July
28, 2000
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28, 2000 |
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Bringing Energy Efficiency To the Developing World
Genomics Division Established Trevor Hawkins Named its First DirectorBy Ron Kolb
The explosion of interest and attention given to genomics and the potential applications of research flowing from the sequencing of the human genome has resulted in the creation of Berkeley Lab's 15th scientific division. The new Genomics Division has been established by Laboratory Director Charles Shank, who also named Trevor Hawkins, now deputy director of the Joint Genome Institute, as the division's inaugural director. Genomics will join the Life Sciences and Physical Biosciences divisions within the biosciences research program represented by Associate Laboratory Director Mina Bissell. The new division has been formed "to take advantage of the unique opportunities presented by the sequencing accomplishments of the Joint Genome Institute," Shank said. The JGI in Walnut Creek, a Department of Energy collaboration among Berkeley, Livermore and Los Alamos laboratories, was a major contributor to the recent announcement of the completion of the draft sequence of the human genome by an international public consortium. Hawkins, 32, widely recognized for his decade-long contributions as a pioneer in the field of genetic sequencing technology and analysis, is being asked to do three things as division director: lead the sequencing and associated efforts at the JGI, facilitate scientific collaborations with research efforts nationwide, and facilitate cooperative scientific efforts in partnership with Berkeley Lab. "Our laboratory is well positioned to take advantage of the truly revolutionary opportunities in this exciting field," Shank said. "I am delighted that Dr. Hawkins has joined Dr. Mina Bissell and Dr. Graham Fleming (of Physical Biosciences) in this important endeavor."
"We're really looking to develop better collaborations and joint work between the JGI and programs at Berkeley Lab and on campus, including NERSC (the DOE's national supercomputing center at Berkeley Lab) and the ALS (Advanced Light Source)," Hawkins said. Once the genome is sequenced, bioscientists will be addressing the next "layers of the cake," in Hawkins' words -- the completed sequence of genes (human, mouse, chicken, dog, etc.) on the bottom, then expression information from those genes, then data on proteins and what they do, and then structural analysis. "And who knows what the `frosting' on the top will be?," he said. "This is 30 or 40 years' worth of work, but this is the direction we're headed, and there's no time to lose." Hawkins has already begun putting together a collaboration with NERSC and the campus to build a genome "portal," which he says will be a window to the world for DOE's genomic science programs. And, at the ALS, another partnership is addressing protein structure. Hawkins earned his bachelor's degree at the University of Sussex in 1989 and his Ph.D. in biochemistry at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology at Cambridge in 1993. For four years he served the Whitehead Institute at MIT, one of the human genome partners in the public consortium. As director of the Human Genome Project and assistant director of the Institute, he built the sequencing program from a one-person operation to a world-leading 80-person center. He was also an assistant professor there. In 1998 he moved to CuraGen Corporation, a genomics company, where he served as director of CuraGen Florida, director of advanced technologies, and vice president of genomics. At the same time, he was on the faculty as associate professor in the College of Medicine at the University of Florida, and he was a board member and secretary of BioFlorida. "The research programs in Berkeley Lab's biosciences divisions are evolving rapidly as biology reaps the enormous benefits of computation and other cutting-edge technologies," Shank said. The new Genomics Division will play a major role in matching the technologies with the research challenges that the post-sequencing environment will present. This is the first division to be added at Berkeley Lab since the Physical Biosciences and Advanced Light Source divisions were organized in late 1997.
