Turning Brain Cells On,
Off Via Remote Control

Isacoff

The work of Ehud Isacoff, a biophysicist with Berkeley Lab's Physical Biosciences Division, was among the studies cited in an article in this week’s New York Times’ Science section entitled “The Beam of Light That Flips a Switch That Turns on the Brain.” The story explores how scientists are using new technologies in genetics and optics to turn on and off targeted sets of cells in the brain via remote control. Isacoff introduced an artificial, light-activated protein into the neurons of zebrafish, which could be used to block the normal reflex response of the fish to a physical touch. Full story. Go here to read a Lab article on his research.

NERSC Hosts Open Science Grid Council Meeting

The Open Science Grid Council will hold its annual meeting at NERSC this Friday, when they will review the accomplishments of the past year and discuss plans for the next year. Funded by the National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy's Office of Science, the Open Science Grid (OSG) is a distributed computing infrastructure that enables scientists to carry out and manage their research more efficiently. OSG has brought together national labs, universities, software developers and other experts to provide grid computing and storage resources to more than 50 sites in the United States, Asia and South America. The OSG Council is chaired by NERSC General Manager Bill Kramer. More information is available here.

Server Energy Use
Doubling in Five Years

While the high-tech industry pursues solutions to global warming, it's also contributing to the problem. Ever-multiplying computer server facilities will double their consumption of energy in the next five years, according to a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency study sent to Congress last week. The report, the result of a bill sponsored by Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Palo Alto, was based on research from Berkeley Lab and involved industry representatives who attended a Silicon Valley workshop in February. Full story.

Scientists Create Drugs
Using The Natural Way

Clark

Mother nature can make drugs and other complicated molecules without using any toxic chemicals. And now scientists have figured out how to do it too, making sophisticated compounds by stripping down the natural process for producing complicated chemicals and identifying each molecule that living cells use. Using enzymes to produce chemicals on a large scale is tricky. Many of them are very delicate. If not kept in the right liquid at a comfortable temperature, they stop working. Berkeley Lab environmental energy technologist Douglas Clark is developing clever ways to stabilize the protein machines so that they can be more useful as industrial catalysts. Full story.