Tech Transfer honorees

Tech Transfer Awards Go
To Inventors in 7 Projects

Ten Berkeley Lab scientists were honored this week for their significant contributions to the technology transfer process through inventing, working with Tech Transfer Office staff, and interacting with companies. In a brief ceremony Tuesday, Lab Director Steve Chu presented 2007 Technology Transfer Awards to the following researchers whose technologies in seven projects were licensed this year: Tamas Torok, Tom Budinger and Jonathan Maltz of Life Sciences; Paul Alivisatos, Steven Hughes, Richard Robinson, and Bryce Sadtler of Materials Sciences; Jay Groves of Physical Biosciences; Ted Chang of Environmental Energy Technologies; and Nitash Balsara of Materials Sciences and EETD. Go here to read more about the technology and to view a full-size image of the recipients.

A new visitor pass system will be implemented at the Lab on Monday, Dec. 17. To accommodate this upgrade, all new visitor requests must be submitted by noon tomorrow, when the old system will be taken offline. Those requiring visitor pass assistance between these times must contact the Site Access office (x4855).

New Weight Watchers Reimbursement Program

To help improve the health of staff who may be overweight or obese, the Lab's Health Services group is offering a program whereby they will reimburse the cost of attending onsite Weight Watchers classes. To qualify, participants must attend 14 of the 17 scheduled Wednesday meetings, which begin Jan. 16 at noon in Building 26-124. Cost is $10.94 per week, or $186 for the 17-week session. An information meeting will be held Jan. 9, same time and location. To sign up, contact Cathy Wentworth (x5334).

New-Hire Benefits Site
Down Due to Upgrades

To accommodate system upgrades, the new-hire benefits enrollment form on the University of California “At Your Service” website will be unavailable starting tomorrow through the morning of Friday, Jan. 4. Also, staff who are already enrolled will not be able to check their current status during this time. New employees unable to enroll before tomorrow and who risk missing their 31-day Period of Initial Eligibility (PIE) should contact the Benefits Department for assistance (x6403).

Thinking Outside Cell
Key to Cancer Research
By Kara Platoni

Why do we get cancer? For years, conventional wisdom held that cancer begins solely with a DNA mutation that causes cells to run amok and reproduce uncontrollably. Berkeley Lab life scientist Mina Bissell believes a crucial part of cancer formation is not just what goes wrong inside the cell, but what goes wrong in the way it interacts with its extracellular matrix, the 3-D architecture that surrounds and supports the cell. If Bissell is right, her insight will revolutionize not only how cancer is understood and treated, but perhaps what it means to have the disease. Full story.

Mammoths Blasted
By Space Fragments
By Jonathan Amos

Firestone

A new discovery shows that eight tusks dating to some 35,000 years ago all show signs of having been peppered with meteorite fragments. The ancient remains come from Alaska, but researchers also have a Siberian bison skull with the same pockmarks. The scientists released details of this research at a recent meeting of the American Geophysical Union. They painted a picture of a calamitous event over North America that may have severely knocked back the populations of some species. "We think that there was probably an impact which exploded in the air that sent these particles flying into the animals," said Richard Firestone with Berkeley Lab’s Nuclear Science Division. Full story.

Weather Simulation
Record Set at NERSC

Franklin computer

A team of researchers has set U.S. records for size, performance, and fidelity of computer weather simulations. The team's efforts open the way for simulations of greatly enhanced resolution and size, key to improving both operational forecasts and basic understanding of weather and climate prediction. Much of the research was done on the Cray XT4 "Franklin" supercomputer at Berkeley Lab's National Energy Research Computing (NERSC) Center. Full story.