Energy Efficiency Good
For Economy, Environment

This commentary by Environmental Energy Technologist Evan Mills appeared in the April 23 issue of Forbes.com.

Mills

The production and use of energy can enhance economic development and the quality of life, or, depending on the choices we make, erode it by compromising the health of humans and the environment. The notion of a necessary tension between energy and environment is one of the false dichotomies falling by the wayside in the energy-environment conversation. The problem is manageable if we follow an economically and environmentally driven "loading order" in energy planning. Enhancing the efficiency of energy use is, hands down, the most cost-effective way to mitigate the environmental impact of energy use while fueling economic growth. Full story.

Nanoscale Cable Aids
Solar Energy Harvest

Wang

The nanowire, developed by researchers from the National Renewable and Energy Laboratory and Berkeley Lab, including computing scientist Lin-Wang Wang, may solve several problems currently associated with renewable energy applications. Semiconducting materials with potential use in renewable energy devices lack one key characteristic: electrons in these materials are excited by light and jump to higher energy levels. A better scenario is the separation of the excited electrons from the holes so that, in the case of solar cells, the electrons can be drawn off and used for electricity. Full story.

Onsite Microsoft Word
Class Offered May 15

Berkeley Lab Institute (BLI) is sponsoring a visit by software education company Learn iT for intermediate and advanced Microsoft World classes on May 15. The cost is $40 per class. Due to limited space, interested employees are encouraged to sign up soon.  Go here for more information and to register.

South Side of Milky Way
May Shield Cosmic Rays

Muller

As the Earth’s solar system travels around the center of the Milky Way galaxy, it also wobbles up and down from the galaxy’s disc. Scientists found that these swings take about 62 million years to complete, which may expose the Earth to higher doses of dangerous cosmic rays that may also cause mass extinctions. Berkeley Lab physicists Robert Rohde and Richard Muller studied a massive amount of fossil data that covered an era of over 500 million years. They surmise that the greatest risk of extinction has occurred every 62 million years or so for the past 542 million years. Full story.

German Delegation Visits Lab's Computing Sciences

A group of senior managers from Germany’s Juelich Research Center, along with the German deputy consul general from San Francisco, will visit the Lab and National Energy Research Scientific Computing on Friday. Juelich is home to one of Germany’s largest supercomputers. The group will hear presentations from Sherry Li and Ali Pinar of the Scientific Computing Group and Kurt Stockinger of the Visualization Group. The visit will conclude with a tour of NERSC.

Online Services Provide Valuable Resource

The Lab's Public Affairs Office offers a number of online resources that can assist employees with their work. Electronic archives are available for those who need to look up articles that have previously run in Today at Berkeley Lab and The View. Staff with an item for sale or service to offer can post this information on the Lab's Flea Market. Lab-sponsored events can be entered into the calendar to encourage attendance. And the editors of Today are always looking for story ideas, which can be sent here.