January
25, 2002
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January
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Berkeley Lab Gets Top DOE Rating
Berkeley Lab Gets Top DOE RatingBy Ron Kolb
For the third consecutive year — and with its highest overall grade ever — Berkeley Lab has been rated “outstanding” for both the quality of its science and the level of its support services by the Department of Energy. The annual review of Lab performance by the DOE and the University of California Office of the President (UCOP) yielded superior marks in every category of assessment. The overall grade of 92.3 (on a scale of 100) for FY01 was the highest ever achieved by Berkeley Lab since the institution of performance-based standards and measures in 1992. “The report validates the hard work of our scientists and our administrative staff,” said Laboratory Director Charles Shank. “Every individual at this laboratory should take pride in this rating and accept my personal appreciation for jobs well done.” Deputy Director for Operations Sally Benson noted that, for the first time, the cumulative administrative and operations scores from DOE reached the “outstanding” level that science and technology achieved over the past four years. “It shows that DOE and UC believe that we are delivering the services that our research needs to maintain a quality enterprise,” she added. The UCOP figures, developed as part of the contractual obligation for assessment known as “Appendix F,” were similar to those reported by DOE. Office of the President representative Buck Koonce, the executive director for Laboratory Operations, called it an “outstanding story” for Berkeley Lab and the culmination of several years of improvements and successes. He referred to the Lab’s “maturing systems” and said that, in many areas, it is a model for other labs in the DOE complex. In a review last week of the final assessment, Koonce pointed to several highlights that contributed to the Lab’s high scientific rating. Major initiatives such as the Supernova Acceleration Probe, the Molecular Foundry, and the Energy Efficiency and Electric Reliability Lab were called out for special mention. He also noted facility upgrades at the Advanced Light Source and the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center. Research successes included the confirmation of charge-parity (CP) violation at the B Factory of the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, the observation of neutrino oscillations at the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory, the world-record resolution below one angstrom at the National Center for Electron Microscopy, and the invention of the energy-efficient Berkeley Lamp. Nine different functions were rated on the administration and operations side, with all deemed “outstanding” or “excellent:” Environmental Restoration and Waste Management was cited for effective operations, reductions in unit costs, and innovative remediation and assessment technologies. Koonce called the completion of all restoration goals as a “huge milestone” for the site clean-up program. Environment, Health and Satefy received major recognition for the successful implementation of the verified Integrated Safety Management (ISM) system and for its record in worker health exposures, accident prevention, and incident tracking. No reportable environmental releases or regulatory violations occurred in FY01.
Koonce also noted several challenges facing the Lab, including the continuing issue of decontaminating the Bevatron for other uses, maintaining an open scientific environment in the context of higher security requirements, and preparing for renewal of the management contract for Berkeley Lab with DOE. Benson mentioned one more challenge as a follow-up to the Laboratory’s lofty performance grades: “What do we do next? What do we need to do to jump to the next level of performance? We have to look at this [assessment process] in different ways. For example, what does it mean to be a ‘location of choice’ for new scientific opportunities? We need to strive to be the best place in the world to carry out scientific research. We should create a balanced set of measures that evaluates systems-performance and emphasizes efficiency and cost-effectiveness. We need to move to more flexible management approaches that encourage innovation and improvement, while providing the appropriate level of assurance to DOE that we are good stewards of the public resources entrusted to us.” DOE Performance Scores for FY 1997 - 2001
The Disorderly Conduct of SuperconductorsAtom by atom, researchers track down
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A cuprate achieves its highest-temperature transition to the superconducting state with just the right amount of doping, different for each compound. When the cuprate is underdoped, theoreticians have predicted that a phenomenon called “frustrated electronic phase separation” (FEPS) could occur: regions of the sample could develop different electronic phases even though they are separated from each other by mere nanoscale distances.
One form of FEPS is the proposed “stripe phase,” in which charge carriers are thought to flow along one-dimensional lines like rivers through insulating regions. “Another possibility is that superconducting domains are separated like islands in an insulating sea,” says Davis; this could give rise to the kind of electronic granularity his group observed directly.
Maps of gaps
Davis’s group cleaved perfect single crystals of B-2212, which split cleanly along the bismuth-oxygen plane lying immediately over the copper-oxygen plane. Their scanning tunneling microscope was able to image individual atoms in the plane; in ultra-high vacuum at very low temperature, the electronic states of the underlying copper-oxygen plane could also be sensed.
As the probe scanned over the plane it measured differences in the current reaching the tip, a function of the voltage between the tip and the surface. Two kinds of regions of different conductance were revealed: alpha regions exhibited relatively small energy gaps, typical of superconductivity; beta regions had larger gaps.
From these spectral scans, “gap-maps” were constructed showing that, in the underdoped crystal, the alpha regions were roughly circular areas less than three nanometers (billionths of a meter) across, separated from one another and surrounded by narrow beta regions approximately two nanometers wide.
“One question we couldn’t answer with the initial STM spectra was whether the alpha regions really were superconducting,” says Davis. “But we had recently developed a new atomic-scale tool, one we’d already used to study magnetic impurities in superconductors, that could address this question.”
Nickel atoms introduced into the copper-oxygen planes of Bi-2212 stand out because of the orientation of their surrounding clouds of charge: cross shapes reveal the density of negative charges — electrons — and x shapes that of positive charges — holes (see Currents, Sept. 21, 2001). These patterns, or resonances, result when the impurity atom scatters entities known as quasiparticles.
Quasiparticle symmetry holds the key
Quasiparticles, which can be thought of as unpaired charge carriers, do not participate directly in superconductivity. Superconductivity is carried by pairs (Cooper pairs) of either electrons or holes; superconductivity in Bi-2212 and most other high-Tc superconductors is carried by holes.
Quasiparticles too may be either particle-like or hole-like. An overall balance, or symmetry, between the particle-like and hole-like quasiparticle resonances created by impurity atoms is a requirement of local superconductivity.
“Particle-hole symmetry of an impurity resonance indicates the superconducting state,” says Davis. “It is predicted to decrease in other states and may disappear altogether in nonsuperconducting regions.”
