September 6, 2002 Search the Currents Archive
 

Remembering 9/11

Lab Launches New Safety and Security Self-Assessment Process


First 1000-Year Climate Model Run at NERSC
Honors and Awards
New Form of Matter Observed?
Washington Report
Open House to Offer Science Wonders for the Young and Old
Special Talk on U.S. Satellite Program
Berkeley Lab Currents
Revealing the Secrets of a Most Unusual Superconductor
Counterintelligence Talk for Travelers to “Sensitive Countries”
Bulletin Board
Calendar
Register for SC ‘02
EH&S Classes – September 2002
Student Poster Session
Flea Market
Flea Market Policy


Remembering 9/11

As the world reflects next Wednesday on the tragic events of Sept. 11, 2001, Berkeley Lab will stage its own quiet remembrance. Deputy Director Sally Benson and Laboratory fire fighters invite employees to join them in observing a moment of silence as the Laboratory flags are lowered to half-staff in a brief ceremony at the Cyclotron Road flag pavilion at 11:45 a.m.

The Laboratory’s home page on the web will carry a special message that day, and at 8:46 a.m. PDT — the moment of impact on the East Coast of the first plane into the World Trade Center — a Lab announcement will request a minute of silence in deference to the State of California’s “Day of Remembrance.”

Activities at UC Berkeley include the tolling of the Campanile bells at noon, a memorial concert by the Department of Music in Hertz Hall at 12:15 p.m., and a candlelight vigil on Sproul Plaza from 8 to 10 p.m. sponsored by the Associated Students of UC.

Lab Launches New Safety and
Security Self-Assessment Process

“Right now, hackers are continuing to be more and more active
and sophisticated. Business as usual would mean that hackers
would become more competent and we would not.”
Sandy Merola

By Monica Friedlander

In recent years Berkeley Lab has been a leader among national laboratories in developing and implementing a comprehensive approach to protecting institutional assets. This effort culminated in what is known as the Integrated Safeguards and Security Management (ISSM) plan, launched in April of 2001. The program is rooted in the principle that scientific excellence requires an atmosphere of open exchange, which in turn can only be maintained as long as the Laboratory continues to act as a responsible steward of the assets with which it is entrusted.



Laboratory Director Charles Shank (center) is flanked by key people involved in the development of the ISSM questionnaire: Dwayne Ramsey, Sue Bowen, Jim Rothfuss, and Erik Richman.

“It is essential that the Laboratory remain an open environment that promotes free intellectual exchanges and collaborative efforts within the international scientific and technical community,” says Lab Director Charles Shank. “To sustain its scientific mission, it is important that the Laboratory protect its resources and assets, both intellectual and material.”

A year and a half into the plan’s implementation, Berkeley Lab is launching a new initiative to measure the success of the program and raise the awareness of the Lab community about its key elements.

To that end, all employees will be asked to complete a simple, online self-assessment questionnaire by Sept. 27. The results will give employees, division directors, and the Lab management a means to assess how well we are doing in protecting ourselves and our assets. Areas addressed by the 18-question web survey range from personal safety, to cybersecurity, to protection of intellectual property.

EH&S Division Director David McGraw and Sandy Merola, director of the Information Technologies and Services Division, were responsible for guiding the development of this comprehensive self-assessment tool.

“The ISSM program is designed to protect Laboratory assets, and some of these assets are real and some are virtual,” Merola says. “The virtual ones involve computers, networking, and cyberprotection. When the concepts of ISSM are accepted such that each staff member is as consciously responsible for virtual assets as they are for tangible ones, then we will have achieved success.”

In addition, the questionnaire also addresses larger issues about safety and security in the workplace. While many of these concerns have been at the forefront of our individual and collective consciousness for the past year, here at Berkeley Lab the effort to address them is a work in progress, many years in the making. The tragic events of last September have only served to heighten the Lab’s commitment to the successful implementation of its program.

“Just as we as citizens have raised our awareness of our surroundings in our own lives, so we have to apply this raised consciousness to our work and virtual interactions as well,” Merola says. “The world has changed across the board.”



Useful lab security information, including answers to questionnaire questions, can be found in this handy guide, small enough to carry in your wallet.

The self-assessment process

Within the next few days, each employee will receive a packet in the mail with detailed information about the questionnaire. Completing the easy, web-based survey should only take five to 15 minutes. Employees who do not have computer access may contact either their division security liaison or Sue Bowen in Site Access for assistance.

In addition to measuring how well we do, the questionnaire is designed to raise the level of our performance by also acting as an instructional tool by including live links to key information. For instance, the question “Do you know how to request access for your visitors?” guides the user to the website and phone number to obtain gate access. In this sense, it is up to each employee to make the most of the experience.

“It is important to demonstrate that we take security as seriously as we take science,” says Don Bell, the Lab’s security and emergency manager. “This is a very important principle if we’re to maintain an open scientific process.”

The results of the employee self assessment will be used to compile division profiles. Division directors will then be able to judge how well their divisions are doing, and based on that assessment make a decision on whether or not to take further action.

The process, says Merola, helps personalize these issues. This was especially apparent during a pilot phase of the self-assessment, conducted earlier this year in two divisions. “The pilot program raised the awareness of line management,” he said. “When a staff member realizes that something is happening to their program, their group, their division, their Laboratory — not just the Internet community — it personalizes the process and raises awareness. It brings the concerns closer to you.”

Each division will designate a security point of contact who will work directly with EH&S and Computing Sciences security managers to develop a plan to meet the needs of the group. (See your packet for a list of contact names and phone numbers.)

Finally, the division profiles will be rolled into an institutional report to be presented to senior management. The report will indicate how well each division has identified its security risk and resolved security concerns and help management make informed decisions concerning security based on those ratings. The self assessment process will be repeated periodically, as needed.

Focus on integration

A key aspect of ISSM is that it treats areas previously handled as separate concerns – such as individual safety, security issues, computer protection and even counterintelligence – as a unified whole.

“If something happens in one area of security, it impacts on others,” says Bell. “For example, if someone downloads hacking tools and uses them, they may break the law and cross over from computer security to law enforcement to violation of Lab procedures. It is an integral part of security and safety management that all these related functions work together.”

Merola adds that increased vigilance in the area of cybersecurity is a critical aspect of meeting our goals in security performance.

“Right now, hackers are continuing to be more and more active and sophisticated,” he says. “Business as usual would mean that hackers would become more competent and we would not. We have to improve our performance and make sure computers are patched against direct vulnerabilities. Our current performance in ensuring that our computers are patched is only minimally acceptable. If we do not improve that, we as an institution will suffer.”

ISSM was modeled after the Integrated Safety Management plan first enacted by EH&S four years ago following a collaboration with representatives from the U.S. Department of Energy. The plan was so successful it drew praise and recognition from the DOE and served as a model for other national laboratories. While the ISSM plan encompasses a far larger range of safety issues, says Bell, “it is based on the same functions and principles.”

Instead of considering issues such as safety and protection of our assets as separate functions, distinct from other activities, awareness of these issues was integrated into day-to-day business and project planning. Moreover, responsibility for safety and security became increasingly more decentralized, with each division and its employees assuming responsibility for these tasks.

Key principles of ISSM include:

  • Line management is responsible for security.
  • Security roles and responsibilities are clearly defined and communicated.
  • Security functions are integrated.
  • The security program must support the scientific and operational missions of the Laboratory.
  • Security controls are flexible and tailored to individual and facility requirements.

