Astronomers predict that large spiral galaxies like our Milky Way have hundreds of satellite galaxies orbiting around them. Using supercomputers at NERSC, scientists developed a mathematical method to uncover these “dark” galaxies. When she applied it to our own Milky Way, she discovered a faint satellite might be lurking on the opposite side of the galaxy from Earth.

“Tabletop” laser-plasma accelerators like BELLA promise high energies in short spaces. It’s a staggering challenge to model the acceleration of electrons by a laser beam moving through a plasma in 3-D, however, a challenge that until recently has been beyond practical solution by supercomputers. Borrowing a page from Albert Einstein’s Theory of Special Relativity, Berkeley Lab researchers have perfected a way to accelerate calculations up to a million times faster.

Berkeley Lab researchers have carried out the first experimental demonstration of GRIN plasmonics, a hybrid technology that opens the door to a wide range of exotic optics, including superfast photonic computers, ultra-powerful optical microscopes, and “invisibility” carpet-cloaking devices.

Berkeley Lab scientists have been awarded massive allocations on the nation’s most powerful supercomputer to advance innovative research in improving the combustion of hydrogen fuels and increasing the efficiency of nanoscale solar cells. The awards were announced today by Energy Secretary Steven Chu as part of DOE’s Innovative and Novel Computational Impact on Theory and Experiment (INCITE) program.

Berkeley Lab’s Alexandre Chorin (left) and James Sethian won prestigious prizes from the International Council for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (ICIAM) for groundbreaking work in applied math, with impacts ranging from fluid mechanics and aerodynamics to medical imaging and semiconductor manufacturing. Chorin won the Lagrange Prize and Sethian won the Pioneer Prize. The awards bring to Berkeley Lab two of the five math prizes the ICIAM awards every four years.

Berkeley Lab researchers have discovered an entire new class of phase-change materials that could be applied to PCM and optical data storage technologies. The new materials, alloys of a metal and semiconductor, are called “BEANs,” for binary eutectic-alloy nanostructures.

Horst Simon, an internationally recognized expert in computer science and applied mathematics, has been named Deputy Director of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Simon has helped to establish the Lab as a world leader in providing supercomputing resources to support research in fields ranging from global climate modeling to astrophysics.

Berkeley Lab researchers have created a nano-sized light mill motor powerful enough to drive micro-sized disks. With rotational speed and direction controlled by the frequency of incident light waves, this new nanomotor should open the door to a broad range of applications in energy and biology as well as in nanoelectromechanical systems.

Emily Chen still vividly remembers the lecture on gecko feet. She was an eighth grader attending Berkeley Lab’s Nano*High program to hear materials scientist Arun Majumdar explain how what he was learning about gecko feet might translate into a new adhesive product based on carbon nanotubes. Many students come away from a Berkeley Lab summer internship—or just a weekend lecture—infected by the scientists’ passion for their work and with a sharper focus on their own academic and career path.

Researchers at Berkeley Lab’s Molecular Foundry have successfully used direct chemical vapor deposition to synthesize single-layer graphene films on dielectric substrates. This represents a major step towards future applications of graphene in both the electronics and the photonics industries, starting with superfast transistors and computer memory chips.