The Davis team surveyed B-2212 crystals a second time with the STM, this time looking not for energy gaps but for the cross- and x-shaped resonances that were signatures of the individual nickel atoms they had introduced into the sample — signposts of the superconducting state. They found nickel impurities in alpha regions but none in beta regions.
“A likely explanation is that nickel atoms are indeed present in other regions. But because these are not superconducting, there is no symmetrical particle-hole scattering to reveal the nickel impurities,” Davis says.
Together, these two new STM techniques — high-resolution spectral surveys and the use of impurity resonances as local markers of superconductivity — not only show that superconductivity is segregated into discrete domains in underdoped B-2212, but also strongly suggest granular superconductivity due to frustrated electronic phase separation.
“Since the domains are so close together,” Davis says, “quantum-mechanical Josephson tunneling across the nonsuperconducting regions that separate them is probably what supports the long-range superconducting properties of this material.”
Kristine Lang, Vidya Madhavan, and Jenny Hoffman are current
members of the Davis group. Former member Eric Hudson is a National Research
Council fellow at the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
Shin-ichi Uchida, Davis’s principal collaborator, is professor of physics
at Tokyo University; he and his colleague Hiroshi Eisaki made essential
materials available. Their article, “Using impurity atoms to search for
granular superconductivity in underdoped Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+delta,” appears
in the Jan. 24, 2002 issue of Nature.
By Ron Kolb
 Terry Turchie’s counterterrorism presentation was the first one made available for web viewing using the Lab’s new video service. |
A new software technology now available at Berkeley Lab allows for the real-time recording of lectures and presentations for easy and high-quality web viewing. Within minutes of the recording, the high-quality audio and video are synchronized with the presenter’s PowerPoint slides and posted online.
The system has been designed to make lectures and meeting presentations accessible to a broad audiences in a simulation of live production. The software aligns the video of the speaker with the accompanying slides, which are displayed digitally at high resolution. Each slide’s text data is then gathered to form an outline of the slide content. The viewer can skip to any point within the presentation, without having to watch the entire streaming video to find a particular segment.
The service is offered by the Technical and Electronic Information (TEID) and Information Technology Services (ITSD) departments. An example of the system’s capabilities is the Jan. 10 lecture by Terry Turchie on “How to Catch Terrorists.” It can be viewed on TEID’s Video Services website, (http://www-library.lbl.gov/teid/tmVideo/aboutus/VideoDefault.htm; click on “Online Presentations”). Within an hour after Turchie completed his talk in the Building 50 auditorium, the entire presentation was posted online.
The system utilizes RealMedia, the Lab’s standard streaming player.
The technology also features a searchable database of keywords from each presentation — an alternate route to finding specific content within a talk. Plans are in place to archive presentations by division or project.
“We anticipate this new service will provide a convenient way for Lab users and the public to view educational, institutional and information content conveniently and efficiently, enabling a more effective and far-reaching distribution of Lab resources,” said Jane Tierney, TEID department head.
TEID’s Video Service Group lead, Ellen Seidler (X4237) can provide estimates for recording and web posting of events. Lectures posted on the web are kept online for access by anyone with a web browser configured for RealMedia playback. In addition, TEID can design programs to facilitate the receipt of credit for training, or to provide lists of those who have viewed the presentations online.
For further information, please contact Jane Tierney
at X4400.
“We had this prediction from looking at clues, like Sherlock Holmes. And then Séamus goes out and actually sees the culprit”
The spectacular electromagnetic effects displayed by superconductors arise because charge carriers (electrons or holes) are bound together in Cooper pairs to form a “condensate,” with all particles in the same quantum state. Not every particle finds a partner, however. Unpaired particles are described as quasiparticles, whose properties include finite lifetimes.
“The standard picture of superconductor electrodynamics is the two-fluid model, in which the medium behaves as a superconducting fluid — a superfluid — of Cooper pairs, which is permeated by a normal fluid consisting of quasiparticles,” explains Joseph Orenstein, a staff scientist in the Materials Sciences Division and a professor of physics at UC Berkeley.
Quasiparticles are difficult to study in superconductors; to measure their electrical properties versus that of the condensate, Orenstein used alternating rather than direct current.
Because the condensate has mass, alternating current repeatedly accelerates and decelerates the charge carriers. There is no resistance, but unlike direct current there is a measurable electric field and voltage. Current contributed by the normal fluid encounters resistance, just as in a normal metal, which is related to quasiparticle lifetimes.
To set up ac current in a sample of BSCCO, Orenstein used time-domain terahertz spectroscopy, with frequencies between microwaves and the far infrared. He measured the intensity, amplitude, and phase of the wave that passed through the sample.
“The signature of the condensate appears as an out-of-phase component in the waveform,” he says, “but because quasiparticles respond in phase with the terahertz radiation, they leave a distinct signature in the altered waveform.”
The measurements produced a startling result: the two-fluid model seemed to fail. “The two-fluid model suggests that when you cool a superconductor down, you expect the normal charge carriers to convert to superconducting pairs,” Orenstein says. Resistance should go down while the screening component, a signature of the condensate, should go up. In BSCCO, both increased.
The only plausible explanation was that superconducting properties were not uniform throughout the sample. “It was an extreme idea, and I never thought anybody would believe it. I spent most of a summer worrying about it.”
When Séamus Davis learned of the results, he set out to look for actual spatial variations in the conductive properties of BSCCO’s superconducting layers — and found them. Says Orenstein, “We had this prediction from looking at clues, like Sherlock Holmes. And then Séamus goes out and actually sees the culprit.”
For details about Orenstein’s research, visit http://www.lbl.gov/Science-Articles/Archive/MSD-granular-Orenstein.html.
Deputy Energy Secretary Francis Blake has issued a sharp rebuttal to a report from the General Accounting Office that criticized DOE’s efforts to reform its operations.
