Atomic Scale Moving Parts for Shrinking Microscopic Machines

The GAMMASPHERE Returns to its 88-Inch Cyclotron Home

• First Public Presentation of BABAR Data
• Budget Update: Fiscal Year 2001
• Washington Column
• Computational Science Fellows Spend Day at Berkeley Lab
• Poster Session Caps Intern Experience for Future Scientists
• Summer Lectures Conclude with Look at Carbon Sequestration
• Health and Your Environment at Hall of Health
• Bulletin Board
• Calendar of Events
• Flea Market
• Flea Market Policy

Atomic Scale Moving Parts for Shrinking Microscopic Machines

In this drawing, the outer three layers have been peeled off a six-walled nanotube.

What could be the world’s smallest bearings and mechanical switches outside of those crafted by Mother Nature have been fashioned by researchers with Berkeley Lab’s Materials Sciences Division (MSD).

Working at the National Center for Electron Microscopy (NCEM), the researchers custom-engineered seemingly frictionless bearings and switches a few billionths of a meter in size — about ten thousand times smaller than the diameter of a human hair — out of individual multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs). These bearings and switches could prove immensely valuable to the microscopic machines of today, called micro-electromechanical systems, or MEMS — one of the hottest items to hit the high technology market since integrated circuits — and to their even smaller descendants now being planned for the future.

"We have demonstrated the controlled and reversible telescopic extension of multi-walled carbon nanotubes, thus realizing ultralow-friction nanoscale linear bearings and constant-force nanosprings," says John Cumings, a graduate student in the UC Berkeley Physics Department working in the laboratory of MSD and UC Berkeley physicist Alex Zettl. "Repeated extension and retraction of telescoping nanotube segments revealed no wear or fatigue on the atomic scale. Hence, these nanotubes may constitute near perfect, wear-free surfaces."

In a paper that appeared in the July 28 issue of Science, Cumings and Zettl described how they were able to carefully remove the capped end of a MWNT and extrude from it a smaller nanotube "much like the telescoping of a mariner’s traditional spyglass."

A MWNT is essentially an elongated form of the 60- and 70-atom clusters of pure carbon called fullerenes, or "buckyballs." Formed naturally in the residue of vaporized carbon rods, MWNTs typically consist of about five to 40 layers of graphite sheets curled and connected into a concentric series of hollow cylinders with each cylinder closed and capped on either end.

"Our procedure removes the caps from just the outer-shell nanotubes while leaving the core nanotubes fully intact and protruding," says Cumings. "We have used this technique inside a high-resolution transmission electron microscope (TEM) to attach a movable manipulator to only the core nanotubes within a MWNT."

UC Berkeley graduate student John Cumings created his telescoped nanotubes at NCEM in order to see what he was doing in real time. He was also able to record the procedure on videotape.

The weak van der Waals bonds that make graphite such a good lubricant do likewise for a telescoped nanotube and enable a core inner tube to move in and out of its jacket like a well-oiled shaft moving in and out of its sleeve. Those same van der Waals bonds also cause a fully extended core tube to snap back into its jacket in less than ten billionths of a second, raising the possibility of using telescoped nanotubes as really small and really fast electromechanical switches.

Explains Cumings, "Because the core nanotube conducts electrically to its housing, an extended core could bridge a gap between two metals, closing a circuit. When the core nanotube is retracted, it would open the circuit."

Running almost friction-free

This work by Cumings and Zettl holds great promise for MEMS. Although the global market for these systems is already in the billions of dollars, the development and application of the technology has been hampered by frictional wear and tear. Friction threatens to pose even more of a problem for the next generation of shrinking technology, NEMS or nanoelectronmechanical systems, devices that will be a thousand times smaller than MEMS.

"The frictional forces we see are about a thousand times smaller than you’d find in conventional MEMS devices made with silicon or silicon nitride," says Cumings.

The absence of friction results from the surfaces between the outer and inner nanotubes being atomically perfect and the spacing between them too narrow to accommodate grit. Because each individual wall of carbon atoms in a MWNT is likely to acquire a slightly different chirality (geometric configuration) when it is rolled into a cylinder, the energy barrier to rotation is also very small. This means that telescoped nanotubes should work equally well as linear or rotational bearings.

NCEM microscopes

Cumings and Zettl first created their telescoped nanotubes on NCEM’s Topcon 002b, a general purpose high-resolution TEM. They have since worked on the Philips CM200 as well. Using a Scanning Tunneling Microscope (STM) they adapted as a manipulator and working inside a special TEM stage they built that enabled the manipulations to be observed in real time, the researchers anchored a MWNT at one end with a stationary gold electrode and peeled off a few outer layers from the other. This left a portion of the unpeeled layers protruding as a second, smaller core tube from within the larger outer tube that had been peeled. The researchers then spot-welded the STM tip to this core tube and used it to pull or push the tube back and forth.

