A 19th century phonautograph

Lab Scientists Help
Play Earliest Recording

Berkeley Lab’s Earl Cornell and Carl Haber helped a group of audio historians play a sound recording that predates Edison’s invention of the phonograph by 17 years. The historians recently discovered the recording of a person singing “Au Clair de la Lune” in Paris. It was made in 1860 on a phonautograph, which was designed to record sounds visually, not to reproduce them. The recording was converted from squiggles on paper to a digital audio file using technology developed at Berkeley Lab. The research was featured in yesterday's New York Times, as well as in a segment on NPR's All Things Considered.

State Taking a Second
Look at Nuclear Power

As concerns about greenhouse gases and global warming mount, nuclear energy is getting a second look in California, with supporters ranging from the governor to at least one environmental activist. But some feel nuclear is too big, too expensive, and too risky from a financial perspective. "The big issue is construction costs for new plants," said Per Peterson, with Berkeley Lab’s Accelerator and Fusion Research Division and nuclear energy advocate. Full story.

Extinction May be Due
To Meteorite Impact

Berkeley Lab nuclear scientist Richard Firestone was part of a team that in 2005 reported evidence of a possible comet that could have caused a mass extinction of many of the large mammals in North America, including mammoths, around 13,000 years ago. The team now theorizes that a meteorite may have caused a similar type of extinction in parts of Alaska and Siberia around 35,000 years ago. The Sithylemenkat Lake in Alaska was probably created by an asteroid big enough to cause regional destruction, "kind of like you walked into machine gun fire, except that the bullets hit all at once," says Firestone. Full story.

Filling Up a Breeze
For Danish Drivers

A Danish utility recently announced a system to charge electric cars. For Denmark, it is a creative way to deal with surpluses of wind power. Consumers will be able to charge electric car batteries at windy times when power is cheap. Unlike Europe, U.S. electricity grids are fragmented and out of date, making moving power around difficult. And windy areas are often located far from centers where lots of power is needed. "The grid here just isn't as strong, in part because the country isn't as densely packed," said Ryan Wiser, with Berkeley Lab’s Environmental Energy Technologies Division. "But studies have shown that the grid, with modest tweaks, is up to the task." Full story.