“GAO’s identification of DOE’s diverse missions as a fundamental cause of past problems is as simplistic as it is wrong,” Blake said in a public letter to GAO. “The GAO report also fails to understand key facts about the department and Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham’s actions in improving its management.”
The GAO report on DOE management was requested by Rep. Sonny Callahan (R-Ala), chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development, and Rep. Pete Visclosky (D-Ind), the subcommittee’s ranking member. GAO is the investigative arm of Congress. The report was especially critical of DOE’s management of its national laboratory system, citing problems with construction delays, cost overruns, and wasted spending, despite the department’s pledge in 1995 to initiate wide-ranging reforms.
“DOE’s management weaknesses and resulting performance problems continue to erode public confidence in the department and its contractors,” the report said. “DOE’s national laboratories are crucial to its mission and performance yet the agency has not been able to develop a single strategic plan that integrates its vast laboratory network. The laboratories, particularly the multi-program ones, operate largely as separate entities. DOE has no central program control over the laboratories, but has instead required that each report to a lead headquarters program office since 1999.”
The report concluded that “Certain DOE missions might be managed better if located elsewhere, either combined with other federal agencies that have similar responsibilities or delegated to the private sector.”
In response, Blake said this diverse range of activities, different cultures, and management styles is an advantage.
“To suggest that the entities within a cabinet department must have a common culture is mistaken and would lose the value that a department gains from different perspectives and functions. In fact, DOE’s labs benefit from their diversity through their ability to play off each other’s strengths in tackling scientific challenges.”
What is important, said Blake, is that DOE ensure that its laboratories are “performing the right tasks, are executing them properly and are held accountable for the results.” This he argued, is now being done and progress is being made towards further improvements.
The GAO report “Department of Energy: Fundamental Reassessment Needed
to Address Major Mission, Structure and Accountability Problems” can be
read at http://www.gao.gov/. —
Lynn Yarris
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Ramon Pascual (right), science advisor to Catalonia President Jordi Pujol (center), talks with Berkeley Lab Deputy Director Pier Oddone during a tour of the Advanced Light Source. The two Catalan leaders were part of an entourage of officials and press representatives from that country who visited the Laboratory on Jan. 15. Their visit was part of a Bay Area swing during which they observed various research and development programs that have been instrumental in building the California economy. Catalonia, an independent state of the nation of Spain, is looking to emulate some of the successful programs here, including some at the Advanced Light Source, in areas such as nanotechnology and energy efficiency.
In his written welcome to Pujol, Energy Secretary Spencer
Abraham encouraged Catalonia to "explore joint research and collaboration
initiatives in the near future" with the U.S. He cited Berkeley Lab
and the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center as "pioneers" in
the development of new technologies and scientific applications. —
Photo by Robert Couto
To serve the state’s needs by 2010, the University of California must boost systemwide graduate student enrollment by at least 11,000, or nearly 50 percent, and increase support for individual graduate students, according to the conclusions of a university commission appointed by UC Board of Regents Chairman S. Sue Johnson and UC President Richard C. Atkinson.
California is one of only five states whose graduate enrollment declined during the last decade, the commission reported, and rated last among the 15 largest states in graduate enrollment.
“In a knowledge-based economy where advanced education is at a premium, the fact that the University of California is lagging so dramatically in graduate enrollments is an issue that simply must be addressed,” Atkinson said. “If we hope to maintain the state’s supremacy in such fields as biotechnology and electronics, create new industries not yet imagined, and solve California’s pressing social and environmental problems, we need a highly educated workforce — and that means expanded graduate enrollments.”
In order to meet the needs of the huge increase expected in undergraduate enrollment, the commission noted, the state will need to hire an estimated 40,000 new faculty during the coming decade. And California’s colleges will depend on graduates from UC’s doctoral programs for many of these positions.
The commissioners cautioned, however, that to achieve these goals, UC will need to increase funding by about 50 percent, and they estimated that UC will face a $65 million shortfall.
NSF To Launch New Math and Science Ed Initiative
The National Science Foundation (NSF) has announced a new $160 million program to improve math and science education in the nation’s elementary and secondary schools. The program is intended to create partnerships between university scientists and local school districts. It follows the educational views espoused by President Bush that university scientists should help bolster the skills of undergraduates preparing to become teachers and mentor professional school teachers who seek additional training.
“It’s going to take years and years for low-scoring U.S. students to become number one in the world, and there are no magic bullets,” says Judith Ramaley, who directs NSF’s $975 million educational component. “This is still a research initiative.”
Ramaley expects this new NSF program to grow significantly
over the next several years and become NSF’s flagship education effort.
Starting Jan. 7, Diana Brown, formerly of UC Berkeley, joined the Lab as the new head of the Information Systems and Services (ISS) Department in the Information Technologies and Services Division.
“I believe that IT’s mission is to deliver information technology solutions that will help its customers succeed in their operations, and that strong partnership between IT and its customers are key to the success of IT projects,” she said. “To enhance that partnership, I plan to visit the major customers of ISS’ services, so we can get their feedback. From that, we'll create a baseline on ISS’ performance so we can further improve our service.”
On campus, Brown served as director of Administrative
Systems. She started her career at the Bechtel Group, where she first
worked with her new Lab colleagues, Carl Eben and Rosemary Evanoff. She
worked for Bank of America briefly before moving on to UC Berkeley, where
she spent the last 15 years.
By Dan krotz
Long before September 11, Berkeley Lab engineers, in collaboration with researchers at Lawrence Livermore and Los Alamos National Laboratories, have been working to outsmart terrorists attempting to smuggle radioactive material into the country.
Their solution is Cryo3, a 10-pound, battery-powered detector that promises to bring state-of-the-art radiation spectrometry anywhere radioactive materials are found.
“The innovation is coupling a germanium radiation detector with a small, low-power cryogenic cooling mechanism originally designed for the aerospace industry,” says Lorenzo Fabris of the Lab’s Engineering Division. “This offers extremely high-resolution radiation analysis in a portable package.”