"We saw no wear or fatigue up to 20 cycles of pushing and pulling," says Cumings. "Because we’re looking at the molecular level, this means that there will be no wear if pushed and pulled a million times."

Though the experiments were performed inside a TEM for purposes of videotaping the procedure, the researchers say the technique can also be performed "blind" and monitored from the electrical characteristics of the MWNT alone. In addition, the "shaping" electrode can easily be replaced by any conventional conducting substrate.

The spring action of the telescoped nanotubes was discovered when a spot-weld broke and the inner tube that was being restrained immediately retracted back to its original position. By putting an electrical charge on the inner and outer tubes and altering the amount of this charge, it should be possible to make a "nanoswitch" that could be opened or closed at will.

The same technique used to make telescoped nanotubes can also be used to sharpen MWNT into long, stiff and tapered electrically-conducting tips for use as biological or scanned probes or for electron field emissions. The unique mechanical and electrical properties of MWNTs — they are chemically inert, stronger than steel, and can be made into insulators, conductors, semiconductors, or even superconductors — opens the door to their potential use in a wide variety of applications providing they can be engineered into an appropriate shape.

In a second paper which appeared in the Aug. 10 issue of Nature, Cumings and Zettl describe in detail how their technique for peeling off the outer layers of a MWNT to make a telescoped nanotube can also be used to sharpen the MWNT’s tip down to a single wall of carbon atoms.

"With our technique, average MWNTs are easily converted into ideal geometry tips for scanned probe, field emission, biological insertion, or mechanical nanobearing applications," Cumings says.

Joining Cumings and Zettl on the Nature paper was former MSD physicist Philip Collins, who is with IBM’s T. J. Watson Research Center in New York.

The GAMMASPHERE Returns to its 88-Inch Cyclotron Home

By Paul Preuss

The Gammasphere, a state-of-the art nuclear detector also noted for its aesthetic appeal, was one of the top attractions for visitors at the Open House this spring.

The GAMMASPHERE, the world’s premier detector for studying rare and exotic nuclear processes, was constructed at Berkeley Lab in 1992 and ‘93 and operated at the 88-Inch Cyclotron for four years until, in the fall of 1997, it moved to Argonne National Laboratory.

"We didn’t want it to go, but the move really was a success story — both in the science done and as an excellent example of close collaboration between the laboratories," says Augusto Macchiavelli of the Nuclear Science Division (NSD), GAMMASPHERE’s technical director.

"There are good reasons for moving it around the labs," agrees Paul Fallon, leader of the nuclear structure group in NSD. "Compelling scientific reasons, of course — each lab has special strengths, in both accelerators and people — and practical reasons too. For example, so many people want to use the GAMMASPHERE that it takes up 60 to 80 percent of the beam time wherever it is located, leaving less time for other programs."

In the spring of this year the GAMMASPHERE returned to the 88-Inch Cyclotron, its first home. Its intricate construction indicates why taking it apart, transporting it, and putting it back together again has required months of work — why, in Fallon’s words, it is "movable but not portable."

Designed to cleanly capture the 30 or more gamma rays emitted when a spinning nucleus sheds energy in a "de-excitation flash," the GAMMASPHERE bristles with a spherical array of over 100 detectors, all pointing inward to enclose a basketball-sized chamber where the accelerator beam collides with the target. The detectors are inserted through openings in two rotatable aluminum hemispheres, which can be pulled apart for access to the interior; the hemispheres themselves are levitated on sturdy support structures.

The crucial germanium crystal detectors are only about three inches long and three inches in diameter, but each is sheathed in a bismuth germanate scintillator, with electronics stacked on top of the scintillators and a liquid nitrogen dewar stacked on top of that — each assembly weighing some 60 pounds. Cables and liquid nitrogen hoses sprout from the ends of the assemblies like the snakes of Medusa’s hair.

The first step in disassembly is to remove the detectors. Nuclei decaying in the central chamber emit not only gamma rays but also protons, alpha particles, and neutrons, and after long use the germanium crystals suffer from neutron damage. Repair requires slow baking and cooling in a vacuum.

Byron Nofrey and Ed Chubak reassemble the Gammasphere at Berkeley Lab. Photo by Roy Kaltschmidt.

By mid-April the hemispheres and support structures had been secured on an oversize truck for the weeklong trip from Chicago to Berkeley. John Moreau of Berkeley Lab’s Engineering Division coordinated the trip, shepherding the truck the whole way. Experience from the previous move proved to be ideal preparation.