All along, however, the program stays firmly focused on science itself and the belief that a safer environment makes for a more open scientific environment.

Says Merola, “Many of us chose to work here and to give a significant part of our lives to do leading-edge science in an environment of open scientific exchange. To maintain this openness, however, we have to make sure we protect our assets, both personal and virtual. If we are open to cyberattacks, we could begin to put openness at risk, and we don’t want to do that.”

Development of the self-assessment questionnaire was a year-long collaborative process involving individuals in various divisions, including Dwayne Ramsey, Jim Rothfuss, Sue Bowen, and Erik Richman.

“Our staff has done a remarkable job,” Merola says. “All the credit should go to them. David McGraw and my role were to give the best support possible to enable these people to do such a great job. “

The questionnaire has already drawn rave reviews, and at least one other national laboratory (Oak Ridge) is working on a questionnaire modeled after ours.

“We are one of the first laboratories to develop a self-assessment tool that’s so rigorous,” says Bell. “We haven’t seen anyone else come close to what we’re doing.”

But even the best tool in the world is only as good as the people who use it. This is where the commitment and participation of the full Lab community comes in.

Says Merola, “We ask each individual to commit to maintaining an open institution by helping assess our safeguards and security profile, and to take these issues just as seriously as they take their own personal safety.”

First 1000-Year Climate Model Run at NERSC

By Jon Bashor

Scientists from the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) have just completed a 1,000-year run of a powerful new climate system model on a supercomputer at DOE’s National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC). Accurately predicting global climate change demands complex and comprehensive computer simulation codes, the fastest supercomputers available, and the ability to run those simulations long enough to model century after century of the global climate.

Scientists at NCAR in Boulder, Colorado, ran the millennium-long simulation of their new Community Climate System Model (CCSM2) for more than 200 uninterrupted days on the IBM SP supercomputer at NERSC.

According to Warren Washington, a senior scientist at NCAR and recently elected chair of the National Science Board, the scientific problem of climate prediction requires complex interactions between atmosphere, ocean, land/vegetation and the cryosphere. State-of-the-art climate models such as the CCSM are making the interactions over daily-to-century time scales much more accurate.

“One reason we need a long control simulation is that it gives the climate modeling community a very good idea of the ‘natural’ model variability on annual, decadal, and century time scales, so that as we perform climate change simulations, we can separate the natural forcing from the anthropogenic changes caused by increasing greenhouse gases, aerosols and land surface changes,” said Washington, an internationally recognized expert in computer modeling of the Earth’s climate.

CCSM2 tightly couples four complex models, including atmosphere and land modeling codes developed at NCAR and ocean and sea ice models developed at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Because of its comprehensive integration of four complex component models, CCSM2 has emerged as one of the United States’ leading computer codes for studying climate change.

The CCSM2 simulations being run at NERSC are part of the Climate Change Prediction Program in the DOE Office of Science. Data from these simulations run at NERSC, and NCAR will be made freely available to the nation’s climate research community.



Climate simulations such as this one of the El Nino effect on surface temperatures enable scientists to study the variability of the climate system on decade to century time scales.

“As DOE’s flagship facility for unclassified supercomputing, NERSC is able to provide both the uninterrupted computing resources and the expertise to enable this important simulation to run, as well as the data storage and network connectivity necessary to ensure that the resulting data can be easily accessed and analyzed,” said Horst Simon, director of the NERSC Center.

NCAR scientist Tony Craig began the CCSM2 millennium-long run at NERSC last January. The lengthy run demonstrated that the model’s variability is stable, even when run for century-after-century simulations.

“This simulation will enable climate scientists to study the variability of the climate system on decade to century time scales, which is an important aspect of climate change detection and attribution studies,” said Jeff Kiehl, a climate scientist at NCAR who chairs the scientific steering committee for CCSM2. “The computational resource provided by NERSC was essential for accomplishing this important simulation.”

Previous climate models have suffered in accuracy by allowing too much “drift,” which means the resulting climate temperature changes could have too much variation to be scientifically useful. The 1,000-year CCSM run had a total drift of one-half of one degree Celsius, compared to older versions with two to three times as much variance.

In addition to Washington, Kiehl and Craig, scientists contributing to the successful 1,000-year run include Gerald Meehl, Jim Hack and Peter Gent of NCAR, Burt Semtner of the Naval Postgraduate School and John Weatherly of the U.S. Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory.

New Form of Matter Observed?

An Exciting New State for Excitons

By Lynn Yarris



In photoluminescence, a bright fragmented ring surrounds the laser excitation spot indicating the formation of an exciton condensate, a new form of matter.

A Bose-Einstein condensate, a form of matter heretofore observed only in atoms chilled to less than a millionth of a degree above absolute zero, may now have been observed at temperatures in excess of one degree Kelvin in excitons, the bound pairs of electrons and holes that enable semiconductors to function as electronic devices.

Berkeley Lab researchers, in collaboration with a scientist at the University of California’s Santa Barbara campus, have reported the observation of excitons that display a macroscopically ordered electronic state, which indicates they have formed a new exciton condensate. The observation also holds potential for ultrafast digital logic elements and quantum computing devices.

“The excitons were expected to form a quantum liquid or even a Bose-Einstein condensate; this state had been predicted in theory since the 1960s, but the macroscopically ordered exciton state that we found is a new state that was not predicted,” says Leonid Butov, a solid state physicist who holds a joint appointment with Berkeley Lab’s Materials Sciences Division (MSD) and with the Institute of Solid State Physics at the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Just as the Nobel prize-winning creation of Bose-Einstein condensate atoms offered scientists a new look into the hidden world of quantum mechanics, so, too, would the creation of Bose-Einstein condensate excitons provide scientists with new possibilities for observing and manipulating quantum properties.

The creation of a new exciton condensate was reported in the Aug. 15, 2002 issue of the journal Nature, in a paper coauthored by Butov, Arthur Gossard of UC Santa Barbara’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Daniel Chemla, director of Berkeley Lab’s Advanced Light Source.

The new exciton condensate was observed at Berkeley Lab using photoluminescence on samples composed of the semiconductors gallium arsenide and aluminum gallium arsenide. The semiconductor samples were of extremely high quality and were prepared by graduate student Kenneth Campman in Gossard’s laboratory at Santa Barbara.

The observations were made by shining laser light on specially designed nano-sized structures called quantum wells, which were grown at the interface between the two semiconductors. These quantum wells allow electrons and electron holes (vacant energy spaces that are positively charged) to move freely through the two dimensions parallel to the quantum well plane, but not through the perpendicular dimension. Under the right energy conditions, application of an electrical field in this perpendicular direction will bind an electron in one quantum well to a hole in another across a potential barrier, to create a relatively stable exciton.

“An exciton functions as a quasi-particle, akin to a hydrogen atom,” says Butov, “which means that by reducing temperature or increasing density, it is a candidate to form a Bose-Einstein condensate.”

Trapped in the quantum wells, their movement restricted to two dimensions, the excitons created by Butov and his colleagues condensed at the bottom of the wells as their temperature dropped. Because the mass of these excitons was so much smaller than that of the atoms used to form atomic Bose-Einstein condensates, the critical temperature at which condensation occurred, about one degree Kelvin (-272 degrees Celsius or –459 degrees Fahrenheit) was much higher. By comparison, to create the first atomic Bose-Einstein condensates back in 1995, researchers at the University of Colorado had the daunting task of chilling a ball of rubidium atoms to as close to absolute zero as the laws of physics allow.