Bringing Energy Efficiency To the Developing WorldBy Allan Chen and Monica friedlander
The rapidly rising demand for energy is placing an enormous strain on the economies of the world's developing nations. A new organization, of which Berkeley Lab's Environmental Energy Technologies Division (EETD) is a founding partner, has recently received United Nations funding to help these countries implement energy performance standards that will alleviate the problems caused by energy demands. The Collaborative Labeling and Appliance Standards Program, or CLASP, is a collaboration between Berkeley Lab, the Alliance to Save Energy, and the International Institute for Energy Conservation. The three organizations have received a two-year, $4 million grant from the U.N. Foundation to work on this ambitious project. "The goal of the U.N. funding is to significantly reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases and energy use," says Stephen Wiel, head of EETD's Energy Analysis Department. "Our estimates suggest that energy efficiency standards and labeling can reduce emissions anywhere from 25 to 40 percent within the next three decades." CLASP was founded in 1999 with support from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the UN Foundation, the Energy Foundation, and U.S. Department of Energy. Its mission, however, is not new to Berkeley Lab. Since 1996 EETD staff members have worked with the governments of China, India, Mexico, the Philippines, Ghana, and Sri Lanka through the International Building and Appliance Standards (IBAS) initiative. EETD Projects ranged from the development of motor efficiency standards for the Philippines to appliance efficiency standards in Ghana. Substantial funding for this work has come from USAID. A project concluded in 1999, for example, found that the setting of minimum energy performance standards for refrigerators alone could save consumers in Ghana $50 million by 2010. The government of Ghana is now discussing ways to implement the standards. David Fridley and other EETD researchers are now working with the Chinese government to develop energy efficiency appliance standards, labeling, and purchasing programs in China, where the skyrocketing demand for consumer products has resulted in 16 percent annual rise in residential electricity use. EETS's Laura Van Wie is coordinating CLASP efforts in Mexico, where the government's energy agency has agreed to become the Latin American regional partner for CLASP, and will fund a staff person to provide technical advice and outreach to Latin American nations. With technical support from the EETD, the agency will also conduct an assessment of the impact of appliance standards on energy use in Mexico. Division researcher Joe Huang has worked with Mexico on building codes, and Jeff Harris is helping develop an energy-efficient equipment procurement program for the Mexican government. CLASP is developing an ambitious program of technical assistance, drawing on experts from the three founding partners as well as a network of other institutions throughout the world. The CLASP staff will work with host agencies of interested nations to develop a customized technical assistance program to create an energy standards and labeling program. Several regional workshops are in the planning stage, including one for Latin America in August and one for Asia in 2001. Also in the works are a guidebook addressing policy, legal, and regulatory actions necessary to implement the program; a toolkit of training and marketing materials; and a website with relevant information and reports. CLASP hopes to continue forming partnerships with organizations in developing countries from around the world. Says Sachu Constantine of the Alliance to Save Energy, "By bringing together policy and technical specialists, research organizations and universities, we will be building solid institutional capacities and expertise for managing energy efficiency programs in these countries."
Secrets of Antiferromagnetism: An Opera in Many ActsBy Paul Preuss
Using "stage machinery" unique to the Advanced Light Source, a cast of players from Berkeley Lab, IBM Corporation, Stanford University, and other institutions are mounting what one of their number, Frithjof Nolting, calls "an opera in many acts" -- an opera that goes by the title Secrets of Antiferromagnetism. Not as catchy as The Magic Flute, but a lot more practical: antiferromagnetism is a phenomenon vital to the layered structures of today's advanced computer hard-disk read heads and to the memory devices of the future. "A modern read head uses layers of very thin films with different magnetic properties," explains Andreas Scholl of the ALS. "As the head passes over the hard disk, these layers sense the orientation of the domains on the disk and cause the head's electrical resistance to change in response." At normal temperatures, the electronic spins in the magnetic domains of ferromagnetic materials such as iron or cobalt are parallel and point in the same direction; the domains change their orientation in the presence of an applied magnetic field. A read head takes advantage of the fact that if two ferromagnetic layers share the same orientation, they exhibit less electrical resistance than when they are opposed.
The more formal term for pinning is "exchange bias" -- a phenomenon known for more than 45 years. "Even though we have used the effect and even built devices by trial and error, we haven't understood how it works," says Frithjof Nolting, an ALS researcher visiting from Stanford University. Two things were needed for a better understanding, Nolting says: "first, a method of imaging the configuration of domains in antiferromagnetic thin films, which requires a resolution better than 100 nanometers" (100 billionths of a meter) "and second, a way to image the interface between ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic domains in adjacent layers," which requires distinguishing between layers containing different chemical elements. "The only method that can do all this is photo-electron emission microscopy, or PEEM," says Simone Anders, leader of the team that built the PEEM2 microscope on ALS beamline 7.3.1.1. (See Currents, February 26, 1999.) When an x-ray beam is incident upon a sample, PEEM2 uses electrons ejected from the sample to form an image with ten-thousand-fold magnification and a resolution of 20 nanometers. X-rays of different energies stimulate photoelectrons characteristic of different elements; thus by tuning the energy of the beam, layers containing different elements can be distinguished. And if the beam is polarized, it can reveal magnetic domains: linear polarization yields images of antiferromagnetic domains, while circular polarization reveals ferromagnetic domains. With PEEM2 in place at the ALS, the curtain was set to rise. Act 1 appeared in Science magazine this February, when the researchers reported the first images that clearly revealed the alignment of domains in an antiferromagnetic thin film. When these PEEM2 images, each only a few hundred nanometers in area, were compared to transmission electron microscope images of the same sample, the magnetic domains corresponded exactly to the orientation of its crystals. Act 2 was a letter to Nature in June, when the researchers announced another first: direct images of the alignment of magnetic domains on both sides of an interface between ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic layers. In this work the sample was a ferromagnetic cobalt film, less than three nanometers thick, deposited on a film of antiferromagnetic lanthanum iron oxide. "By tuning the photon energy of the beam, we were able to record separate images of the antiferromagnetic and ferromagnetic layers in exactly the same place," Nolting says. The perfectly registered images show precise correspondence between the spin orientation of microscopic domains in the lanthanum iron oxide layer and the domains of the cobalt layer immediately adjacent to them, demonstrating that exchange coupling aligns the magnetic structure of both layers, domain by domain.
