Berkeley Lab Researchers are developing a promising treatment for safely decontaminating humans exposed to radioactive actinides from a major radiation exposure event, such as a nuclear reactor accident or a “dirty bomb” terrorist attack. The treatment, which can be administered as a pill that can result in the excretion of approximately 90-percent of the actinide contaminants within 24 hours, has been advanced through the initial pre-clinical phases.

LAMIS, a green chemistry laser spectroscopy technique from Berkeley Lab, is faster and less expensive than mass spectrometry and can be carried out from across vast distances. Among other applications, it can be used to date geological objects on Earth and beyond.

Petrochemicals are found in thousands of everyday products, from clothing to food preservatives to plastics. Imagine if many of those chemicals could be made without petroleum and instead with biological processes. Using the tools of synthetic biology scientists at the Department of Energy’s Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI) have done just that, and now a startup company has been formed to commercialize the technology.

A collaboration of Berkeley Lab and Notre Dame researchers appear to have resolved a long-standing controversy regarding the semiconductor gallium manganese arsenide, one of the most promising materials for spintronic technology. They’ve determined the source of the ferromagnetic properties that make gallium manganese arsenide such a hot commodity.

Using the exceptionally bright and powerful x-ray beams of the Advanced Light Source, Berkeley Lab researchers have discovered a critical control element within chaperonin, the protein complex responsible for the correct folding of other proteins. The “misfolding” of proteins has been linked to many diseases, including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and some forms of cancer.

This week’s ARPA-E Summit features several Berkeley Lab-led projects, all aimed at dramatically improving how the U.S. produces and uses energy. Among them is an effort to produce transportation fuel from tobacco. The goal is to engineer tobacco plants that use energy from the sun to produce fuel molecules directly in their leaves.

Berkeley Lab researchers have developed a relatively fast, easy and inexpensive technique for inducing nanorods to self-assemble into aligned and ordered macroscopic structures. This technique should enable more effective use of nanorods in solar cells, magnetic storage devices and sensors, and boost the electrical and mechanical properties of nanorod-polymer composites.

The network of national laboratories run by the Department of Energy (DOE) has spawned countless scientific discoveries and technological breakthroughs in the last 80 years. Now with the global economic climate more competitive than ever and the need for energy solutions more urgent, the labs are looking to develop closer ties with industry in an effort to speed up the pace at which discoveries reach the marketplace. To kick off the conversation Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) is hosting the Materials for Energy Applications workshop from Jan. 30 to Feb. 1 in Berkeley.

Berkeley Lab researchers have discovered why a promising technique for making quantum dots and nanorods has so far been a disappointment. Better still, they’ve also discovered how to correct the problem.

The clean energy commute of the future could come from research conducted at facilities like Berkeley Lab’s Molecular Foundry, where Rizia Bardhan is helping to develop new hydrogen storage materials. She recently earned a spot on Forbes’ list of 30 people under 30 who are rising stars in science.