Dark Energy Article
Gets Expanded to Book

Richard Panek, author of a recent New York Times Magazine article on dark matter and dark energy, which opens with a conversation between Berkeley Lab physicists George Smoot and Saul Perlmutter — featured in the March 13 issue of Today at Berkeley Lab — has made a deal with the Houghton Mifflin Company for an entire book on the subject, to be titled "Let There Be Dark." In related news, Perlmutter wrote a letter to the New York Times editor regarding Panek's article, clarifying the role of the Supernova Cosmology Project in dark energy research.

All Staff Must Take
UC Ethics Briefing

All Lab employees are required to take the UC Ethics Briefing no later than May 7.  Those who have not received an e-mail with a link to the UC Ethics Briefing should contact Karen Paris (x5122). Supervisors are required to direct their employees without access to a computer to one of these two classroom sessions: Monday, April 9, from 1 to 2 p.m., or April 23, from 11 a.m. to noon, both in the Building 50 Auditorium.

Latest 'Travel Express'
Now Available Online

Lab travelers and administrators can pick up helpful tips by reading the online publication Travel Express. The latest issue covers such topics as expediting reimbursements, obtaining hotel government rates, and how to avoid the flu when flying south of the equator. Go here to view the publication. Contact Linda Wuy to be added to the distribution list.

April is National
Organ Donation Month

The Lab's Health Care Facilitator office reminds employees that April is “National Donate Life Month.” People of all ages should consider themselves potential organ and tissue donors. There are a few absolute exclusions: HIV positive, active cancer, and systemic infection. No strict upper or lower age limits exists, both newborns and senior citizens have been living donors. Generally, the donor should be physically fit, in good health, and not have or have had diabetes, cancer, high blood pressure, kidney disease, or heart disease. Go to here for more information.

Campbell, center front, with students

Profile of Lab Staffer
In Local Newspaper

Tammy Campbell, with the Lab's Information Technology (IT) Division, is featured in a column in the Contra Costa Times, in which she discusses her involvement with the local school in Pinole. As a volunteer, she help produce the online newsletter for the district's middle and high schools, works on safety issues, and is a member of the parent-teacher association. Go here to read the full column.

Berkeley Faculty to Join
Talks on BP Contract

UC Berkeley's administration has invited faculty members to join the contract talks on the $500 million BP biofuels deal amid pressure to ensure that campus traditions and values are safeguarded in the partnership. "That's a big breakthrough," said Academic Senate Chair Bill Drummond. "That to me is a big concession on their part." Full story.

Starving Science: Money
For Research Crucial

This editorial ran recently in the San Francisco Chronicle

Congress and the White House showered money on biomedical research from 1998 to 2003, doubling the budget of the National Institutes of Health. Since then, however, money for the nation's top research entity has stagnated while inflation nibbled away nearly 10 percent of operations. Blame the Iraq war, the White House's distrust of stem-cell work or political impatience with long-term research. Whatever the reason, the results are punishing fundamental science and innovation. Full editorial.