How do some bacteria survive conditions that should kill them? In groundbreaking research, Berkeley Lab scientists used the Advanced Light Source to track chemical changes in individual bacteria that enable them to adapt to extreme environments.

The biggest environmental challenges facing scientists today will require a better understanding of nanosized minerals, which abide by their own often mysterious rules. Scientists at the Berkeley Nanogeoscience Center are working to learn these rules.

Following the SOFeX iron-fertilization experiment in the Southern Ocean, deep-diving Carbon Explorer floats continuously collected data for over a year, straight through the Antarctic winter. Earth Sciences Division oceanographers analyzed the data and found that most of the carbon from lush plankton blooms, whether artificially fertilized or natural, never reaches the deep ocean.

The Department of Energy will invest $777 million in 46 new Energy Frontier Research Centers over the next five years as part of President Barack Obama’s plans to reinvigorate American science. Berkeley Lab will be home to the Center for Nanoscale Control of Geologic CO2, led by Don DePaolo, director of the Earth Sciences Division, to study carbon dioxide storage deep underground.

Microbial communities in tropical forest soils rank among the most efficient biomass break-down engines on Earth. Harnessing their power could lead to improved ways of converting plant material into biofuels.

Using state-of-the-art tools, Berkeley Lab’s Earth Sciences Division is tackling the challenges that inhibit the long-term remediation of subsurface metals and radionuclides. Their approach takes into account everything from the interactions of microscopic proteins to the characteristics of kilometer-scale field sites.

An innovative DNA microarray developed at Berkeley Lab is shedding light on what’s killing the world’s coral reefs. The tool, which catalogs the swings in microbial populations associated with disease, may help scientists learn how to preserve one of the ocean’s most important denizens.

Roofs and pavements that reflect sunlight keep individual buildings and whole cities cooler. Staying cool saves energy, so one way to keep greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere is to use more cool roofing and paving materials, especially in urban areas. Cooling the neighborhood could help cool the world.

Jayant Sathaye, who heads the International Energy Group in Berkeley Lab’s Environmental Energy Technologies Division and who shared in the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize as a member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, is a leading participant in the Governors’ Global Climate Summit taking place Tuesday and Wednesday, Nov 18 and 19, in Beverly Hills, CA.

Berkeley Lab scientists have analyzed the remarkable genome of a bacterium constituting the first single-species ecosystem. Desulforudis audaxviator was discovered 2.8 kilometers beneath the surface of the earth in a South African gold mine, where it exists in complete isolation, total darkness, a lack of oxygen, and 60-degree-Celsius heat.