At Berkeley Lab, the only space big enough to park the big truck was at the Bevatron; riggers moved one hemisphere at a time down the hill to the 88-Inch, where the concrete blocks that formed the roof of Cave 4 had been removed. The two hemispheres of the $20 million device were lowered into place carefully. "Our riggers did a fantastic job," Macchiavelli says.

Detectors, electronics, nitrogen tanks, and other equipment arrived in three standard-sized moving vans. Then began the delicate business of assembling and inserting each detector and cooling it with liquid nitrogen, a 24-hour process. Each germanium detector had to be retested, a process handled by David Ward and Dick Diamond, senior scientists in the nuclear structure group.

Meanwhile, Mario Cromaz, new to the GAMMASPHERE team, had worked with Argonne’s Torben Lauritsen to learn how the computer systems were laid out — a critical task, since every operation is controlled by computer. After finishing a final alignment, to compensate for flexing of the hemispheres under the combined weight of the detectors, test runs with the cyclotron beam began in mid-July.

"There are 110 holes in the hemispheres, but two of these are taken up by the hub mechanism," says Fallon, "and at any given time a detector or two may be on the blink. When we have a hundred-plus working, it’s essentially all there. To test it, we repeat a previous experiment. With something you’ve done so many times, you know what you ought to be seeing."

The hardworking instrument, as dependable as it is sensitive, averaged four experiments a month from 1993 to the end of its stay at Argonne, and its schedule at the 88-Inch is as crowded as ever. With three times too many proposals for the available beam time, choices had to be made by an international Program Advisory Committee chaired by NSD’s I-Yang Lee.

The first full-scale experiment, to study neutron-rich nuclei using the method of target fragmentation, took place during the last week in July. Fifteen more experiments are scheduled before the end of the year, with such diverse goals as determining the properties of nuclei at high spins and tests of the Standard Model using the beta decay of carbon-10 to measure the mixing of up and down quarks.

With members of NSD’s nuclear structure group pitching in — Rod Clark, Mario Cromaz, Dick Diamond, Paul Fallon, Greg Lane, Augusto Macchiavelli, Carl Svensson, and David Ward — and with the crucial contributions of engineers, technicians, and electricians, including Edward Chubak, Dennis Collins, Steve Lundgren, Mi-chael Maier, John Moreau, Byron Nofrey, Mike Press, and their coworkers, one of the world’s most sensitive — and most beautiful — detectors has settled in for a long run of experiments. Researchers from around the globe will be pursuing everything from nuclear science to astrophysics to elementary particle physics on the reinstated GAMMASPHERE

First Public Presentation of BABAR Data

The B factory was built under a collaboration between Berkeley Lab, the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Budget Update: Fiscal Year 2001
Low Funding Levels Spell Bad News for Lab and Science

By Reid Edwards

With Congress in recess until after Labor Day, this is a good time to take a close look at this year’s Congressional budget process and its potential impact on Berkeley Lab.

Since the introduction of the Administration’s FY 2001 budget request last February, many hearings and deliberations have been held over how much to spend and on what priorities. Given the federal budget surplus — the first in many years — as well as the projected surpluses for years to come, much of the debate has centered on how much additional money to spend in this election year. Federal R&D, in particular, is very politically popular now, with both parties fighting to show their support for investing in the country’s research infrastructure.

Unfortunately, while these factors have benefited agencies such as the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation, the additional support has not yet filtered down to the research portfolio of the Department of Energy. Most of DOE’s work and the funding for Berkeley Lab is supported though the Energy and Water Development Appropriations Bill, with energy efficiency and fossil energy R&D funded through the Interior Appropriations Bill. Neither of these bills has been finalized by Congress or sent to the President to be signed into law, as required by Oct. 1, the beginning of the new fiscal year.

The House passed its version of the Energy and Water Bill back in June, with funding for the civilian portion of the bill at $210 million below that of the FY 2000 budget and $761 million below what the Administration had requested. (The legislation also funds the defense programs that are part of the DOE.)

With the very low funding allocation for this bill by the full House Appropriations Committee, it comes as no surprise that there are serious and distressing reductions in the funding for DOE’s Office of Science programs.

While fully funding the request for both high energy and nuclear physics, the House cut all but $5 million of a proposed $50 million increase for DOE’s civilian scientific supercomputing program. Thereby it essentially eliminated new money proposed in the Basic Energy Sciences program for the Administration’s nanoscience initiative, and zeroed funds for increasing the operation of existing national user facilities such as the Advanced Light Source here at the Lab. The House also eliminated proposed increases for the Biological and Environmental Research program, and kept funding for the fusion program flat at the FY 2000 level. Finally, the FY 2001 construction budget for the Spallation Neutron Source was reduced from $262 million to $100 million, which DOE says would result in termination of the project.