Under photoluminescence, the macroscopically ordered exciton state that Butov and his colleagues observed appeared against a black background as a bright ring that had been fragmented into a chain of circular spots extending out to one millimeter in circumference.

“The existence of this periodic ordering shows that the exciton state formed in the ring has a coherence on a macroscopic length of scale,” says Butov. “This coherence is a signature of a condensate. The next step is to do a coherence spectroscopy study, particularly at lower temperatures, that will verify the properties of this new state.”

Washington Report

DOE Pulls Plug on PubSCIENCE

DOE has decided to end PubSCIENCE, the free information service website for the physical sciences that the department has maintained since 1999. PubSCIENCE, which provided public access to bibliographic records in the physical sciences, was created as part of DOE’s effort to disseminate and improve access to scientific information. Since its inception, however, several commercial publishers of scientific information have begun to provide the same service.

Said Walter Warnick, director of DOE’s Office of Scientific and Technical Information, “We think that the PubSCIENCE portion of our mission is adequately filled by Infotrieve and Scirus,” two privately run, free-to-search databases owned by the Los Angeles-based Infotrieve corporation and Amsterdam-based Elsevier Science.

PubSCIENCE was modeled after PubMED, the National Institutes of Health’s popular online collection of journal citations and abstracts. Although publishers such as Elsevier Science, the American Physical Society, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science cooperated with DOE, PubSCIENCE never gathered the momentum that its medical counterpart did.

“I think one of the advantages PubMED always had over PubSCIENCE was that it was always very comprehensive in the disciplines that it covers,” says Warnick. “PubSCI-ENCE was never as comprehensive.”

Science Meetings Affected by Security Crackdown

Delays in issuing visas as a result of the U.S. State Department performing extra security checks on visa applications from scientists, engineers, and technologists from around the world have led to the cancellation or rescheduling of several recent meetings by U.S. organizations, according to a report in Science. Most heavily affected so far have been scientists from the former Soviet Union and China who are involved in research on weapons or other areas deemed sensitive to national security. Organizations first began noticing the delays in late spring, but it wasn’t until this summer that most U.S. nonproliferation experts learned that any foreign scientist could be subjected to such checks.

The delays, which have been up to a few weeks, stem from more frequent interviews with visa applicants in U.S. embassies in the applicants’ home countries as well as new measures, such as stiff vetting by the FBI and other intelligence agencies.

So far, Science reports, the consequences have been relatively minor: canceled plane tickets, lost hotel reservation fees, etc. But there are concerns that the situation will change for the worse if the proposed U.S. Department of Homeland Security assumes responsibility for screening visa applicants.

Visa policies will be discussed later this month at a Washington, D.C. seminar for science attachés from around the world, sponsored by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Awards and Honors

Graham Fleming, director of the Lab’s Physical Biosciences Division and a professor of chemistry at UC Berkeley, has been awarded the 2002 Earle K. Plyler Prize for Molecular Spectroscopy by the American Physical Society. The award cites Fleming’s “seminal work on chemical reaction dynamics in liquids and the dynamics of fundamental biological processes using femtosecond laser spectroscopy.” Fleming’s research concentrates on dynamical processes in liquids, solutions, and other complex systems, notably proteins.

He and his colleagues are seeking to provide a molecular-level description of the role of solvents in chemical reactions, which they study on the ultra-short, femtosecond time scale. Their work has led to major advances in the understanding of photosynthetic process in plants and bacteria.

Carlos Bustamante, head of the Advanced Microscopies Department in the Physical Biosciences Division and a professor of biochemistry at UC Berkeley has been awarded the American Physical Society’s Biological Physics Prize. Presented biennially, the 2002 award cites Bustamante’s pioneering work in single molecule biophysics and the elucidation of the forces involved in DNA replication and transcription.”

Bustamante studies the mechanical properties of proteins and nucleic acids, including the structural bases of protein-DNA interactions and the dynamics of DNA-binding “molecular motors” such as enzymes. His work and that of his colleagues provides new insights into such mechanisms as the means by which viruses can inject their DNA into cells and how genetic expression in cells may be regulated.

Stephen Selkowitz of the Environmental Energy Technologies Division was one of five winners of this year’s Champions of Energy Efficiency Awards given by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE). Selkowitz is the head of EETD’s Building Technologies Department. According to the citation, “Steve has been a tireless, persistent, gently persuasive leader in the energy efficiency R&D field. His work has led to major advances in such areas as windows, lighting, building controls, and building design tools.”

The board cites Selkowitz’s major contribution to the development of low-emissivity, energy-efficient windows, and to helping bring this technology to the marketplace.

Robert O. Ritchie of the Materials Science Division and a professor at UC Berkeley was inducted into the National Academy of Engineering for contributions to the understanding of fatigue fracture and the failure of engineering structures.

Ritchie and his research group are specialists in the “creep, fatigue, and fracture of advanced materials, intermetallics, and ceramics,” and have discovered the mechanisms of failure in structures as diverse as jet aircraft, microelectronics, and biomedical devices.

Open House to Offer Science Wonders
for the Young and Old

By Ron Kolb

With Berkeley Lab’s all-day Open House just a month away, plans are shaping up for an activity-filled program the includes representation from virtually every division and department on the Hill. Did you ever wonder what everyone else at the Lab does outside your immediate work area? The “Did You Ever Wonder…?” Open House on Oct. 5 is an easy and entertaining way to find out.

Here is a partial list of things that will await visitors to the site:

The “Welcome Tent” — In the cafeteria parking lot, a 60-by-100-foot canopy will house orientation tables from divisions and programs. Visitors will get their programs here, and children will receive “passports” and “adventure-land” maps to help them find stamps worth prizes. The “Hulk” display will also be here, with a videotape of scenes from the Universal film shoot in April.

The “Universe-City” tent – This collection of exhibits from physics and nuclear sciences will be located in the parking lot between Buildings 70 and 70A. Projects like the SuperNova Acceleration Probe (SNAP), the STAR experiment at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider, the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory, BaBar, and Atlas experiments will all be featured. Demonstrations on radioactivity in the home, a spark chamber and, for kids, “Supernova on a Stick” and the human accelerator game will be offered.

In the adjacent Building 50-5026, visitors will be able to look through a remote microscope as part of the “Hands-On Universe” program. And they may get to see people by satellite live from the South Pole, where several lab scientists have done work.

The “Plan-It Earth” tent — This staging area for Environmental Energy Technologies and Earth Sciences displays will be in the parking lot adjacent to the Advanced Light Source. Here, people can observe the Laboratory’s seminal work in low-energy torchieres, compact fluorescent lighting, urban heat island research, leaking electricity, energy-efficient windows, and aerosol duct-sealants. Information and equipment from the Yucca Mountain waste storage project will be on display, and “virtual tours” of the repository and of ocean carbon measurement will be offered. Bioremediation, geothermal energy, and earthquakes-by-zip-code are among the exhibits.

Not too far away, at Building 58, scientists will provide tours of the fusion energy and superconducting magnet laboratories. And at Building 46, the Lighting Laboratory will be open for visits.

“Safety Central” — This area, in the “Z” lot above the cafeteria, will feature exhibits on radioactivity, hay-bale buildings, waste minimization, radiation protection, electrical safety, and industrial hygiene. Lab fire fighters will demonstrate their equipment, including an engine and a hazardous materials truck. Kids will receive complimentary fire hats. Morning and afternoon nature walks will also leave from this area.

