Lab Technology Monitors
Australian CO₂ Injection

Sequestration drilling in Australia

Australia has launched the first carbon sequestration project in the southern hemisphere with the help of technology developed by DOE researchers, including Berkeley Lab earth scientists Tom Daly and Barry Freifeld. The Otway Basin Pilot Project will inject and monitor carbon dioxide in a depleted gas field to demonstrate the feasibility of storing the greenhouse gas to fight global climate change. Lab-developed instrumentation will be used to track the CO₂ plume during and after the injection, and seismic techniques will provide data about the location, migration, and permanent storage of the CO₂ plume, which will be more than a mile deep. Full story.

Lab Nano Solar Cell
Technologies Licensed

Berkeley Lab recently concluded an exclusive license with Solexant Corp. to further develop inexpensive, energy efficient, inorganic solar cell technologies. Associate Lab Director Paul Alivisatos and his research group in the Materials Sciences Division led the discovery of the nanomaterials. The inorganic cells are based on solution-processed ultra thin nanocrystal films and have demonstrated performance enhancement over traditional organic photovoltaic semiconductors. These inorganic materials will be useful for developing improved photovoltaics, LEDs, transistors, and sensors.

From Budapest to Berkeley:
Somorjai's Long Journey

Somorjai with wife Judith on their wedding day in Berkeley, 1957

“People choose a profession for three reasons — power, security or independence,” says Berkeley Lab materials scientist Gabor Somorjai. “Independence was my driving force.” His pursuit of freedom led him to flee his native Budapest after the Hungarian uprising against Soviet rule in 1956 and come to the United States. His journey is chronicled in a riveting story by Michael Barnes that appears in the latest issue of Catalyst, UC Berkeley’s College of Chemistry research publication. The story begins with his harrowing escape from Hungary to his accomplishments as a highly regarded and prize-winning chemist. Go here to read the full article.

Is Discovery Youngest
Planet or Brown Dwarf?

A team of astronomers says it may have spotted the youngest planet ever found, boasting an age of less than 100,000 years old, and perhaps as young as 1,600 years old. They say it bolsters a controversial theory that planets form very quickly, like stars — but other astronomers say the massive object may not be a planet at all but a 'failed' star (brown dwarf) which explains its speedy birth. "I think most astronomers would agree that it is a brown dwarf forming by a 'stellar' process," says UC Berkeley professor and Berkeley Lab physicist Gibor Basri. Full story.