The need for a hand-held radiation detector was first born from a necessity to monitor nuclear weapon stockpiles to ensure nations adhered to treaty obligations. An even more pressing need surfaced after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, when national security experts worried the former superpower’s nuclear arsenal could spark a black market in fissile materials. In the wrong hands, these isotopes could be used to build both nuclear bombs and conventional bombs laden with radioactive material — a so-called dirty bomb. And rather than being delivered via intercontinental missiles, contraband isotopes can be hidden in backpacks and car trunks, meaning airports, border checkpoints, and shipping terminals provide the last best chance to thwart smuggling.
To complicate matters, any tool used to screen for isotopes in busy terminals must detect not only the presence of radiation, but also the type. A terrorist could mask radioactive material destined for a dirty bomb in a seemingly benign package of medical isotopes, and therefore sneak past a Geiger counter.
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That’s where the Cryo3 comes in. At the heart of the unit is a high purity germanium crystal. Energetic photons, X and gamma rays, interact in the germanium crystal to create a corresponding charge. When further processed, this charge depicts both the quantity and type of radioactive isotope present. Although germanium offers higher radiation resolution than other semiconductor detectors, such as silicon and cadmium telluride, it must be deeply cooled, traditionally with liquid nitrogen. And although liquid nitrogen is very common in the laboratory, it is awkward to transport, store, and handle in the field.
To sidestep this limitation, Berkeley Lab engineers coupled the germanium crystal to an off-the-shelf mechanical cooling device currently used to cool low-noise cell phone antennae. The device, which utilizes the Sterling cycle to reach low temperatures, only requires 15 watts to cool the germanium to 87 degrees Kelvin. When the cryogenic mechanical cooler is vacuum sealed to a germanium detector, the result is a lightweight, highly sensitive radiation detector that operates up to six hours on two rechargeable camcorder batteries.
The mechanical cooler requires 16 hours to cool the detector from room temperature to operating temperature, but because the batteries are hot swappable, a fresh supply guarantees unlimited operational time.
In the field, the solid-state detector performs much like its lab-based cousins. Incident photons are absorbed by the germanium and converted into electrical signals at a resolution of 3.5 keV at an incident energy of 662 keV.
To keep the system portable and low power without sacrificing resolution, Fabris and colleagues made additional refinements. Borrowing from lessons learned in satellite-based germanium detector applications, they protected the delicate crystal in a hermetically sealed, nitrogen-filled capsule. The encapsulated germanium detector is suspended with Kevlar fibers in a close-fitting utility vacuum chamber.
Another obstacle was electronic noise, a byproduct of all electrical systems that is particularly troublesome in radiation detectors because it degrades the electronic readout’s depiction of the absorbed radiation. In short, electronic noise softens the readout’s sharp spikes into rounded hills, meaning valuable data is lost. Fabris turned to a specially designed small, low-power preamplifier that minimizes electronic noise without sapping battery power — a critical component, given that conventional preamplifiers are too power-hungry to be used in a battery-powered device.
So far, Fabris and colleagues have developed detectors of modest size, or so-called 25 percent efficient detectors. In the future, they hope to increase the detector size and therefore the efficiency to 50 and even 100 percent by using modified mechanical coolers that only cool to 105 degrees Kelvin, a temperature still within germanium’s operating parameters. The modified mechanical coolers have almost twice the heat lift for the same input power when compared to the conventional mechanical cooler.
Ultimately, Fabris foresees a time when next-generation iterations of Cryo3 safeguard the nation with lab-quality, portable radiation detection and characterization.
“Whatever you can detect with a germanium crystal, you
can detect with the portable system,” says Fabris. “Ideally, we would
be able to place one at any customs port.”
Harry Noller and his team of researchers from the University of California at Santa Cruz, with Thomas Earnest of Berkeley Lab’s Physical Biosciences Division, are winners of the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s Newcomb Cleveland Award for their paper “Crystal structure of the ribosome at 5.5 Å resolution,” which appeared in the May 4, 2001, issue of Science magazine.
The prize consists of a bronze medal and $5,000 in cash. Established in 1923 and the AAAS’s oldest, it is awarded to the author or authors of an outstanding paper published in Science, one that constitutes a “fundamental contribution to basic knowledge or is a technical achievement of far-reaching consequence.” With their high-resolution image of the 70s ribosome, the Noller-Earnest collaboration more than achieved those goals.
Ribosomes are the molecular machines inside cells that assemble functioning proteins from amino acids, using genetic information brought from genes in the cell’s DNA by lengths of messenger RNA. Ribosomes themselves are large complexes, some 2.5 million times more massive than a single hydrogen atom, built from three RNA molecules and more than 50 protein molecules. To date, they are the largest asymmetric structures ever solved by crystallography techniques.
The structure was solved using the crystallography beamline at the Advanced Light Source, designed by Earnest and constructed under his direction. Noller, who is the Robert L. Sinsheimer professor of molecular biology at UC Santa Cruz and helped create the Center for Molecular Biology of RNA there, has long collaborated with Earnest in using the ALS’s Macromolecular Crystallography Facility to investigate the ribosome.
Their work was performed on complete ribosomes from the heat-tolerant microbe Thermus thermophilus, and elucidates not only structure but function, partly because not only the ribosome but transfer RNA chains bound to it were imaged as well.
Noller, Earnest, and their coauthors share the Newcomb
Cleveland prize with Thomas Steitz of Yale University, another longtime
ribosome researcher, whose Science paper describes his imaging of the
ribosome’s 50s subunit.
On Saturday, Oct. 5, Berkeley Lab will once again open its site and scientific facilities to the public for its popular Open House event.
This will be the fourth time the Lab has invited the community to take part in a day-long series of tours, events and educational activities. The last Open House was held in May of 2000, when close to 5,000 people visited the Lab to peer into the worlds of physics, life sciences, energy, computing and more. The event, which has proven enormously popular with the community, offers a unique opportunity for the Lab to showcase its science and to share the excitement and value of the research that is done here.
Open House 2002 will once again highlight the broad scope of Berkeley Lab science programs as represented by participating divisions and departments. As in the past, there will be interactive demonstrations, displays of labs and research facilities, numerous hands-on activities for children, as well as music and refreshments.
