy on time reporting may be found in RPM §3.02.

Air Expert Helps Set New
Ventilation Standards

Sherman

Max Sherman, with the Lab's Environmental Energy Technologies Division, provides a review of the new air quality standards put forth by the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) for HGTV.com. Sherman is chairman of the ASHRAE committee that wrote the standards, which take into account the contaminants that get trapped inside homes that are built tighter to save energy. Full story.

In Silico Techniques
Tell How Protein Turns

Sung-Hou Kim

Computational methods that can predict the structure of a protein from its amino acid sequence are improving. Developers of such programs say that the technology may one day completely supplant experimental structure determination. Currently when a new protein sequence comes out, the first way to predict its function is by going to the sequence database and finding the protein sequences that are similar," says Sung-Hou Kim, a Berkeley Lab physical bioscientist. "If the function of that protein is known you can attach that function to the new sequence. This is called transitive annotation. For most protein sequences, their functions are now inferred this way." Full story.