The “Family Science Zone” — An array of activities for all age groups will be offered under a cluster of canopies in the Building 50 parking lot. Topics will include “bubblology,” electricity and magnetism, light defraction, and chemistry with liquid nitrogen. A glass blower will demonstrate his craft. The Chabot Space and Science Center will feature one of its “science-to-go” programs, and the Lawrence Hall of Science will present “Colors of the Cosmos” in the adjacent Building 50 auditorium.

Life Sciences and Genomics — Building 84 will be the focus of exhibits on breast cancer research, genome sequencing and genetic diversity, and biological imaging. Young visitors can become “junior gene sleuths” with extraction and spooling activities. The Center for Functional Imaging and the Digital Imaging Microscope will also be featured at Open House.

The Shops — The Engineering Division is mounting a kid-friendly set of exhibits to accompany its workshop tour. The “robot corral” will show how custom-made computer-driven machines can move and function, and an “electronic petting zoo” will allow children to take apart and examine the insides of computers and other gizmos. All this, plus a look at modern-day machining and model-making, happens at Building 77.

Facility Tours — The Advanced Light Source heads the list of user facilities open for public inspection. The ALS will show off various beamlines, and visitors will get a rare opportunity to climb the catwalk above the storage ring. Hands-on activities, including crystal-making and other experiments, will be featured on the ALS patio.

The 88-inch Cyclotron, and the ALS, will be cited as featured players in the forthcoming Hollywood movie “The Hulk,” and the Gammasphere, modeled for the film, will be open for viewing. The National Center for Electron Microscopy will show how atom-sized worlds can be discovered through some of the most sophisticated instruments on Earth. The Department of Energy’s computing network, ESNet, will be seen through its control room in Building 50, where a computing grid screen will also be demonstrated. Labs for Lighting (46), Fusion Energy (58), and Superconducting Magnets (58) will be on display.

Lectures and Talks — An array of subjects will be offered for the curious, beginning with featured half-hour talks in the 50 auditorium. Speakers will include astrophysicist Saul Perlmutter, computing scientist Peter Nugent, biologist Mary Helen Barcellos-Hoff, materials scientist Paul Alivisatos, and environmental scientist Ashok Gadgil. Several physics talks will be offered during the day in Room 70A-3377, and ALS scientists will offer programs in the second-floor conference room of Building 6. Also, many of the scientists who participated in the year-long “Did You Ever Wonder…” education campaign will be available during the day at the “Ask a Scientist” table near the Welcome Tent.

Career Fair — The Lab’s Human Resources Department will have its recruiters on hand during the day in the cafeteria, providing information on current jobs and opportunities within scientific fields.

This ‘n’ That — The Center for Science and Engineering Education will sponsor a Learning Center in Perseverance Hall, where computers will be hooked up to educational web sites sponsored by the Lab … teachers will receive teaching materials and instruction on how to use them at workshops in Building 2-100 … Girl Scouts can earn merit badges for attendance at Open House, with sign-up at the cafeteria … Room 3377 in Building 70A will be officially named the “Seaborg Conference Room” in a dedication ceremony at 11:45 … a noontime program on the cafeteria outdoor stage will honor teachers who have contributed to the Lab’s student outreach and education efforts … Computing Sciences’ “RAGE” robot will wander the floors in the cafeteria … Michael Torrey, one of the young winners of last year’s EnergySmart Schools competition, will display his energy-saving idea that he developed with the Lab’s Engineering Division in the cafeteria lobby … the Building 50 lobby is being renovated into a new exhibit highlighting both historic and current research excellence … the Lab’s Music Club will provide all-day entertainment on the cafeteria lawn … bus tours of the Lab will leave the welcome tent area every 30 minutes … and hundreds of elementary-school student posters will hang in Perseverance Hall from a contest that posed the “Did You Ever Wonder…?” question to young scientists.

Finally, “Science Wanderers” (young students in colorful lab coats) will stroll the grounds and pose science questions to children, offering prizes for the answers.

Special Talk on U.S. Satellite Program

Dr. Hans Mark, former Secretary of the Air Force, chancellor at the University of Texas, and director of the NASA-Ames Research Center, will make a special visit to Berkeley Lab on Sept. 13 which will include a talk for employees on the U.S. satellite reconnaissance program.

The noon lecture will be held in the Building 50 auditorium.

A physicist by training, Mark was educated at UC Berkeley and spent nine years here as Professor and Department Chairman of Nuclear Engineering.

His pioneering investigations of x-ray emission from stars later led to the identification of certain objects as black holes. He served as deputy administrator for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and led the engineering development of a number of spacecraft and experimental aircraft. He is currently a professor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics at the University of Texas at Austin.

A former Director of the National Reconnaissance Office, Mark has authored more than 150 publications, including the books “The Space Station: A Personal Journey,” “The Management of Research Institutions,” and “Adventures in Celestial Mechanics.”

Berkeley Lab Currents

Published by the Communications Department for the employees and retirees of Ernest Orlando Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Ron Kolb, Communications Department head.

EDITOR: Monica Friedlander, (510) 495-2248, msfriedlander@lbl.gov

STAFF WRITERS: Lisa Gonzales, 486-4698; Dan Krotz, 486-4109, Paul Preuss, 486-6249; Lynn Yarris, 486-5375

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS: Jon Bashor, 486-5849; Allan Chen, 486-4210

FLEA MARKET / CALENDAR: 486-5771, fleamarket@lbl.gov.currents_calendar@lbl.gov

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Communications Department, MS 65
1 Cyclotron Road, Berkeley CA 94720
Tel: (510) 486-5771 Fax: 486-6641

Berkeley Lab is managed by the University of California for the U.S. Department of Energy.

Revealing the Secrets of a Most
Unusual Superconductor

By Paul Preuss

Explaining the strange behavior of magnesium diboride

Bottles of powdered magnesium diboride (MgB2) have been sitting on the chemical laboratory shelf since the 1950s, but not until 2001 did Japanese researchers announce their discovery that it was among the highest-temperature superconductors known, with a transition temperature (Tc) of 39 degrees Kelvin.

Like high-Tc superconductors made of cuprate ceramics, MgB2 is a layered material. While undoped cuprates are insulators at ordinary temperatures, however, MgB2 is always a metal. What’s more, its puzzling characteristics include more than one superconducting energy gap, a state of affairs anticipated in theory but never before seen experimentally.

Marvin Cohen and Steven Louie of Berkeley Lab’s Materials Sciences Division, both professors of physics at UC Berkeley, led a team that calculated the electronic structure of this unique superconductor from first principles, performing their calculations on supercomputers at the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC). Their collaborators included postdoctoral fellow Hyoungjoon Choi, graduate student David Roundy, and visitor Hong Sun.



Using supercomputers, theorists Steven Louie and Marvin Cohen have calculated the properties of many unusual materials from first principles.

A superconducting elephant

In the first rush to examine the new superconductor, experimenters published hundreds of papers reporting different and sometimes conflicting properties.

“It was like the blind men looking at the elephant,” Cohen remarks. “Everybody who looked at MgB2 saw a different picture. Some said the superconducting energy gap was this, others said it was that; still others found anomalies in measurements of specific heat.”

“Structurally, magnesium diboride is almost as simple as pencil lead, graphite,” says Louie. “It consists of hexagonal honey-combed planes of boron atoms separated by planes of magnesium atoms, with the magnesiums centered above and below the boron hexagons.”

This remarkably simple atomic structure would eventually prove the key to understanding MgB2. Louie and Cohen and their colleagues used a technique Choi developed to solve the equations of the well-established Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) theory for materials with complex electronic structure.