A task force to plan the event is now being formed, and
Laboratory divisions and employees are encouraged to participate in program
development. For more information on ways to contribute, contact Ron Kolb
at X7586 or RRKolb@lbl.gov.
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Life Sciences Division Director Mina Bissell, who started the Breast Cancer Research Awareness Forum last summer, was back on Jan. 17 to launch this year’s series with a lively presentation in the Building 50 auditorium on “Breast Cancer Research: New Models for the Millennium.”
Bissell was recently named one of five recipients of the Innovator Award, a new grant established by the Breast Cancer Research Program of the Department of Defense. The $3 million awarded to Bissell will support her continued research over the next four years into the relationship between malignancy and the microenvironment of epithelial cells.
In her presentation, Bissell discussed her research and
the award’s contribution to her future work in understanding breast cancer.
Her multidisciplinary team includes collaborators from the Lab and from
across the United States.
Do you have an interesting story or anecdote to tell?
Did you or one of your colleagues accomplish something that you think others would like to hear about?
Are you working on some interesting research?
Do you have a picture you would like to have published?
Here at Currents we would like to involve as many of you as possible so that the paper truly reflect the entire scope of the Lab community.
Please send your suggestions to msfriedlander@lbl.gov.
We cannot publish every item submitted, but we will consider all your
suggestions.
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The bet was simple: the loser wears the colors of the winner for one day. The Green Bay Packers, football team of choice for Deputy Division Director Robin Wendt of Environment, Health and Safety, beat the San Francisco 49ers, favorites of EH&S Division office manager June Wong, in a playoff game on Jan. 13. That Monday, June suffered the ignominy of a cheesehead hat and various other Packer paraphernalia which populated her office. But she got the last laugh: Green Bay was eliminated by St. Louis last weekend. — Photo by Robert Couto
Frequent Flyer Miles
A travel advisory issued by the General Services’ Office of Governmentwide Policy has some good news for federal travelers who earn frequent traveler benefits while on official government travel. Thanks to a new law (the National Defense Authorization Act), federal employees and contractors will be allowed to retain frequent flyer miles for their personal use. The law repeals a 1994 act prohibiting such use. For more information contact the Travel Office.
New Baggage Screening: Prepare for further airport delays
Starting in January, the nation’s airlines have to do security inspections on all checked bags under the new Aviation and Transportation Security Act. Although details have not been discussed yet by most airlines, travelers should expect additional delays at check-in. A variety of screening methods may be used, including cross-checking baggage and passenger lists to make sure no stray bags are on board, bomb sniffing dogs, hand searches and explosive detection machines. The Security Act specifies that all luggage must be screened by the explosive detection machines, which are currently in short supply.
In order to avoid traffic congestion at the Strawberry gate, the Grizzly Gate is extending its hours of operation in the morning. The gate will now be open from 6:30 to 9:30 a.m. and from 3 to 6:30 p.m.
Organizers for this year’s Daughters and Sons to Work Day, to be held on April 25, are looking for workshop presenters who can provide engaging activities for children aged 9 to 15.
The workshops will be held at 10:30 a.m. and again at 1 p.m. and should focus on science, technology and careers at Berkeley Lab. Chaperones are also needed.
To volunteer, call Rollie Otto (X5325) or Alyce Herrera (X7411) in the Center for Science and Engineering Education.
Berkeley Lab's Science Exploration Camp (SEC) is seeking board members to help plan for Summer 2002. SEC is a non-profit organization run by volunteers. The camp provides a mix of recreational and science-oriented activities for school-age children of Lab employees.
For more information e-mail sciencecamp@ lbl.gov.
Berkeley Lab's two-day Winter Blood Drive, part of an ongoing partnership between the Laboratory and the American Red Cross Blood Services, will be held on Tuesday, Feb. 5 (8 a.m. to 1 p.m.) and Wednesday, Feb. 6 (8 a.m. to 2 p.m.) in Bldg. 70A-3377. Donors are encouraged to schedule appointments online at the BeADonor website (http://www.beadonor.com/). Use company/group code "LBL" on the web form.
To be eligible to donate blood, donors must be in good health, at least 17 years old, weigh at least 110 pounds, and not have donated blood in the last 56 days. Please check the BeADonor website for detailed eligibility requirements, as some of the criteria have changed recently.
This is a slow time for blood donations and your help is needed to help replenish the blood supply. For more information, contact Charlotte Bochra at X4268.
Surplus chemicals are available free for use by DOE projects. To look up chemicals, see http://www-ia1.lbl.gov/chemx/ or contact Shelley Worsham at X6123.
Easy Shortcuts to Help Desk, E-mail, Software, Calendar
Tired of remembering or looking up those long URLs? If you need to access the computer Help Desk, the central software download page, or wish to look up information about e-mail and calendar support, all you need to do is add a suffix to the Lab’s main URL (http://www.lbl.gov/): /mail, /cal, /help or /download.
Depending on how your computer is configured, you may not even have to do that much. Simply type “help” in your browser’s location field and you will access the computer support page of the Computing Infrastructure Support Department.
New Calendar Client for Macs Now Available
The new Steltor CorporateTime client for Macintosh is now available from the Lab's Software Download page. Look for “Steltor CorporateTime 5.2 for Mac NEW”" in the web/E-mail section. This new version fixes several problems with the older Netscape version of the Macintosh calendar client, including a bug in the reminder function.
Before installing the software, make sure to run the Mac software update from the control panel for the latest version of Carbon Libraries from Apple. After downloading and installing Steltor, read this client configuration information.
Back Up Your Computer Data
According to the Lab's Regulations and Procedures Manual, responsibility for protecting data rests with its owner — that is, you. And the more we rely on computers for our work, the more important it becomes for each of us to set up a reliable way to back up files. Doing so can prevent the loss of months or even years’ worth of work.