Because exchange-bias devices such as read heads depend upon an overall preferred magnetic orientation in a ferromagnetic layer coupled to an antiferromagnet layer, a "bias" is set during the manufacturing process. "The usual method is to set a bias by annealing the multilayer in a magnetic field," Nolting explains, which takes advantage of the fact that magnetic materials lose their magnetism above a critical temperature, then regain it as they cool. However, Nolting says, "we imaged samples just as they were grown, without any additional processing." The surpise: "We found that prior to any setting procedure, there is already a bias locally, within each individual domain. Apparently exchange bias is an intrinsic property of the interface, caused by the common alignment of the magnetic structure of both materials, even though initially there may be no total bias, averaged over a large area." Says Nolting, "This opens the door to new investigations, which may affect the way devices based on the exchange bias effect are manufactured" -- as well as the materials chosen to make them. Thus the latest plot twist suggests that many more surprises are in store, in the ongoing drama of antiferromagnetism's secrets. In addition to Andreas Scholl, Frithjof Nolting and Simone Anders, other members of the research team are Joachim Stöhr of Stanford University, formerly of the IBM Almaden Research Center in San Jose, who led the project; Jin Won Seo of the University of Neuchâtel and IBM's Zürich Research Laboratory; Jean Fompeyrine, Heinz Siegwart, and Jean-Pierre Locquet of IBM's Zürich Research Laboratory; Jan Lüning, now with the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory, Eric. E. Fullerton, and Michael F. Toney of IBM's Almaden Research Center; Michael R. Scheinfeld of Arizona State University; and Howard A. Padmore of the ALS. PEEM2 was built under a corporate research and development agreement (CRADA) between IBM and Berkeley Lab, in collaboration with Arizona State University. An excellent animation explaining the function of multilayered magnetic devices in read heads can be found on the web at http://www.research.ibm.com/research/demos/gmr/index.html.
Summer Lectures Continue with Look at Cell Behavior
While human cells were the focus of the last two summer lectures, the two talks addressed very different aspects of cell biology and chemistry. On July 19, Mary Helen Barcellos-Hoff of the Life Sciences Division described her lab's approach to analyzing the response of human tissue to ionizing radiation and the subsequent perturbations that may ultimately contribute to tumor growth. This coordinated program takes into account the conditions both inside and outside the cell. By studying these cell culture system "in context" (that is, in a petri dish with an appropriate mix of biological factors) her group has been able to recapitulate the organization of cells in the body. The response from this model to radiation may shed light on how breast cancer develops. And on July 26, Carolyn Bertozzi described pioneering work combining chemistry and biology that has emanated from the campus lab group of over 30 postdocs and students she leads. In a fast-paced talk she described several methods for "tricking" human cells into marking themselves as targets for drugs, diagnostics, and gene-therapy vectors, and she presented recent work on synthesis of glycoproteins. Bertozzi is a MacArthur Fellow and member of the Materials Sciences and Physical Bioscience Divisions
First Direct Evidence for Tau Neutrino Found at FermilaBy Monica friedlander
An international collaboration of scientists at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory outside Chicago announced on July 21 the first direct evidence for the tau neutrino, a massless or almost massless subatomic particle carrying no electric charge and barely interacting with surrounding matter. Although earlier experiments had produced convincing indirect evidence for the particle's existence, no one had directly observed it. At Fermilab scientists reported four instances of a neutrino interacting with an atomic nucleus to produce a charged particle called a tau lepton, the signature of a tau neutrino. "We finally have direct evidence that the tau neutrino is one of the building blocks of nature and that it reacts with other particles in accordance with our current scientific theory of particle interactions," said Byron Lundberg, spokesman of the Direct Observation of the Nu Tau (DONUT) international experiment. The tau neutrino is the third neutrino of the Standard Model of elementary particles. First-generation electron neutrinos and their second-generation cousins, muon neutrinos, are easier to produce and detect and were identified in 1956 and 1962, respectively. Physicists worked for about three years to identify the tracks of a tau lepton and its decay in the layers of a nuclear emulsion. Back in 1997, using Fermilab's Tevatron accelerator, scientists produced an intense neutrino beam that crossed the target iron plates sandwiched with layers of emulsion which recorded the particle interactions. Scientists noted the experiment's distinctive technology, confirming the value of advanced emulsion technology for today's particle physics experiments.
