I-Yang Lee with Gammasphere

Gammasphere in Physical
Review's 'Suggestions'

Physical Review Letters kicked off the New Year with a novel feature called Suggestions, highlighting papers intended to restore the PRL founders' goal of encouraging readers to "venture outside their main areas of study...to foster unity in physics." The editors' first five Suggestions included a paper about dramatic changes in erbium isotopes at ultrahigh spin, using data collected by the Gammasphere -- then in place at the 88-Inch Cyclotron, where it was built. Authors include the Nuclear Science Division's Rod Clark, Mario Cromaz, Paul Fallon, Andreas Görgen, I-Yang Lee, Augusto Macchiavelli, and David Ward. Read the paper here and PRL's announcement here. 

Website Shows Darfur
Stoves Project Progress

Berkeley Lab researchers developed, in cooperation with local inhabitants and aid organizations, the Berkeley-Darfur Stove, a low-cost technology that will help minimize violence against women in Darfur refugee camps, increase disposable incomes, and reduce environmental degradation. The stoves require 75 percent less fuel than current stoves, and reduces exposure to rape, hunger, physical hardship, and humiliation. A Lab website provides progress reports on this work, as well as an opportunity to directly assist the project’s Berkeley Lab researchers on the site’s donations page.

Design of Denser
Chip Goes Molecular

Subramanian

Comments by Berkeley Lab materials scientist Vivek Subramanian are included in a New York Times story on two scientists who have built a memory chip that is roughly the size of a white blood cell. The chip was designed using specially designed molecular switches and a novel technique for making ultrathin wires. The new work pulls the components into an integrated circuit. “This is sort of the capstone in that they’ve pulled all this together,” said Subramanian, who was not involved in the research. Full story.

Nasman, left, and Barker

Staffer Hits Jackpot
On The Price is Right

Sally Nasman, a proposal development specialist for the Materials Sciences Division, got an early Christmas present late last year: she was a big winner on The Price is Right show. "My father took me to see Bob Barker (the program's host) on Truth or Consequences in 1963," says Nasman. "For the past couple of years, I've been wanting to see him again before his retirement this summer." Not only did she see him, but was up on stage getting prizes and hearty congratulations from him. Go here to read more about Nasman's lucrative adventure and to view a video of her appearance on one of the country's most popular game shows.

Ten teams of high school science and math students from around the Bay Area will visit the Lab tomorrow to compete in a Department of Energy regional science bowl. Employees interested in viewing the competition can stop by the Building 50 Auditorium at 8:45 a.m. to hear opening remarks and pick up a schedule of the day's events. Winners of the competition will travel to Washington D.C. later this year to compete nationally.