To protect against accidentally erasing or deleting a file, it’s enough to make backup copies on your computer. To protect important files against a system or hard drive failure, copy the more valuable data to a tape or disk. Protecting data against total loss (as could happen in a fire) requires offsite storage of all backed up files.
The centralized backup services currently provided by CIS for PCs, Macs, UNIX and Linux computers provide regular reliable updating of all data and storage in a protected offsite location. Fewer than 900 onsite computers are currently protected by this service.
For more information, visit the CIS page at http://www.lbl.gov/ITSD/CIS/Services/backups.html.
Photo: help_desk
COUNTERTERRORISM AND SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
Randall Murch, FBI Laboratory
12 – 1:30 p.m., Bldg. 50 auditorium
SHOEMOBILE
7:30 a.m. – 3:30 p.m., cafeteria parking lot
TRIPMOBILE
12 – 1 p.m., cafeteria parking lot
WINTER BLOOD DRIVE
8 a.m. – 1 p.m., Bldg. 70, Room 3377
Send us your announcements
Announcements for the General Calendar and Bulletin Board page may be sent to MSFriedlander@lbl.gov. Seminar & Lectures items may be mailed to currents_ calendar@lbl.gov. You may also fax items to X6641 or mail them to Bldg. 65B. The deadline for the Feb. 8 issue is 5 p.m. Monday, Feb. 4.
DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS COLLOQUIUM
Luminescence from Laser-Induced Bubbles in Water and Cryogenic Liquids
Speaker: Gary Williams, University of California at Los Angeles
4:30 p.m., 1 Le Conte Hall
LIFE SCIENCES DIVISION SEMINAR
Visual Biochemistry: Watching Enzymes “Repair” DNA at the Single-Molecule
Level
Speaker: Stephen C. Kowalczykowski, UC Davis
4:00 p.m., Building 66 auditorium
PHYSICS DIVISION SPECIAL RESEARCH PROGRESS MEETING
Counterterrorism and Science and Technology
Speaker: Randall Murch, Assistant Director, FBI Laboratory
Noon, Building 50 auditorium
PHYSICS DIVISION RESEARCH PROGRESS MEETING
Supernova Searches, Dark Energy and the Causal Structure of the
Universe
Speaker: Glenn Starkmann, Western Reserve University
4:00 p.m., Building 50A-5132
DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS COLLOQUIUM
QCD Under Extreme Conditions at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider
Speaker: James L. Nagle, Columbia University
4:30 p.m., 1 Le Conte Hall
PHYSICS DIVISION RESEARCH PROGRESS MEETING
Gamma-Ray Bursts: The Afterglow Revolution
Speaker: Titus Galama, Caltech
4:00 p.m., Building 50A-5132
NUCLEAR SCIENCE DIVISION COLLOQUIUM
Recent Gas-Phase Chemical Studies with Element 108 and
Outlook for Chemistry Experiments with Spherical Superheavy Elements
Speaker: Heinz Gaeggeler, University of Bern, Switzerland
11:00 a.m., Building. 50 auditorium
PHYSICS DIVISION RESEARCH PROGRESS MEETING
Life After sin2 beta
Speaker: Vasilli Shelkov, Berkeley Lab
4:00 p.m., Building 50A-5132
|
Date |
Course |
Time |
Building |
|
|
2/5 |
EHS 275 |
Confined Space Hazards |
8:30 – 11:00 |
51-201 |
|
2/5 |
EHS 274 |
Confined Space-Retraining |
11:00 – 12:00 |
51-201 |
|
2/5 |
EHS 330 |
Lead Hazards Awareness |
1:00 – 2:00 |
51-201 |
|
2/6 |
EHS 116 |
First Aid |
8:30 – 12:00 |
48-109 |
|
2/6 |
EHS 276 |
Fall Protection |
9:00 – 11:00 |
51-201 |
|
2/7 |
EHS 60 |
Ergonomics for Computer Users |
9:00 – 10:30 |
51-201 |
|
2/7 |
EHS 256 |
Lockout/Tagout |
1:30 – 3:00 |
51-201 |
|
2/12 |
EHS 10 |
Introduction to EHS at LBNL |
8:00 – 10:15 |
50 aud |
|
2/13 |
EHS 123 |
Adult CPR |
8:30 – 12:00 |
51-201 |
|
2/13 |
EHS 210 |
Hoist |
10:30 – 12:00 |
51-201 |
|
2/14 |
EHS 278 |
Ladder Safety |
9:00 – 10:00 |
51-201 |
|
2/14 |
EHS 280 |
Laser Safety |
1:00 – 4:00 |
51-201 |
|
2/19 |
EHS 135 |
Earthquake Safety |
10:30 – 11:30 |
48-109 |
|
2/20 |
EHS 260 |
Basic Electric Safety |
10:00 – 11:30 |
51-201 |
|
2/20 |
EHS 530 |
Fire Extinguisher |
10:00 – 11:30 |
48-109 |
|
2/20 |
EHS 283 |
Ultra Violet User Safety |
1:30 – 2:30 |
51-201 |
|
2/21 |
EHS 60 |
Ergonomics for Computer Users |
1:00 – 2:30 |
51-201 |
|
2/26 |
EHS 604 |
Hazardous Waste Generator |
9:30 – 11:00 |
51-201 |
|
2/26 |
EHS 622 |
Radioactive/Mixed Waste Generator |
11:00 – 12:00 |
51-201 |
|
2/27 |
EHS 210 |
Hoist |
10:30 – 12:00 |
51-201 |
|
2/27 |
EHS 735/ |
Biosafety/Bloodborne Pathogen |
1:30 – 2:45 |
51-201 |
|
2/28 |
EHS 400 |
Radiation Safety-Fundamentals |
9:00 – 12:00 |
51-201 |
|
2/28 |
EHS 432 |
Radiation Protection-Lab Safety |
1:00 – 5:00 |
51-201 |
To enroll, contact Valarie Espinoza at VMEspinoza@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/.
