In revisiting a chemical reaction that’s been in the literature for several decades and adding a new wrinkle of their own, researchers with Berkeley Lab and UC Berkeley have discovered a mild and relatively inexpensive procedure for removing oxygen from biomass. This procedure, if it can be effectively industrialized, could allow many of today’s petrochemical products, including plastics, to instead be made from biomass.

Generations of Berkeley Lab nuclear scientists have contributed to FRIB, the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams, a $550 million heavy-ion accelerator to study rare nuclear processes that will be built at Michigan State University. Crucial components of FRIB are its ion source, based on the 88-Inch Cyclotron’s record-breaking VENUS, and GRETA, the gamma-ray detector designed and now under construction here. Nuclear Science Division Director James Symons participates in the launch of the new accelerator.

New technology uses laser ablation — the use of laser pulses to vaporize small amounts of material — to test for hazardous wastes and explosives while generating almost no chemical waste. The technology can save the lives of soldiers, keep children safe from toys illegally coated with lead paints, and protect workers from chemical poisoning.

Berkeley Lab researchers have created a unique new memory storage medium that can pack thousands of times more data into one square inch of space than conventional chips and preserve this data for more than a billion years!