The House legislation also made two budget-related recommendations that would have a devastating impact on Berkeley Lab research. The first was to maintain the current year travel cap of $150 million for FY01. The second was to propose that the Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) program continue to be capped at four percent and that it be budgeted as a line item in the Administration’s annual budget proposal. This would essentially eliminate the laboratories’ ability to effectively use the LDRD program to respond to timely new scientific challenges.

The Senate version of the Energy and Water appropriations bill has passed the committee, and Senate floor action is expected shortly after Labor Day. In the Senate legislation, the Office of Science received somewhat more funding, but there are still some serious shortfalls.

High-energy physics is reduced $30 million below the FY00 level and $32 million below the FY01 request. Nuclear physics is cut $2 million below the current year funding and $15 million below the FY01 request. Fusion funding is cut to $227 million. And while the Biological and Environmental Research program is kept flat at FY00 levels, funding for the new Microbial Cell project was cut in half, with no funding provided for the new gene expression initiative.

In the Basic Energy Sciences program, the Spallation Neutron Source is funded at a higher level than the House — $222 million versus $100 million. The nanoscience initiative is funded at $20 million, $16 million below the request, but is apparently supported at the expense of existing materials and chemical sciences research programs.

The Senate bill also provides $21 million of the proposed $51 million increase in computing, but does it partially by zeroing out the Laboratory Technology Research program. The Senate bill also proposes to increase the travel cap by $50 million to $200 million, and the allowable LDRD level from four to six percent.

Overall, neither bill is particularly good news for the Office of Science or Berkeley Lab. The Administration has made known its concerns about the bills, and has threatened to veto the Senate-drafted legislation. Many of the appropriations bills currently moving through the Congress are funded at levels below that requested by the Administration, so there is some concern whether differences can be worked out before the start of the new fiscal year on Oct. 1.

Many Republicans and Democrats believe Congress and the White House will come to an agreement to provide significant additional funding to many of these bills, including the Energy and Water Bill, so that they can be signed into law. If there is no resolution of these issues, many of the appropriations bills may be included in a stopgap continuing resolution so that federal funding is not stopped on October 1. No one in the Congress or the Administration wants a government shutdown reminiscent of the one of 1995-96.

The scientific community is actively working to see that the Office of Science programs are adequately funded in FY 2001, and we can only hope that the results of their efforts will be successful.

Washington Column

Dresselhaus Sworn in As New Director of the Office of Science

MIT physicist Mildred S. Dresselhaus was sworn in this week as director of the Department of Energy’s Office of Science. She was confirmed by the Senate on July 26.

"It is hard to imagine a more qualified person than Millie Dresselhaus to oversee an office that sponsors so much important research for the nation," said Energy Secretary Bill Richardson. "Dr. Dresselhaus brings to the task more than 40 years of research experience as an eminent physicist. Equally important is her long service to the scientific community, including the leadership of major scientific associations. Her advice to the government on science policy has always been sage, and I look forward to her continued contributions."

Dresselhaus succeeds Martha Krebs, who served in this position for six years, until December 1999.

With an annual budget of $2.8 billion, the Office of Science is one of the largest sponsors of basic research in the federal government, funding programs in basic energy sciences, high energy and nuclear physics, biological and environmental research, fusion energy, advanced scientific computing and science education.

In her capacity as manager of the Office of Science, as well as DOE’s science and technology advisor, Dresselhaus will advise the Secretary on science and technology issues that cut across the department’s programs. She will also manage five of the department’s multiprogram laboratories and five single program laboratories.

Dresselhaus, who is on leave of absence while at DOE, is Institute Professor of electrical engineering and physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. She is a recipient of the National Medal of Science and 17 honorary doctorates. -- Monica Friedlander

Computational Science Fellows Spend Day at Berkeley Lab

By Jon Bashor

During his talk with the students, Bill McCurdy of Computing Sciences described his group’s work to solve a long-standing fundamental problem of quantum mechanics.

Forty-six graduate students participating in a DOE fellowship program to train future

computational scientists recently spent a day at Berkeley Lab, learning about scientific research and about the growing role of computation in those research efforts.

The visit filled one day of the three-day Computational Science Graduate Fellowship (CSGF) conference held on July 27-29. The students spent another day at Lawrence Livermore and Sandia national labs in Livermore.

"One of the main goals of the program is to introduce the students to working computational scientists in the national labs and to the labs themselves as exciting places to work," said Phil Colella, one of Berkeley Lab’s coordinators of the CSGF program since 1996. "Our talks here showed them that very exciting computational science is being done here and that computational science is an integral part of science at the Lab."