AIM, a Walnut Creek-based computer software training firm, provides onsite
PC computer courses to Lab employees.
|
Date |
Course |
Price |
|
1/28 |
PowerPoint 97 Fundamentals |
$150 |
|
1/30 |
Word 97 Intermediate |
$150 |
|
1/31 |
Excel 97 Fundamentals |
$150 |
|
2/4 |
HTML 4.0 Programming Level I |
$225 |
|
2/5 |
Dreamweaver 3.0 Fundamentals |
$300 |
|
2/6 |
FileMaker Pro 5.5 Intermediate |
$150 |
|
2/21 |
Excel 97 Intermediate |
$150 |
|
2/22 |
PowerPoint 97 Intermediate/Advanced |
$150 |
|
3/6 |
Word 97 Advanced |
$150 |
|
3/7 |
Dreamweaver 3.0 Intermediate/Advanced |
$300 |
|
3/13 |
Excel 97 Advanced |
$150 |
|
3/14 |
FileMaker Pro 5.5 Advanced |
$150 |
|
3/21 |
HTML 4.0 Programming Level II |
$225 |
Classes are held in Bldg. 51L from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Class descriptions and registration procedure are available at http://www.lbl.gov/Workplace/EDT/computers/PC_Classes. html. All in-house courses 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.
Note: The desks in the 51L Computer Training room were recently replaced with ergonomically enhanced workstations.
For more information contact Heather Pinto at hmpinto@lbl.gov.
'01 HONDA EX, leather w/ wood trim, 7K mi, silver, 4 spd, 4 dr, ac, sunrf, 4-whl ABS, pwr steer/locks, dual airbags, alarm, am/fm/cass/ cd, Chang, X4417, 527-9108
'99 JEEP GRAND CHEROKEE LARADO, 4 wd, 4.0L 6, blk on slae, 77K mi, ac, sunrf, 10 disc cd, infinity snd sys, dual pwr leather heated seats, pwr win/dr/ locks, 5 alloy wheels, ABS, tow pkg, overhead console, trak lok diff service rec’s, extra clean, $17,900, Worley, 527-3869
'95 BMW 325 IS, blk on blk, at, sport pkg, ac, sunrf, am/fm/cass/cd, dual pwr leather seats & air bags, premium wheels, recently serviced, new brakes, very clean, 77K mi, $16,000/bo, June, X2916, Rich, (650) 867-8828
'94 ACURA INTEGRA, 2 dr, 58K, at, ac, pw, ps, radio/cass, airbags, tilt wheel, 1 owner, garaged, $7,500/ bo, Dave, X4506, (925) 691-6081
'93 ACURA INTEGRA LS, exc cond, 113K mi, gray, 5 spd, 2 dr/hatch, ac, pwr moonrf/steer/win, cruise, alarm, am/fm/cass, tilt wheel, tinted rear win, car cover, new batt, maint rec’s, 1 owner, extra clean, $5,800, Ken, X6343, (707) 643-4065
'91 SATURN SL2, blue, ac, all pwr, ABS, 5 spd, 145K mi, good cond, runs well, body & paint good except for paint blemish on hood, $2,100, Dan, 758-5584
'89 ACURA LEGEND L, white, V6, 196K mi, 4 dr, at, leather int (damaged), driver airbag, ac, all pwr, tilt wheel, cruise, am/fm/ cass, moonrf, needs work, $1,000/bo, Heather, 832-3829, X4181
'87 HONDA CRX, runs/ looks like '97, new engine/ trans, 5 spd, great stereo, $2,395/bo, X7670, 520-1369 cell, (925) 432-2383 home
'87 CHEVY NOVA, exc cond, $1,600/bo, Jacek, X6254, (707) 425-1828
'85 MERCEDES BENZ 300, turbo diesel, 160K mi, blue, clean, at, sunrf, pwr locks/win/mirror, alarm, am/fm/cass, cruise, records, well kept, $3,400, George, X7252, 234-5250
'85 HONDA CIVIC, 199K mi, 1.5L, manual, runs well, $800/bo, Morgan, X6594, 845-1522
'85 BMW 535i, loaded, looks/runs great, $4,300/ bo, Leslie, 643-2816
'76 CHEVY NOVA, 4 dr, lt yellow, straight body, never damaged; new V6 eng, carpet, upholstery & windshield,all receipts, $2,150/ bo, Janice, 235-1767
'68 LINCOLN CONTINENTAL, 2 dr, ac, all pwr, not running, body is perfect, all chrome intact, nearly new tires, silver w/ blk top, 460 V8 w/ 3 spd at, needs new exhaust valves & valve job, rare find, $1,000, Angelic or Kris, 276-6756
16.5" FORD 8-LUG RIMS & TIRES, set of 4, great shape, $50, Angelic or Kris, X4079, 276-6756
'89 HONDA XR100R dirt bike, looks/runs great, one new engine (lower & upper), X7670, 520-1369 cell, (925) 432-2383 home
ALBANY apt, 2 bdrm/2 bth, 555 Pierce St., near Lab, $1,600/ mo, lease until 3/31 (flex), Yang, 205-6995
ALBANY HILLS home for rent, 2 bdrm/1 bth, hill view, yard, 1+ car garage, storage, walk to Solano Ave stores, w/w carpet, hrdwd flrs, central heat, w/d hookups, laundry chute, fireplace, dw, grbg disposal, large refrig, new paint, no pets/smoking, 1-yr lease, renewable $1,700-$1,800/ mo + $2,000 dep, Miguel, X6443, mafurman@lbl.gov, Margie, 450-2172/msgs
BERKELEY HILLS, fully furn rm w/ sep entry, full kitchen priv, w/d, quiet neighborhd, lovely backyard, near bus, avail 2/01, $875/mo incl util, Karen, 525-5797, klscott@eecs. berkeley.edu
BERKELEY HILLS, room in 2 bdrm/1 bth apt, fully furn, lots of closet space, laundry, lge kitchen, liv rm, garden, TV, DSL avail, friendly neighbors, close to bus & Lab, $850/mo, 549-0285
BERKELEY, furn house avail for March, dates neg, 2 bdrm/1 bth, sm yard, quiet, Allston Way 3 blks east of San Pablo, rent reduced to $950 for taking care of dog (affectionate lab mix), Jan, 843-3171
