Despite a temporary shutdown of the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument in Arizona – which was in its final stages of testing in preparation to begin mapping millions of galaxies in 3D when the pandemic struck – a variety of project tasks are still moving forward.
This COVID-19 Detector Has Berkeley Lab Roots
May 21st, 2020A technology spun from carbon nanotube sensors discovered 20 years ago by Berkeley Lab scientists could one day help health care providers test patients for COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2.
Using Machine Learning to Estimate COVID-19’s Seasonal Cycle
May 20th, 2020One of the many unanswered scientific questions about COVID-19 is whether it is seasonal like the flu – waning in warm summer months then resurging in the fall and winter. Now scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory are launching a project to apply machine-learning methods to a plethora of health and environmental datasets, combined with high-resolution climate models and seasonal forecasts, to tease out the answer.
X-ray Experiments Zero in on COVID-19 Antibodies
May 19th, 2020An international scientific team has discovered a neutralizing antibody, derived from the blood of a SARS survivor, that inhibits the closely related COVID-19-causing coronavirus. In a paper published this week in Nature, the scientists note that the antibody is already on an accelerated development path toward clinical trials.
Masks On, Ready to Work: Meet the People Supporting COVID-19 Science
May 15th, 2020David Richardson’s job is literally to make sure the light stays on. But it’s not just any light – it’s a very special X-ray light that could play a crucial role in an eventual treatment for COVID-19. Richardson is an operator at the Advanced Light Source, and is one of a handful of workers providing essential services to scientists working on COVID-19-related research.
Seeing the Universe Through New Lenses
May 14th, 2020A new study by an international team of scientists revealed hundreds of new strong gravitational lensing candidates based on a deep dive into data collected for a U.S. Department of Energy-supported telescope project in Arizona called the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument. The study, published in The Astrophysical Journal, benefited from the winning machine-learning algorithm in an international science competition.
Making Quantum ‘Waves’ in Ultrathin Materials
May 14th, 2020A team of researchers co-led by Berkeley Lab has observed unusually long-lived wavelike electrons called “plasmons” in a new class of electronically conducting material. Plasmons are important for determining the optical and electronic properties of metals for the development of new sensors and communication devices.