Washington ColumnGender Parity in Science Sparks Talk on Capitol HillThe report was presented by the Commission on the Advancement of Women and Minorities in Science, Engineering, and Technology Development (CAWMSET). And while it did touch on the paucity of African Americans and Hispanics in science and engineering, the emphasis was clearly on the lack of parity with regards to gender. Less than a quarter of U.S. scientists and engineers are women, and the CAWMSET report says this percentage must be doubled to reflect the overall employment work pool. "Our report documents the barriers that keep minorities, women, and people with disabilities from participating proportionally in science and engineering -- from discrimination and bias to financial constraints and family responsibilities," said Elaine Mendoza, CAWMSET chair and CEO of Texas software company Conceptual Mindworks Inc. "Our goal is to achieve real, measurable progress toward a scientific enterprise empowered by its best minds, rather than the traditional labor force." The report's major recommendation included: adoption and implementation of high-quality state education standards in math and science, teacher training, and facilities; aggressive intervention to prepare students for postsecondary education; expanded federal support for college scholarships and fellowships; holding employers accountable for the career development of underrepresented groups; efforts to improve the public image of scientists and engineers; and a public-private body to continue CAWMSET's efforts. CAWMSET was created in 1998 following the persistent lobbying of Rep. Connie Morella (R-MD). Her call for a panel on women fell on deaf ears in Congress until she broadened her proposal to include other underrepresented groups. Still, the commission's membership -- nine women and two men appointed by Congress, the White House and the National Governors Association -- was a sign that Morella's original concerns were at the forefront. CAWMSET's report and the discussion that followed it at a hearing on Capitol Hill reinforced the emphasis on cultural stereotypes and the hostile climate that many argue serve to discourage women from pursuing scientific careers. "We as a society haven't made as much progress on this topic as we might have," says NSF's Sue Kemnitzer, who chaired a 1988 Congressional report on the underrepresentation of women and minorities in science and engineering. The hearing on the CAWMSET report was packed with women who are leaders in government, academia, and private industry. But not all of them agreed with demands for programs targeted at achieving gender parity. Citing the near-parity of women in the life sciences and their majority status in psychology and veterinary medicine, Patti Hausman, a social scientist at Georgia Tech said: "The question of why more women don't choose careers in engineering has a rather obvious answer: because they don't want to." -- Lynn Yarris
Lab Animals Win Round in CourtThe cost of working with rodents and birds in the laboratory may be headed for a dramatic increase. A federal judge has ruled that animal-rights activists have the legal right to challenge U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) rules which exempt most research animals from federal regulation. Although USDA officials have yet to respond to this ruling, department spokespersons have said their agency will almost certainly extend regulations governing animal handling and housing to thousands of academic and industry laboratories that work with rodents and birds. Those new rules, say animal-care experts, could impose costly new requirements on labs that don't meet standards set by the private Association for Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care. The federal judge's ruling came in response to a lawsuit filed last year by a coalition led by the Alternatives Research and Development Foundation (ARDF) of Eden Prairie, Minnesota. The suit sought to reverse a 1972 USDA decision to leave mice, rats and birds -- which account for more than 95 percent of all research animals -- off a list of laboratory animals regulated under the 1966 Animal Welfare Act. USDA has claimed discretion to decide which animals are exempt from regulations that require researchers to open their facilities to annual surprise inspections and to consider alternatives when designing experiments. Writing and implementing any new rules is expected to take years and will certainly require USDA to substantially increase its current $10 million animal-care budget and staff of 70 inspectors.