BERKELEY, furn rms in 6 bdrm/2 bth ‘House of Scholars’, 1425 Ward St. at Sacramento, house phone, w/d, common liv rm & kitchen, house computer w/ DSL access, off-str parking, housecleaning, 2 mo min stay, $670-790/mo + 15% util, Anushka, 486-8153, housintscholar@ mindspring.com
BERKELEY, sm furn room w/ priv bth in home near Claremont, borders Parkland, walk to UC, overlooks garden patio, light cooking allowed, other tenants incl owners & UC faculty, mature researchers/ scholars & long-term visiting faculty pref, rent neg in exch of light work/house-sitting, 848-4022
CENTRAL BERKELEY, nice furn rooms, kitchen, laundry, TV, DSL, hardwd flrs, linens, dishes, walk to Lab shuttle, campus, BART, & shops, $950/mo incl util, $350/wk, Jin or Paul, 845-5959, jin.young@juno. com, Paul X7363
EL CERRITO rm, close to bus, BART, shops, restaurants, housemates are UCB grad students, lge house w/ many amenities, laundry, view, d/w, hardwd flrs, fireplc, off-str parking, $625/ mo, Michael, 236-4916
EL CERRITO, 1 room avail now in 2 bdrm apt, walk to BART/shops, new complex, big & sunny, 1-1/2 bth, fireplc, balcony, dw, parking, laundry, fitness center & pool, share w/ male grad student, $635/ mo, Igor, swed733@ yahoo.com
LAKE MERRITT, sublet lge apt, 1/18 to 7/1 (maybe longer), fully furn, phone, cable & DSL, 3 min walk to BART, $1,250/mo, Lorri, X7493, Scott, 663-2255
NORTH BERKELEY, short-term rental, 3/1 to early May, 1 furn bdrm in 2 bdrm house, panoramic view, front & back yard, lge liv rm, near Tilden & Lab, quiet & friendly female housemate, $600/mo + util, Heather, X2226, 527-7991
ORINDA, 15 min drive to Lab, woodsy/rural setting, 2 rms/priv bth in 4 bdrm house, $700/mo for both rms, Mary, (925) 254-6940
HOUSING EXCHANGE: 2 artists wish to exch 1800 sq ft Chelsea loft for comparable accomm in Bay Area, late Mar to June 15, loft has 1 lge bdrm, 1 kid's rm, lge liv rm/kitchen/din area, painter's studio, w/d, 4th flr, security bldg, elev access, 20th St betw 7th & 8th Aves, walk to galleries, Chelsea Piers, close to subway stops & great shopping, berlind4@ aol.com
LAB EMPLOYEE seeks 1 bdrm/studio in Berkeley/ Oakland, Steve, X6966
VISITING FRENCH GRAD STUDENT (male), here for 6 mos starting mid Feb, seeks furn 1 bdrm or shared 2 bdrm close to Lab, djacobs@lbl.gov, X7535
VISITING GERMAN STUDENT (female) seeks accommodations near Lab 3/1 - 8/31, Katja.Thaidigsmann@web.de
FUTON SOFA/BED blk steel frame, qn size, $60; women's bike, 12 gears $50; qn size mattress, $50; Ikea bookshelf, $15; 3 plants w/ pot, $20; tea table, $15; old microwave, $10; BBQ, $10; cooler, $5, Roger, X7709, 883-0516
FUTON, blk metallic frame w/ 6" mattress, $140; TV table, blk, $20; table & 2 padded chairs, $100; all items in exc cond, only a few mos old, Shirin, X5550, 965-0644 eves
K2 SKIS, sidecut 7.9, Nor-dica boots, size 6 - 6 1/2, like new, $200 for all, Norma, (925) 254-1296
KENMORE ELECTRIC DRYER, exc cond, $75, Angelic or Kris, X4079, 276-6756
SHARP (19N-M100) TV, $135; JVC stereo video, $100; full sz mattress, box spring & wd frame, $120; sofabed, $50; 2 lamps, $20/pr; Sony cd/tape/radio, $35; lge chest drawers, $20; various chairs, small tables, iron/brd, bookshelf, toaster, phone/answ mach, kitchenware, all neg, Morgan, X6594, 845-1522
SKIS, dynastar pwrtracs 186 cm, less than 1 yr old, ess-6-14 bindings; squaw valley lift tkts, $47/ea, X7670, 520-1369 cell, (925) 432-2383 home
SOUTHWEST AIRLINES round trip ticket voucher, no restrictions, valid until 3/15, $250/bo, Steve, X7855, (925) 682-6008
THULE SKI/BIKE RACK w/ locks, '96 model, in storage 3 yrs, $175; dbl bed frame, lt color wood, $60; halogen floor lamp, table lamps, 3 ceramic & 2 japanese style paper, call for prices; ab-does exercise mach, new, $25; bun & thigh body mach, new, $50, Worley, 527-3869
VACUUM CLEANER, Eureka The Boss Smartvac Limited, 12-Amp upright, HEPA filter, unused, $120; Panasonic KXFP155 plain paper fax/phone, digital answ system, caller ID, unused, $80, Dave, X4506
MITSUBISHI (CS-20201) TV in need of repair, Morgan, X6594, 845-1522
SURPLUS CHEMICALS, for use by DOE projects, http://www-ia1.lbl.gov /chemx/, NACI/PEG Solution, STET-E1 Solution, Shelley, X6123
FRYING PAN, med or lge, Elisa, X7863, 665-9091
HARD CASE for acoustic guitar, Morgan, X6594, 845-1522
Ads are accepted only from LBNL employees, retirees, and onsite DOE personnel, and shoud include name, affiliation, extension, and home phone. Ads must be submitted in writing (fleamarket@ lbl.gov, fax: X6641, or mailed to Bldg. 65B.) They run one week only unless resubmitted, and are repeated only as space permits. The deadline for the Feb. 8 issue is Thursday, Jan. 31.