“When we looked at the elephant,” says Cohen, “we saw that almost everybody had been right!” The many different pictures were in fact consistent.

In the Aug. 15 issue of Nature, the theorists reported their discovery that MgB2’s odd features arise from two separate populations of electrons, which form different kinds of bonds among the material’s atoms.

What theory reveals

In BCS theory, electrons overcome their mutual repulsion to form pairs that can move through the material without resistance. Vital to pair formation are the quantized vibrations of the crystal lattice, known as phonons. The energy required to break these pairs is the superconducting “gap.”

“To understand the importance of crystal structure to MgB2’s electronic states, compare it to graphite,” Louie suggests. MgB2, like graphite, has strong sigma bonds between the atoms in its hexagonal planes and weak pi bonds between the planes.

But because boron atoms have fewer electrons than carbon atoms, not all the sigma bonds in MgB2’s boron planes are occupied. Lattice vibration has a much stronger effect, resulting in the formation of strong electron pairs confined to those planes.

“Partially occupied sigma bonds driving superconductivity in a layered structure is one of the new concepts that appeared from the theoretical studies; generally speaking, nature does not like unoccupied sigma bond states,” says Louie. “Our other major finding is that not all the boron electrons are needed in strong pair formation to achieve high Tc. In addition to the strongly bonded sigma pairs, the boron electrons involved in pi bonds form much weaker pairs.”

The two populations of electrons give rise to distinct superconducting gaps, a strong gap for the sigma-bonded electrons, ranging from 6.4 to 7.2 thousandths of an electron volt (meV) at 4 degrees Kelvin, with much less energy (1.2 to 3.7 meV at 4 degrees K) required to break pairs of pi-bonded electrons.

The two kinds of electron pairs are coupled, and as temperature increases the superconducting gaps rapidly converge, until at about 39 degrees K both vanish. Above this temperature, all pairs are broken and the material does not superconduct.

Calculations of the superconducting gaps and their temperature dependence made it possible for the theorists to interpret many different experimental measurements, each a different way of “seeing the elephant.” Since these calculations were first made available on the web last November, experimentalists have confirmed many of the explicit predictions of the new model.

While multiple superconducting gaps have never been seen before, BCS theory contemplated the possibility early on. The discovery of MgB2 raises the possibility that layered materials capable of high-temperature superconductivity could be made incorporating boron, carbon, nitrogen, or other light elements.

Counterintelligence Talk for
Travelers to “Sensitive Countries”

Do you travel to foreign countries or host visitors from “sensitive” countries? Are you interested in learning how foreign intelligence officers may target and attempt to exploit you simply because you work for a national laboratory?

If you do, you won’t want to miss a talk hosted by the Lab’s Counterintelligence Program on Wednesday, Sept. 18. Entitled “Vulnerabilities of the Foreign Traveler,” the talk will feature Connie Allen, a professor at the Centre for Counterintelligence and Security Studies (CI Centre) outside of Washington, D.C. Allen is a counterintelligence expert whose experience includes 25 years in the U.S. Army as a senior instructor and counterintelligence special agent. Her presentation reflects her extensive knowledge of surveillance, tradecraft, and offensive espionage operations. She will point out techniques that you might encounter when you go on foreign travel or meet with foreign visitors, either in a business or social setting.

All employees are invited to attend, although travelers to foreign countries, especially nations on the DOE list of sensitive countries, may benefit the most.

The event will be held from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. in the Building 50 auditorium and from 2 to 4 p.m. in the Building 66 auditorium.

Algeria
Armenia
Azerbaijan
Belarus
China (People’s Republic of,
   including Hong Kong)
Cuba
Georgia
India
Iran
Iraq
Israel
Kazakhstan

Kyrgyzstan
Libya
Moldova
North Korea
Pakistan
Russia
Sudan
Syria
Taiwan
Tajikistan
Turkmenistan
Ukraine
Uzbekistan

 

Bulletin Board

Return Those Cafeteria Trays

Do you ever take your lunch tray to your office? If so, please remember to bring back the trays, plates and silverware. The cafeteria needs to constantly replace these items, which seem to be vanishing at alarming rates.

This equipment may not seem very expensive, but given the limited budget and high rate of loss, the cafeteria may have to switch to disposable utensils if these practices continue. Such an action would raise the cost of food and add to the waste stream. This alternative can be easily avoided if everyone would return trays from their work areas, or — even better — not take them out in the first place, and use plastic containers and brown bags instead.

World Champion Honeymooners

By Pam Reynolds

How do you have a world-class honeymoon? Winning the World Championship in darts is a good way to start.

Tony Marquez, main procurement buyer for the Advanced Light Source, and his new bride Shelly put the finishing touch on their honeymoon this summer by winning the 2002 Medalist World Championship Darts Tournament in the CC Doubles class. They walked away from “The Pit,” as the final match is called, with huge trophies and cash prizes of over $2,000.

The four-day tournament, held in June in Las Vegas, was Marquez’s second trip to the World Championship, but Shelly’s first, and her first trip to Vegas.

“I told her I’d try to take her to the Pit for her first big tournament, and I did. That was very special for both of us,” Marquez says.

Tony began playing darts about two years ago, after a back injury put a temporary halt to bowling, and he recruited Shelly to be his tournament partner a little over a year ago. They play for the Dart Vend team out of the Spare Room bar at Albany Bowl.

Appropriately named “Soulmates,” the Marquezes competed against some 50 teams in the doubles matches. About 2,300 people from across the nation, as well as from Mexico and Japan, played in the tournament.

The newlyweds’ vacation wasn’t all competition. The Marquezes, who were married on April 27 but postponed their honeymoon to coincide with the tournament, arrived in town a day early to celebrate and have some fun. They took in a Siegfried and Roy wild animal show, met the other competitors, and attended another dart-playing couple’s wedding.

The Marquezes play “soft-tip” darts, so called because the darts used are light and scoring is done electronically. It took over 10 hours and six matches to get to the final round, which was decided by a tie-breaker, or “rubber match.” Their victory brought an outpouring of support from spectators and other players who were happy to see a husband and wife team win, Tony said.

Both Tony and Shelly competed individually as well, with Shelly placing 9th out of 73 in her class, and Tony placing 13th out of 258.

“Winning is great,” Marquez says, “but we want to have fun. Darts is our thing that we do together; it gets us out of the house.”

That may be harder to do soon. The couple is expecting a baby in February and plan to focus on their family over the next year. They don’t intend to compete in next year’s championship.

Surplus Office Supplies

Do you have any extra office supplies lying around your office that you never use? Then send them to the 903 Warehouse. Items accepted includes binders, folders, office organizers, paper, printing materials, toner, etc.

Don't forget that when you need office supplies you can obtain them from the same place (call X5683 or visit the 903 Warehouse). All surplus items are delivered at no cost to the requester.

Lend a Hand to the Runaround

One of the most popular events at Berkeley Lab, the annual Runaround will be held on Friday, Oct. 11 from 12 to 1 p.m. Volunteers are needed for a variety of committees. To help out or for other information, contact Steve Derenzo at sederenzo@lbl.gov.

Softball League on the Move and in the News

Berkeley Lab has had its own softball league (BLSL) since way back in 1976. This summer the players have received some major league publicity after playing in Alameda’s Leydecker Park and being covered in the Berkeley Voice, the Montclarion and the Alameda Journal on Aug. 23.

“We have everybody from Ph.D.s to bus drivers out here,” said Steve Blair in the interview published in the Contra Costa Times papers. A civil engineer in the facilities department, Blair has managed and played on the “Suds” team for the past 21 years and is the league commissioner.

