High Ozone Levels
In Airplane Cabins

A new report showing illegally high ozone levels on some U.S. flights suggests that all aircraft should be fitted with ozone converters. William Nazaroff, with Berkeley Lab’s Environmental Energy Technologies Division, and his colleagues monitored ozone levels on 76 international and domestic flights. On four domestic flights, ozone levels exceeded federal limits of 100 parts per billion. Breathing ozone can cause headaches and respiratory illness, and has even been linked to cancer. Full story.

Company Commercializing
Keasling Fuel Technology

The secret to venture capital is turning a tiny resource into something huge. And that's exactly what Bay Area biofuels startup Amyris is proposing to do: put specially designed microorganisms to work on sugarcane in hopes of generating massive amounts of a new kind of biodiesel fuel. Amyris’ technology came from research conducted by Jay Keasling, director of Berkeley Lab’s Physical Biosciences Division. On Wednesday, the company said it had teamed up with Crystalsev, one of Brazil’s largest ethanol distributors and marketers, to commercialize fuels made from sugarcane. Full story.

Laser Photosynthesis Technique Extended

Graham Fleming, of the Physical Biosciences Division, led the development of a femtosecond laser-based technique that made it possible to track the flow of sunlight energy during photosynthesis through both time and space. Now, working with Elizabeth Read and Gabriela Schlau-Cohen, he has extended the technique to the imaging of energy-transferring functions in pigment-protein complexes. This provides the first experimental links between atomic and electronic structures in these complexes and should be a valuable tool for the future design of artificial versions of photosynthesis. Full story.

Life-Cycle Analysis
To Reduce Footprint

Masanet

Many are taking steps to reduce their personal carbon footprint, such as purchasing efficient appliances, recycling, and installing fluorescent bulbs. But what's next? Eric Masanet of Berkeley Lab's Environmental Energy Technologies Division and UC Berkeley professor Arpad Horvath are advancing an analytical method called life-cycle analysis that may help product manufacturers take the next leap. Life-cycle analysis (LCA) is not new, but scientists, manufacturers, and policymakers are using it more and more often to expose opportunities for reducing environmental impacts across the entire life cycle of products, from production to disposal. Full story.