The Best Topological Conductor Yet: Spiraling Crystal Is the Key to Exotic Discovery
March 20th, 2019A team of researchers working at Berkeley Lab has discovered the strongest topological conductor yet, in the form of thin crystal samples that have a spiral-staircase structure. The team’s result is reported in the March 20 edition of the journal Nature.
Mouse Study Yields Long-Awaited Insights into Human Stomach Cancer
March 22nd, 2019Mice have been instrumental in the study of cancer, but like all animal models of human diseases, they have their limitations. For stomach cancer in particular, mice have historically been regarded as quite poor research organisms because rodents rarely develop spontaneous stomach tumors. But results from a new study are about to shake up the paradigm.
Setting a ‘Gold Standard’ for Ultrasensitive Particle Detectors
March 19th, 2019Alan “Al” Smith was a pioneer in the “low-background counting” performance of particle detectors – their ability to see ever-fainter signatures of particle interactions. He developed the gold standard for measuring trace levels of radioactivity in materials and components.
Pioneering Cancer Researcher Mina Bissell Receives Two Top Honors
March 19th, 2019Mina Bissell, a distinguished scientist at the Berkeley Lab, has been selected to receive two prestigious awards for her pioneering contributions to breast cancer biology and medicine.
Bright Skies for Plant-Based Jet Fuels
March 19th, 2019With an estimated daily fuel demand of more than 5 million barrels per day, the global aviation sector is incredibly energy-intensive and almost entirely reliant on petroleum-based fuels. But a new analysis by Berkeley Lab shows that sustainable plant-based bio-jet fuels could be competitive with conventional fuels if current development and scale-up initiatives continue to push ahead successfully.
Sea Quark Surprise Reveals Deeper Complexity in Proton Spin Puzzle
March 14th, 2019New data from the STAR experiment at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) add detail – and complexity – to an intriguing puzzle that scientists have been seeking to solve: how the building blocks that make up a proton contribute to its spin.
Uncovering Uncultivated Microbes in the Human Gut
March 14th, 2019A human’s health is shaped both by environmental factors and the body’s interactions with the microbiome, particularly in the gut. Genome sequences are critical for characterizing individual microbes and understanding their functional roles. However, previous studies have estimated that only 50 percent of species in the gut microbiome have a sequenced genome, in part because many species have not yet been cultivated for study.