In previous seasons, the Lab’s players used to play at Berkeley's Kleeberger Field. But this year Kleeberger was closed, leaving the league without a place to play until Blair succeeded in temporarily securing the Leydecker field. For the regular season, the league plays three games a night. After the season ends, the playoffs extend into late October.

The players are as diverse as they come in terms of profession, personal background, as well as age. “The oldest player in our league is 69, and he's on my team,” Blair says. “At minimum, you have to be 18. Most of the people are in their late 30s to mid 40s.”

In addition to the BLSL, Blair also plays for the McGee's East Bay Attack in Alameda’s ARPD's Coed D-1 League.

The standings for Berkeley Lab’s Softball League at the halfway point of the season (as of Aug. 29) are:

Sudz 7-0-(14)
Las Collisiones 6-1-(12)
Animals 4-3-(8)
Ballpark Estimates 3-4-(6)
Hard Password 2-4-(4)
Pedal Pushers 2-5-(4)
Cupcakes 0-7-(0).

In Memoriam: John Holthuis

John T. Holthuis, an expert in metallurgy in the Materials Sciences Division, died peacefully on Aug. 8 at his home in Walnut Creek. He was 76.

Born in Venlo, the Netherlands, Holthuis joined the Laboratory in 1966, where he worked for the next 35 years. He retired in 1989, but continued working until he became ill in May of this year.

Holthuis started out in what was then the Inorganic Materials Research Division. Later he developed the Metals Fabrication Laboratory that would provide a broad range of technical expertise in the area of thermomechanical processing and testing of metalographic devices, which would aid research efforts across the Laboratory.

“John’s contribution to so many Laboratory efforts and his fellowship with colleagues occupied a very special place with all who knew him,” said Susan Waters, who worked with him for a long time. “He shared the best of himself. He was a treasure to us all.”

Holthuis collaborated with colleagues at Bell Labs, Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, and the National Bureau of Standards; he coauthored research papers with collaborators around the country and was joint holder of a patent. For 30 years he instructed UC students, scientific technicians, as well as researchers on techniques for synthesizing and testing metal alloys.

An avid gardener and bird lover, he maintained a large garden aviary.

Holthuis is survived by his wife of 50 years, Catharina, his six children and their spouses, a brother, a sister, 13 grandchildren, and five step-grandchildren.

A memorial service was held on Aug. 21 at Heather Farm in Walnut Creek. Gifts in his memory may be sent to the Union of Concerned Scientists (http://www.ucsusa.org/index.html or 1-800-666-8276).

Presentation on New Copy Machine Functions

On Thursday, Sept. 12, the subcontractor for the new copy machines on the Hill (MBA) will be onsite to demonstrate the copiers’ advanced networking, scanning, document manipulation, and print capabilities. The presentation will be held twice at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. in the Perseverance Hall conference room (Room 130).

Berkeley Lab’s Desktop Support Group and Procurement have been activating the print/scan/fax functions for users who have elected to utilize these options on their new copiers.

Representatives from the Lab’s Desktop Support Group and Procurement will be on hand at the Sept. 12 presentation to answer questions. Refreshments will be served. RSVP by e-mailing sberrish@aol.com or contacting Ryan Plumb at X4161.

Calendar

General Interest

SEPTEMBER 10, Tuesday

NEW EMPLOYEE ORIENTATION
8 p.m., Bldg. 50 auditorium

SEPTEMPER 11, Wednesday

MACUSERS GROUP MEETING
11 – 12:30, Bldg. 90 – 3148

SEPTEMPER 12, Thursday

SHOEMOBILE
7:30 a.m. – 3:30 p.m., cafeteria parking lot

PRESENTATION ON COPY MACHINE FUNCTIONS
11 a.m. – 1 p.m., Perseverance Hall, Room 130

SEPTEMPER 13, Friday

SPECIAL LECTURE ON U.S. SATELLITE PROGRAM
Noon, Bldg. 50 auditorium

SEPTEMPER 18, Wednesday

COUNTERINTELLIGENCE PRESENTATION ON “VULNERABILITIES OF THE FOREIGN TRAVELER”
11:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m., Bldg. 66 auditorium

SEPTEMPER 19, Thursday

MEET THE EAA CLUBS
Noon, cafeteria lawn

Seminars & Lectures

SEPTEMBER 9, Monday

DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS COLLOQUIA
Underground Science
Speaker: Wick Haxton, University of Washington
4:30 p.m., 1 Le Conte Hall

SEPTEMBER 17, Tuesday

DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS COLLOQUIA
The Global Warming Debate: Separating the Scientific Signal from the Political Noise
Speaker: Stephen H. Schneider, Stanford University
5 p.m., 10 Evans Hall (campus)

Send us your announcements

Seminar & Lectures items may be mailed to currents_ calendar@ lbl.gov. Announcements for the General Calendar and Bulletin Board page may be sent to MSFriedlander@lbl.gov. You may also fax items to X6641 or mail them to Bldg. 65B. The deadline for the Jan. 25 issue is 5 p.m. Monday, Jan. 21.

Register for SC ‘02

Registration has begun for SuperComputing 2002, the annual conference of high performance networking and computing.

This year’s event, titled “From Terabytes to Insights,” will be held Nov. 16 - 22 at the Baltimore Convention Center. The advanced registration deadline is Oct. 11. Online registration information can be found at http://www.sc-conference.org/sc2002.

EH&S Classes – September 2002

Date

Course

Time

Building

9/3

EHS 60

Ergonomics for Computer Users

10:00 – 11:30

51-201

9/4

EHS 116

First Aid Safety

8:30 – 12:00

48-109

9/4

EHS 260

Basic Electric Hazard Awareness

1:30 – 3:00

51-201

9/5

EHS 20

ES&H for Supervisors

9:30 – 11:30

51-201

9/10

EHS 10

Introduction to ES&H at LBNL*

8:00 – 10:15

50- aud

9/10

EHS 348

Chemical Hygiene Safety

9:00 – 12:00

51-201

9/10

EHS 231

Compressed Gas Safety

1:00 – 3:30

51-201

9/11

EHS 123

Adult Cardio-Pulmonary Resuscitation

8:30 – 12:00

48-109

9/11

EHS 210

Hoist Operator Training

10:30 – 12:00

51-201

9/12

EHS 52

Back Safety

9:00 – 11:00

51-201

9/12

EHS 800

Occurrence Reporting

9:00 – 11:00

48-109

9/12

EHS 135

Earthquake Safety

1:30 – 2:30

48-109

9/17

EHS 275

Confined Space Hazards

8:30 – 11:00

51-201

9/17

EHS 274

Confined Space-Retraining

11:00 – 12:00

51-201

9/17

EHS 330

Lead Hazards Awareness

1:30 – 2:30

51-201

9/18

EHS 256

Lockout/Tagout

10:00 – 11:30

51-201

9/18

EHS 530

Fire Extinguisher

10:00 – 11:30

48-109

9/18

EHS 280

Laser Safety

1:00 – 4:00

51-201

9/19

EHS 400

Radiation Protection-Fundamentals

9:00 – 12:00

51-201

9/19

EHS 60

Ergonomics for Computer Users

1:30 – 3:00

51-201

9/20

EHS 432

Radiation Protection-Lab Safety

8:00 – 12:30

51-201

9/26

EHS 735/ 738/739

Biosafety/Bloodborne Pathogen

1:30 – 2:45

51-201

9/25

EHS 604

Hazardous Waste Generator

9:30 – 11:00

51-201

9/25

EHS 622

Radioactive & Mixed Waste

11:00 – 12:00

51-201

9/25

EHS 10

Introduction to ES&H at LBNL

1:30 – 3:30

51-201

9/25

EHS 125

Child/Infant CPR

6:00 – 8:00

48-109

* Includes EHS 392/405, followed by the orientation. Please arrive promptly for sign-in.