Lab speakers during the morning program were Adam Arkin of the Physical Biosciences Division, who discussed aspects of genetic research such as data mining, simulation and biological circuit design; Alexandre Chorin of the Mathematics Department, who talked about fluctuations, dissipation and computation; Bill McCurdy of the Computing Sciences Directorate, who described his group’s work to solve the ionization by electron impact, a long-standing fundamental problem of the quantum mechanics; and Saul Perlmutter of the Physics Division, who discussed supercomputers and cosmology.

The afternoon included tours of the NERSC High-Performance Computing Facility and breakout sessions with informal discussions about applied mathematics, computer science and scientific software; biological and environmental applications, including protein folding and climate modeling; computational chemistry and material sciences; and high energy physics and astrophysics.

"The day at Berkley Lab was one of the most interesting parts of the CSGF conference," said Caltech student Mayya Tokman. "I really enjoyed the general presentations in the morning, as well as more focused sessions later in the day. They demonstrated the breadth of the scientific research at Berkeley Lab. Another important point that became clear in the course of the day was the strong connection between the University and the Lab."

Tokman said the day at Berkeley Lab led her, and probably many of the other fellows, to consider LBNL as a future work place.

"Holding the conference at DOE labs this year gave the fellows a great opportunity to meet researchers and see the work being done at the nation’s labs," said Barbara Helland, the associate director for technical operations at the Krell Institute, which administers the fellowship program for DOE. "I think [the students] came away from the conference with a greater understanding of the research and the facilities available at the labs."

Diem-Phuong Nguyen, a student of chemical engineering at the University of Utah, said the informal nature of the breakout sessions "was very nice and it gave us the opportunity to ask more detailed questions. It was a nice general overview of research going on at LBNL and a good networking experience."

Colella, who hosted one of the breakout sessions and had two fellows when he was a professor at UC Berkeley, said the CSGF program is unique in that it has a strong scientific-institutional agenda attached and students are required to map out a course of study to include classes outside their main area of study.

He sees the program as a valuable tool for training a new generation of computational scientists and getting them intellectually engaged in a field that is as exciting as any other part of the high-tech world, and that can make a lasting contribution to science as well.

Another benefit of the program, Colella said, is the creation of a community of scholars who identify with the emerging field of computational science. He also notes that he finds the time he spends on the program personally rewarding.

"These are really smart people and it’s fun working with them," he says.

The CSGF is looking for Lab scientists interested in working with students in their practica. For more information about the program, contact Lab coordinator Phil Colella or Horst Simon, or look up the program at www. krellinst.org/CSGF/.

Poster Session Caps Intern Experience for Future Scientists

By Lisa Gonzales

Poster Session Shows Off Student Summer Work Last Thursday students from around the nation and the world participated in the largest poster session ever held at Berkeley Lab. See Page 5 for more on some of the future scientists who took the time to talk with us. Photo by Roy Kaltschmidt

Once a summer intern at Berkeley Lab, Eleanor Blakely of the Life Sciences Division now spends much time each summer mentoring both graduate and undergraduate students.

"Having interns has always been a win-win situation for me," she says, noting that her initial time investment for instruction pays off throughout the rest of the summer by the students’ participation in her research.

One of the interns working in her Lab this summer is Arturo Chavez, a premed student from Southwestern Community College in San Diego, who worked here on experiments that compared the interactions of commercial antibodies with specific proteins. "Arturo just took right to the work," Blakely says.

Arturo Chavez, a premed student from San Diego, spent the summer in working in the Life Sciences Division with scientist Eleanor Blakely. "Here I learned what science really is," he said.

Chavez is one of 83 students from all scientific divisions who presented their summer research last Thursday during the largest undergraduate research poster session ever held at Berkeley Lab. The event, held at the cafeteria, was sponsored by the Center for Science and Engineering Education.

"It’s been interesting to get an in-depth look at how research is conducted," says Chavez. Just as important to him has been the experience of meeting what he calls "the top students from around the world."

Chavez comes from a background quite different from that of many of his fellow interns, having grown up in poor neighborhoods where there were few opportunities. His parents stressed the importance of education to their children, and he remembers how hard his parents worked to send them to parochial schools. Now his older brother is a high school teacher, his older sister an attorney, and he transfers to the University of Southern California (USC) in the fall to finish his undergraduate studies before continuing to medical school. His plan is to become a pediatrician, specializing in treating children with congenital diseases.

