A Q&A with scientist Jeff Urban, who explains forward osmosis and how Berkeley Lab is pushing the frontiers of this emerging technology.
Moving Forward on Desalination
Feature Story Julie Chao •
New Recipes for Taking Salt Out of Seawater
News Release Theresa Duque •
As populations boom and chronic droughts persist, coastal cities like Carlsbad in Southern California have increasingly turned to ocean desalination to supplement a dwindling fresh water supply. Now Berkeley Lab scientists investigating how to make desalination less expensive have hit on promising design rules for making so-called “thermally responsive” ionic liquids to separate water from salt.
Crystal With a Twist: Scientists Grow Spiraling New Material
Science Snapshots Theresa Duque •
Scientists at Berkeley Lab and UC Berkeley have created new inorganic crystals made of stacks of atomically thin sheets that unexpectedly spiral like a nanoscale card deck.
Drones Will Fly for Days With This New Technology
Science Snapshots Theresa Duque •
Researchers with Berkeley Lab and UC Berkeley have developed a superefficient thermophotovoltaic that could allow drones to fly for days.
New Laws of Attraction: Scientists Print Magnetic Liquid Droplets
News Release Theresa Duque •
Using a modified 3D printer, a team of scientists at Berkeley Lab have fabricated a magnetic device out of liquids. Their findings could lead to a revolutionary class of printable liquid devices for a variety of applications from artificial cells that deliver targeted cancer therapies to flexible liquid robots that can change their shape to adapt to their surroundings.
A Graphene Superconductor That Plays More Than One Tune
News Release Theresa Duque •
Researchers at Berkeley Lab have developed a graphene device that’s thinner than a human hair but has a depth of special traits. It easily switches from a superconducting material that conducts electricity without losing any energy, to an insulator that resists the flow of electric current, and back again to a superconductor – all with a simple flip of a switch.
Berkeley Lab Scientists Earn Prestigious White House Early Career Award
Feature Story Theresa Duque •
Two scientists with Berkeley Lab are among 315 researchers named on July 2 by President Donald Trump to receive the prestigious Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers. Two faculty scientists jointly affiliated with Berkeley Lab and the University of California, Berkeley are also among those selected to receive the honor.
With Little Training, Machine-Learning Algorithms Can Uncover Hidden Scientific Knowledge
News Release Julie Chao •
Researchers have shown that an algorithm with no training in materials science can scan the text of millions of papers and uncover new scientific knowledge. A Berkeley Lab-led team collected 3.3 million abstracts of published materials science papers and fed them into an algorithm. By analyzing relationships between words the algorithm was able to predict discoveries of new thermoelectric materials years in advance and suggest as-yet unknown materials as candidates for thermoelectric materials.
X-Ray Studies Key in Study Relating to Immune System-Signaling Protein
Science Snapshots Glenn Roberts Jr. •
Experiments at Berkeley Lab’s Advanced Light Source detailed the structure of a grouping of amino acids that are part of an important signaling protein.
Scientists Capture Atomic Motion in 4D for the First Time
Science Snapshots Theresa Duque •
Scientists have gained a never-before-seen view of nucleation – capturing how the atoms rearrange at 4D atomic resolution. The findings differ from predictions based on the classical theory of nucleation that has long appeared in textbooks.