To enroll, contact Valarie Espinoza-Ross at VMEspinoza-Ross@lbl.gov or enroll via the web at https://hris.lbl.gov/self_service/training/. Preregistration is required for all courses except EHS 10. For a full, updated schedule, see http://www-ia1.lbl.gov/schedule/.

Student Poster Session

On Tuesday, Aug. 13, more than 70 undergraduate students who spent the summer working as interns at Berkeley Lab mingled with Lab employees for a few hours as they presented the results of their research. The annual Undergraduate Student Research Poster Session was held at the Lab cafeteria. Photo by Robert Couto

Flea Market

Autos & Supplies

‘02 HONDA S-2000, blk/red leather int, all opts, 7 yr wty, $36,500, Steve, X7685, (925) 829-1788

‘99 HONDA TRX 300EX atv, red/blk, 5 spd, rev 2 wd, exc cond, $4,000/bo, John, 531-1739

‘98 TOYOTA CELICA, blk convertible, loaded, 54K mi, $16,000/bo, Rolf, X5068, 232-5221

‘98 TOYOTA CAMRY LE, 17K mi, gold, at, ac, exc cond, orig owner, avail 10/30, anti-theft, remote eng starter, check-up done, $13,500, Chang, X4417, 847-2946

‘98 FORD TAURUS SE, 86K mi, runs great, new brakes, tint win, blue headlights/int lights, 10-yr eng wty, all pwr, alarm, $8,000/bo, Dean, 390-3641

‘98 FORD MUSTANG convertible, exc cond, all rec’s, bump-to-bump wty, 30K mi, at, cruise, spoiler, leather, cd, white/tan top, Amy, X5044, 540-7911

‘98 DODGE Grand Caravan SE, 95K mi, 3.3V, 7 passngr, pwr steer, cruise, exc cond, must sell, $7,500/ bo, Inhan, X5002, 526-5679

‘94 SUBARU LEGACY, 112K mi, good cond, exc mpg, $3,600, Sriram, X5389

‘94 MERCURY VILLAGER minivan, 100K mi, good cond, dk green, $4,500, Nasser, 526-3151

‘93 LEXUS SC 300 Coupe, good cond, blk w/ tan leather, at, sunrf, cd, dealer srvc, brakes & ac servc’d, $7,500/bo, Zalaysha, X5268

‘91 TOYOTA CAMRY, lt blue, at, ac pwr win/dr, tilt wheel, good mpg, 111K mi, clean title, well maint, runs great, 2-yr-old timing belt, battery, breaking pad, $3,200/bo, Hanjing, X2468

‘90 BMW 535i, 137K mi, blk w /tan leather, at, ac, fully loaded, prem sound syst, am/fm/cass/cd, car phone, sunrf, ABS brakes, alloy wheels, $7,999/bo, Tennessee, 612-6289

‘86 HONDA ACCORD 2 dr hatch, navy, well maint, 180K mi, new tires/batt/ timing belt/hoses, runs exc, $1,200, Pam, X6461

‘79 FIAT SPIDER 2000, 136K mi, at, exc cond, moving & must sell fast, $2,800, Tobias, X2642

Housing

ALBANY, 1 bdrm condo, 555 Pierce, unfurn, clean, new carpet, sec park, whlchr access, bay view, storage, pool, tennis crt, gym, w&d, 24-hr sec, dw, fridge, stove, 12-mo lease, $1,250/mo+ $1,500 dep, util incl, Mary, X4701, 816-9702

ALBANY, 2 bdrm/2 bth condo, part furn, 555 Pierce, bay view, pool, tennis, 24 hr sec, garage, close to pub trans/shops, no pets/smok, lease, avail now, $1,700/mo, Anie, 215-7636, 828-8688

BERKELEY 2 level condo, 4 blks to campus, garage, just remodeled, new int, charming, 2 lge bdrms w/ walk-in closets, w&d, lge liv/din rm, kitchen, dw, lge patio balc, avail now, pets neg, $1,750/ mo, 1 yr lease, Nina (415) 252-7561, Sofia, 914-1304

BERKELEY HILLS 2 bdrm house, fp, hot tub, decks, outdoor rm, lge yrd, quiet str, walk to Lab, w&d, some furn, non-smok, avail 10/1, $1,900/ mo, neg w/ maint, Darlene, 531-9325

BERKELEY HILLS, Euclid/ Cedar, furn, kitchen privil, w&d, deck, bay view, nr pub trans/shops/tennis crts, Rose Garden, no smok/pets, must be clean, avail 9/1, $700+util, Giorgio, X7519, gturri@ lbl.gov, 548-1287

BERKELEY HILLS, fully furn rm w/ sep entry, full kitchen privil, w&d, quiet neighbrhd, lovely backyrd, near bus, avail now, $890/ mo incl util, Jacob, 524-3851, Labartists@aol.com

BERKELEY HILLS, furn house above the Claremont, 2 bdrm/3 bth, lge office, bay view, liv rm, din rm, kitchen, lge deck, fp, w&d, cable, gardener, walk to pub trans, no smok/pets, $2,600/ mo incl util, $1,000 dep, thru Fall ’03 flex, Laura, (925) 253-0163, 642-6411

BERKELEY HILLS, lge rm in 3 bdrm house, big yrd, w&d, big kitchen, fp, quiet neighbrhd, walk to Tilden, share w/ Lab chemist & engineer, $850/mo, first/ last, Beri, X4793, 649-8135, BBBlizanac@lbl.gov

BERKELEY, furn house, 3 bdrm/2 bth, Blake @ Grant, w&d, dw, wood stove, centr heat, some hrdwd flrs, secluded garden, storage, $1,900 + util, Phil, X6512, 649-9744, PHaves@lbl.gov

BERKELEY, resid community of UC/Lab staff & grad students, Hearst nr University & San Pablo, studio townhouses w/ decks, hrdwd flrs, skylights, dw, ac, intercom, sec, $1,095, Alan, 666-1150, 847-1403, editeur@earthlink.net

CENTRAL BERKELEY, nice furn rms, kitchen, laundry, TV, DSL, hrdwd flrs, linens, dishes, contin brkfst, walk to pub trans/shops, $950/ mo incl utils, $350/wk, Jin/ Paul, 845-5959, jin.young @juno.com, Paul X7363

CONCORD, charming sunny 3 bdrm/1 bth home, garden w/ fruit trees, 1/4 acre, lge kitchen, garage, hrdwd flr, walk to BART/shops, nr fwy access, no smok, pets neg, gardner, 1 yr lease, avail 9/02, Maida, (805) 795-0429, June, X2916

EL CERRITO 1 bdrm in attr 4 bdrm house, hrdwd flrs, gas range, fridge, w&d, dw, guest rm, 2 decks, shared bth, $620+util, avail 9/1, yr lease, pics at geocities.com/ ogmb/787, social & friendly household, you be same, ogmb@ uclink.berkeley.edu