"My little brother has Down Syndrome, and taking care of him has inspired me to take care of others," says Chavez, who has shown his commitment to his community in other ways, such as working for two years with gang youth in Los Angeles. Now, as he prepares to attend USC, he considers his experience at the Lab very valuable.

"Here I learned what science really is."

That sentiment is echoed by Hannah Abend, 18, a physics major from Queens College who worked at the Advanced Light Source with Ali Belkacem.

"I was here from the building of the beamline to collecting and analyzing data," she says with excitement, standing in front of her poster for "Vacuum Induced Photoionization at the ALS." "Being able to start off at a point of not knowing and then progressing in understanding has been an incredibly good experience." Abend is fortunate to have worked at the Lab as an intern since January during both the spring and summer sessions.

Physics student Hannah Abend (right) from Queens College describes her summer research at the ALS during last week’s student poster session. Photos by Roy Kaltschmidt..

As Belkacem’s first intern, she has made quite an impression. Because it was important to Belkacem that his intern have a good experience and function as part of the scientific team, he took a lot of time in the beginning to educate Abend. Following this initial period, she learned very quickly. "After a month she became a true scientist."

Born and raised in Brooklyn, Abend always had a strong interest in science; she just wasn’t sure which field to pursue. She started college at 16, and in her second year took a series of internships. Through Columbia University she spent a "Universe Semester" focusing on astronomy at the Biosphere in Arizona. She went on to oceanography, working a month at sea collecting sediment samples off the ocean floor from Santa Barbara to Mexico. Then she came to Berkeley Lab to study atomic physics.

"I have always leaned towards atomic and particle physics, and working here has made that desire even stronger," Abend says. She plans to continue her studies in physics at New York University in the fall. "I know that the fundamental research I’ve been doing here is what I want to continue to do as a scientist."

Abend credits Belkacem and his team with making her experience here so special. "He’s so enthusiastic about learning and so patient. He’s everything you could want in a mentor." She especially appreciates the "true research experience" she received by being treated as a part of the team who participated on the beamline and in scientific discussions.

"I will consider it a big reward for me if she continues in physics," Belkacem says, pointing out that this is a field that fewer people are pursuing, especially women. "Hannah truly has the talent to become a great physicist."

Belkacem is now committed to the program. "The Lab has lots of know-how, and this is a chance to pass that knowledge on." He also stresses how important it is to encourage undergraduates to pursue physics. "If they have a good experience, they might go on to be our future scientists."

Funding for the interns comes from the DOE’s Energy Research Undergraduate Research Laboratory Fellowship and Community College Initiative in Biotechnology, Environmental Science, and Computing Program.

Summer Lectures Conclude with Look at Carbon Sequestration

The Public Information Department’s summer lecture wrapped up on Aug. 2 with a talk by Jim Bishop of Earth Sciences about climate change and a project to investigate the storage of atmospheric carbon dioxide in the ocean.

Bishop, a chemical oceanographer and marine geochemist, is co-director of DOE’s Center for Research on Ocean Carbon Sequestration. He may also may be the only bona fide oceanographer within the DOE science complex.

Referring to atmospheric greenhouse gas emissions as "one of mankind’s most remarkable experiments," Bishop said his program will evaluate the feasibility, effectiveness and environmental consequences of countering this C02 buildup through ocean carbon sequestration.

Bishop outlined two possible approaches: "ocean fertilization," which would accelerate natural processes that convert atmospheric carbon into ocean sediments by fertilizing the ocean with micronutrients; and "direct injection," which would infuse CO2 directly into the ocean.

But, said Bishop, daunting questions must still be resolved before any serious consideration is given to undertaking oceanic carbon sequestration efforts. Among these: Does enhancement of natural cycles by fertilization lead to desirable changes in the efficiency of carbon export to the deep ocean? Does direct C02 injection succeed in sequestering carbon in deep waters so that it actually remains isolated from the atmosphere for hundreds of years? And, are these options environmentally acceptable?

Health and Your Environment at Hall of Health

Children and dignitaries alike, including Lab Director Charles Shank (above), attended Wednesday’s opening of "Health And Your Environment," an interactive exhibit for children sponsored by Berkeley Lab, the Children's Hospital Branches, and Alta Bates Associates. The exhibit is now on permanent display at the Hall of Health in Berkeley.

"The Hall gives children an understanding of what science does and how it impacts our lives," Shank said. "Hopefully a new generation of research scientists will be inspired."

The exhibit addresses issues such as the impact of air, water and soil quality on health, the risks and benefits of radiation, noise pollution, and home poisoning prevention. Hands-on activities include a Geiger counter to test household items for radioactivity and a vacuum that filters airborne particulates.

The Hall of Health is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission is free.

Bulletin Board

Employee Recreation Fair

Would you like to join a club at Berkeley Lab? Do you have an idea for a new one? Or do you just want to have a good time? Then join members of the Lab’s recreational and cultural clubs next Tuesday, Aug. 15 from 12 to 1 p.m. on the cafeteria lawn. Representatives from the Employees’ Activities Association will be on hand to answer questions. Live music will be provided by LBNL's Music Club.

Financial Services Year End Meeting

The Financial Services Department will hold its year-end closing kickoff meeting for Fiscal Year 2000 on Friday, Aug. 25 from 10 to 11:30 a.m. in the Bldg. 66 auditorium. The meeting will provide key dates and processes for the financial year end close.

Lab Life

Sig Rogers to Retire After Almost 40 Years

Sig Rogers, who came to work at the Lab in 1961 and helped usher in data communication and networking on the Hill, will be feted at a retirement party scheduled for Friday, Sept. 22.

Rogers began his Lab career helping maintain the electronic equipment used to measure and analyze results of physics experiments using bubble chambers. He later helped develop the Lab’s networking infrastructure, known as LBLnet.

Details for the celebration are still being finalized. For more information contact Roberta Boucher at RLBoucher@lbl.gov.

Surplus Chemicals Currently Available

Berkeley Lab’s Surplus Chemical Exchange Program offers unused chemicals to employees for use in DOE-funded research. Technicians from the Hazardous Waste Handling Facility deliver the materials free of charge within two days. All chemical containers are sealed and have never been opened. A complete list of chemicals can be found at www-ehs.lbl.gov/wastemin/ chemicals.html. For more information or to request chemicals, contact Shelley Worsham at X6123, saworsham@lbl.gov. Some items available now include:

• 10X Tris/Glycine Buffer
• 2% Bis Solution
• 40% Acrylamide/Bis
• 704 Diffusion Pump oil
• Acryl/Bis 19:1
• Acryl/Bis Pre-Mixed Powder
• Acrylamide 29:1
• Acrylamide 40%
• Acrylamide 99.9%
• Acrylamide/Bis 19:1
• Aquadag
• Bio-Rad Kit/Copper Stain 10Xconcentration
• Bio-Rad Kit/Zinc/Copper Destain
• Bis N,N-Methylene-bis-Acrylamide
• Bismuth Strontium Calcium Copper Oxide
• Cerium(IV) Oxide
• Destain Solution, Coomassie R-250
• Dichloromethane
• Dimethyl Sulfate 99%
• Dysprosium Powder <250 micron 99%
• Eribium Oxide 99%
• Ethylene Glycol Vinyl Ether, 97%
• Formamide/Ultra Pure Grade
• Holium Oxide 99.99%
• Hydrogen Peroxide 30%
• Iodine/WaterPyridine/ Tetrahydrofuran
• Lead Carbonate ACS
• Long Ranger Gel Solution
• MES (2-(n-Morpholino) Ethanesulfonic Acid)
• Neodymium Oxide 99.99%
• Potassium Chloride
• Urea

Currents Online

The full text and photographs of each edition of Currents are published online at http://www.lbl.gov/ Publications/Currents/. The site allows users to do searches of past articles going back to 1994.

Looking Cool: "Magic Particles" in Time for Kids

A few years ago Mark Modera of the Environmental Energy Technologies Division noticed that the duct system was missing from most models of airflow through buildings. He set out to correct the omission and ended up inventing a quick, inexpensive, aerosol-based duct-sealing system he called Aeroseal — also known as "magic particles" — that attatch to leaks inside ducts, helping keep the air inside cool or hot. Each only ten millionth of a meter in diameter, these particles could save the nation billions of dollars a year.

A reporter from Time for Kids magazine came to the Hill recently to talk with Modera about his "magic" and the science behind it. For the occasion he posed on his bike to show kids that "science is cool." Photo by Roy Kaltschmidt.

Calendar of Events
Aug. 11 - Sept. 8, 2000

General Interest Calendar

FRI., AUGUST 11

Fidelity Retirement Session
Cafeteria, lower conference room
7 a.m. - 1 p.m., Bldg. 70A-3377

TUES., AUGUST 15

Employee Activities Recreation Fair
12 - 1 p.m., cafeteria lawn

FRI., AUGUST 25

FY 2000 Closing Meeting
10 - 11:30 a.m., Bldg. 66 audit.