EL CERRITO HILLS house, fully furn 3 bdrm/1 bth, view, liv/din/fam rm, porch, gr piano, lge yrd, quiet, nr pub trans, avail 9/14, incl cable, gas, elec, water, yrd maint, $2,200/mo+$2,000 dep, no smok, Dennis, X6053, 549-9248

EL CERRITO, furn rm for male student or scholar, nr pub trans/shops, off-street pkg, quiet area, no smok/ pets, $600/mo, $650 dep, cable, priv phone, w&d, 524-3780, roomrenting@ hotmail.com

ELMWOOD 1 bdrm furn apt, sunny, quiet, safe, walk to pub trans, nr College/ Ashby, split level, hill view, hifi, tv, vcr, micrwv, garage, avail mid-Sept for 1 yr - flex, no smok, $975/ mo, agblako@ att.net

LAFAYETTE, cottage/studio, 600 sq ft, furn, priv ent, rustic, $925/mo incl util, George, (925) 943-2179

MORAGA, Ascot Dr, 3 bdrm 2 bth condo, view, fp, carport, pool, avail 9/15 - 10/1, $1,100/mo, Bob, (925) 376-2211, rrs@value.net

NOVATO, San Marin area, townhouse/condo, 2 bdrm 1.5 bth, garage, fp, w/d hookup, back open space, community pool, close to shops, quiet neighbrhd, no smok/pets, avail mid-Sept, $1,400/mo, Patrick, (415) 717-1879

N. BERKELEY 1 bdrm/1 bth upper flat, furn, Glendale/ Campus Dr, laundry, deck, off-str parking, on busline, no smok/dogs, cats neg, $1,100/mo+util, dep & cred report, Rochelle, (415) 435-7539 msg, 425-6094 pgr

ROCKRIDGE AREA, rm in priv house, $600, walk to College Ave, BART, Lab shuttle, 655-2534

SAN LEANDRO 3 bdrm/2 bth, 1750 sq ft house, lge master, formal din rm, liv rm w/ fp, fam rm, dw, w&d, lg kitchen, close to fwy, walk to shops, pub trans, $2,000/mo+$2,000 sec dep, $20/adult credit check, Douglas, (925) 258-0009

WEST BERKELEY, share 2 bdrm house near Gilman/ San Pablo, $475/mo or $700 rm + study, Dennis, 527-7957

Housing Wanted

LBNL EMPLOYEE seeks rm in Berkeley, female, Jennifer, X4638

LBNL RA looking for 1 bdrm apt in Berkeley or N Oakland, Steve, X6966

LBNL STAFF seeks rm in house, mature female, clean, non-smok, pref Berkeley, Oakland, Piedmont, Albany, Carla, X6965

VISITING SCIENTIST from the Netherlands seeks rm in home, 9/25–12/23, BJAdams @lbl.gov, gbiermans@karma.demon.nl

Misc for Sale

15" NEC MONITOR, $40; Kenmore canister vacuum, $25; also walkie talkies, comp joystick, typing tutor & dictation software, space bag set, laser pointer, Ken, X7739, 482-3331

BABY ITEMS: twin stroller, $100; Europ-style stroller, $30; exersaucer, $20; toddler bed, $15, swing, $50, Tennessee, 701-3346

BOAT: ‘92 18' Bayliner Capri, open bow, 120 hp, pic avail, $4,500, Michael, X6021, 812-0671

BUNK BEDS, sturdy, w/ matts, avail 8/23, $150, Joan, X5302, 540-7023

CERAMIC 20 pc dinnerware for 4, blk, 4 blk stem Luminarc wine glasses, $30; beaded bracelets, cappuccino cup/saucer, Melissa, 665-5572 msg

CHAISE, bge velvet, Queen Anne legs, $50, Antoinette, X5160, 658-8513

FORMAL DINING ROOM SET, cherry, Queen Anne, 6 chairs + leaf, china cabinet incl, exc cond, $950, pics avail, Pam, X4045

FUTON, navy blue matt, wood frame, 4 sm cushions, 1 yr old, $50, you pick up, Christian, X4417

MTN BIKE, mens kona, like new, w/ new bell helmet & tire pump, $250/bo, Austin, X5702, 848-7341

NVIDIA GEFORCE 2MX graphics card for Mac, 4x(2x) AGP, 256bit, 32MB, great repl for ATI 128 Rage pro, $50, Robert, X5731

OAK CRIB w/ 2 drawers, incl matt & matching changing table w/ shelves, exc cond, $225, Lisa, X5314, (925) 906-9786

PEDESTAL FANS (2), $l0/ea; torchiere lamps (2), $l0/ea, (925) 831-9172

PING-PONG table with net, balls & paddles, $80/ bo, Duo, X6878, 528-3408

PLANTS: Clivia miniatas, 6, red, 5 gal, $25/ea; lge flower pots, b/o; loveseat slipcovers, cotton, new, natural, floral & beige, $30/ea, Sue, X4628, 527-5940

ROADMASTER Mt Sport MTB 18" frame, linear pull brakes, grip shift type, element racing xc shox front shocks, kickstand, Enrico, X7516, 548-5800

SF OPERA TIX, balc pr, 2nd row ctr, Ariadne auf Naxos 9/14, Turandot 9/27, Othello 10/12, some subsequent Sat eves, $126/pr, Paul, X5508, 526-3519

SF OPERA TIX, Turandot 9/13, Othello 11/1, Kat'a Kabanova 11/15, Hansel & Gretel 1/1/03, balc crc 1st row, $176/pr, Diana, X6444

SOFA & LOVE SEAT, velvet brown, exc cond, $200; lge cap w&d, $300, Harsh, (925) 210-1883 eves/wknds

TREK MTN BIKE, 21-spd, $250; Victorian style din table+3 chrs, $150; osc fan, $30; garden furn, 4 chairs, 2 tables, plastic, wht, $50; toaster, coffee maker, flr lamp, elec heater, neg, Henning, X5083, 525-0384

TV STAND for 32" TV, wood, swivel top, space for vcr or dvd, built-in storage, good cond, $25/bo, Olivia, X4182, 233-1088 eves

WOODEN SWINGSET, 3 swings, climbing structure, slide, ages 2-10, $90, will deliver & help assemble, Michael, X4745

WORLD CRUISE 55' sailboat/liv qrters, spacious, 3 bdrm/2 bth, office, liv rm, decks, docked in Alameda, full height int, $65,000, view 55’ Valeo at yachtworld.com/newerayachts, Chris, 867-8049, 523-5988

Wanted

3-AXIS positioning stage for CCD camera, small, mechanical, for Lab project, Jacob, X606, 406-1361

CARPOOL or vanpool from Solano/Napa counties (Napa/Fairfield/ American Canyon/Vallejo) to LBNL, Nance, X7328

Vacation

KAPAA, KAUAI, 2 bdrm oceanfront condo at Kapaa Shore Resort, pool, spa, tennis, fully equip, ocean view, 3rd flr lanai, sleeps 6, walk to shops/dining, no smok, $142/day, $850/wk, +11.42% tax+cleaning fee, Richard, X6320, 845-1723

Free

DAY BED, rose color, needs 1 zipper, minor frame repair, Guy, X4703, Kathy, 482-1777

Flea Market Policy

Ads are accepted only from LBNL employees, retirees, and onsite DOE personnel. Only items of your own personal property may be offered for sale. Submissions must include name, affiliation, extension, and home phone. Ads must be submitted in writing (fleamarket@lbl.gov, fax: X6641). Ads run one issue only unless resubmitted, and are repeated only as space permits.

The deadline for the Sept. 20 issue is Thursday, Sept 12.