Fidelity Retirement Session
7 a.m. – 1 p.m., Bldg. 70A-3377

MON., AUGUST 4

Labor Day Holiday

THURS., AUGUST 7

Shoemobile
7:30 - 3:30, cafeteria parking lot

Tripmobile
11:30 - 12:40, cafeteria parking lot

FRI., AUGUST 8

Fidelity Retirement Session
7 a.m. – 1 p.m., Bldg. 70A-3377

Please e-mail announcements and items for the General Calendar to MSFriedlander@lbl.gov. You may also fax them to X6641 or mail them to Bldg. 65B. The deadline for the Sept. 8 issue is 5 p.m. Monday, Sept. 4.

Seminars & Lectures

FRIDAY, August 11

Special Informal Seminar on Gene Mapping
"Gene Mapping and Functional Studies Using Chromosome Engineering" will be presented by Mitsuo Oshimura of Tottori University in Japan.
10:30 a.m., Bldg. 84-318

THURSDAY, August 17

Physics Divison Research Progress Meeting
"A Quasi-Model-Independent Search Strategy for New High pT Physics" will be presented by Bruce Knuteson of the Physics Division.
4:00 p.m., Bldg. 50A-5132

FRIDAY, August 18

Center for Beam Physics Seminar
"Design, Manufacture and Testing of 91 GHz Planar Dielectric Accelerator" will be presented by Eddie Lin of SLAC.
10:30 a.m., Bldg. 71 conf. rm.
Refreshments will be served.

THURSDAY, August 24

Physics Divison Research Progress Meeting
"Results from Belle" will be presented by Nobu Katayama of KEK Observatory.
4:00 p.m., Bldg. 50A-5132

THURSDAY, August 24

Surface Science and Catalysis Science Seminar
"Microscopic and Macroscopic Effects of Surface Lubricant Films in Granular Shear" will be presented by Robert Cain of Newcastle University, Australia.
1:30 p.m., Bldg. 66-317 auditorium

(For the latest surface science seminars check http://stm.lbl.gov/~mwlum/SSCS.html .)

THURSDAY, August 31

Physics Divison Research Progress Meeting
"Solar Neutrino Results from Super-Kamiokande" will be presented by Michael Smy of UC Irvine.
4:00 p.m., Bldg. 50A-5132

FRIDAY, September 1

Center for Beam Physics Seminar
"Coherent 2D Beam-Beam Simulations" will be presented by Stephan Tzenov of SLAC.
10:30 a.m., Bldg. 71 conf. rm.
Refreshments will be served.

THURSDAY, September 7

Physics Division Research Progress Meeting
"A Report from ICHEP2000" (in Osaka, Japan) will be presented by David Brown, Hitoshi Murayama and Mark Strovink of the Physics Division.
4:00 p.m., Bldg. 50A-5132

FRIDAY, September 8

Physics Division Research Progress Meeting
"Higgs Searches at LEP" will be presented by Kara Hoffman of CERN, Switzerland.
2:00 p.m., Bldg. 50A-5132

Items for Seminars & Lectures may be e-mailed to currents_ calendar@lbl.gov, faxed to X6641, or mailed to Bldg. 65B. The deadline for the Sept. 8 issue is 5 p.m. Monday, Sept. 4.

AIM Computer Classes: Aug. – Sept. 2000

AIM, a Walnut Creek-based computer software training firm, provides onsite PC computer courses to Lab employees.

Classes are held in Bldg. 51L from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Class descriptions and registration procedure are available online at http://www.lbl.gov/ Workplace/EDT/computers/ PC_Classes.html. For more information or to provide feedback about the program, contact Heather Pinto at hmpinto@lbl.gov.

Note: All in-house courses at this time are taught on PCs with Windows 98®. The 97 series programs are used by the newest version of Microsoft Office for Windows 98®. Series 6.x programs for the Mac are nearly identical to the Windows 98® versions. For users of a Mac 6.x series or an older Mac or PC version, the material covered in these courses will be applicable.

Softball Club

Standings at end of the season (before playoffs):

1. Ballpark Estimates 10-1

2. Rated X 9-2

3. Animals 8-3

4. Collisions 7-4

5. Camshafts 6-5

6. Environmets 6-5

7. SUDZ 5-6

8. Las Chupacabras 4-7

9. Pedal Pushers 4-7

10. Drosoftballa 4-7

11. Hard Drives 2-9

12. PCT 1-10

Flea Market

Autos / Supplies

Flea Market Policy

Submissions must include name, affiliation, extension, and home phone number. Ads must be submitted in writing: via e-mail (fleamarket@lbl.gov), fax (X6641), or delivered/mailed to Bldg. 65B.

Ads run one week only unless resubmitted in writing, and are repeated only as space permits.

Currents reserves the right to edit ads for space and style. Once submitted for publication, ads may not be retracted for any reason.

Please note: Currents will skip one issue in August and will resume publication on Sept. 8. The deadline for the next Flea Market is Thursday, Aug. 31.