Computer CornerClean Up Your IMAP E-mail -- Or PayStarting Aug. 1, IMAP e-mail users who exceed their allocated 100 megabytes (MBs) of disk space on the Laboratory's IMAP server will be charged $2 per MB per month, as planned since the outset of the program a couple of years ago. A good place to start cleaning up is with your trash. What many users may not realize is that all "trashed" e-mails -- the ones you delete -- in fact remain on the disk until the the trash file is emptied. In fact, more than a quarter of the current disk space used for IMAP mail lies in users' trash folders. To empty the trash from Netscape Messenger, click on "File" and "Empty Trash on imap4.lbl.gov." Please note that it may take up to 24 hours before the disk space reduction is reflected in the total on the web page. To find out how much space you are using, log in and click on the "Folders" tab at the top of the page. This will bring up a screen listing the disk space used by each folder, with total usage at the bottom. But not all old files should be deleted. The Archives and Records Group reminds users that it is in fact a federal requirement to keep "record material," which is defined as:
UC Retirement Plan Reexamines Retirement BenefitsAt its June 23 meeting, the UC Retirement System (UCRS) Advisory Board endorsed a change in age factors that would enhance retirement benefits from the UC Retirement Plan (UCRP) for employees retiring Jan. 1, 2001 and later. For UCRP members with Social Security and members without Social Security, the recommended change would improve the factors at all ages, beginning at age 50 with 1.1 percent -- same as PERS (Public Employees Retirement System) -- and increasing 0.14 percent each year to a maximum of 2.5 percent at age 60 (better than PERS). This set of alternative age factors falls between the current UCRP age factors and the new PERS age factors up to age 57, and then is equal to or above both the current UCRP and PERS age factors from the ages of 58 to 63. Of the several age factor alternatives considered over the past year, this one increases all the UCRP factors, applies the PERS maximum factor (2.5 percent at 63) to age 60, and provides increases in even gradations from ages 50 to 60. For safety members (police officers and firefighters), the proposed age factors would be increased to match the new age factors for CalPERS state peace officers or firefighters, and would maximize at 3 percent at age 55. The UCRS Board is an advisory to the UC President on retirement matters. Any changes to the UCRP age factors must be approved by the UC Regents. An information item is expected to be on the agenda for the September UC Regents meeting, and an action item is expected to be presented at the November Regents meeting. In the interim, consultation and discussions continue with various segments of the UC community. The Office of the President will continue to issue updates regarding possible benefit changes on its benefits website at http://www.ucop.edu/bencom/ and in employee publications.
Interns Celebrate Summer Experience at Annual PicnicBy Lisa Gonzales
Dozens of students and their mentors took a break from their research last Friday to enjoy live music and barbecue food on the patio between Bldgs. 2 and 6 during Berkeley Lab's seventh annual intern picnic. "There is so much energy around the summer with all the young people," says Rollie Otto, head of the Center for Science and Engineering Education (CSEE) who oversees the internship program. "This summer, we've had the largest group of interns at the Lab since the program started," he added. The number of students increased from 50 last year to 95 now, a jump he credited to increased funding from the Department of Energy and heightened participation from the LBNL community. "Many new members of the scientific staff came forward to serve as mentors," Otto says.
The rest of the interns are here through the Energy Research Undergraduate Laboratory Fellowships (ERULF), a DOE program for upper division science and engineering majors enrolled in colleges and universities across the U.S. Interns gain valuable experience at Berkeley Lab as they learn about the leading edge research being conducted here and about multidisciplinary approaches that are often missing from their academic experience. In turn, the Lab gains from their contributions and enthusiasm The picnic was sponsored by the Employees' Activities Association, the Latino and Native-American Association (LANA), the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transsexual and Friends (GLBTF) Association, and the African American Employee Association (AAEA).
Student Poster Session on Aug. 3On Thursday, Aug. 3, summer students will present their research during the annual poster session, to be held from 3 to 5 p.m. in the Lab cafeteria. The event is sponsored by the Center for Science and Engineering Education. Ninety-three students are expected to participate.
Vallejo Teachers Participate in Science Partnership ProgramBy Lisa Gonzales
Have you ever attended a conference that ended with the audience drinking the algae Spirulina? That's exactly what happened last Friday in the Bldg. 66 auditorium during the closing presentations for the Integrated Science Partnership Project (ISPP), a four-week program for Vallejo science teachers conducted at Berkeley Lab. Michael Clause and Carollyn Warlick, teachers from Hogan High School in Vallejo, interrupted their presentation on the freezing of Spirulina to pass out paper cups filled halfway with a thick green liquid. Only a few brave souls took sips. Over the past three years, the California Postsecondary Education Commission provided the ISPP with funding for 40 science teachers from Vallejo middle- and high-schools to come and work at Berkeley Lab. Half of them worked directly with resource scientists and half compiled curriculum materials to meet the district science standards for each grade.
"The science teachers (in Vallejo) now have a common set of resources for their three high schools and four middle schools," says Don Hubbard, co-director of ISPP. These materials will also supplement the district's textbooks, Hubbard says, to provide students with information on the most current research frontiers. For the teachers participanting in the program, working at the Lab has provided a solid foundation for the future. Not only did they enhance their base of scientific knowledge, but the work done here over the past three years has established a model for creating a network of teachers who also function as investigators in a research setting. "Conversations have begun here," Hubbard says, "that can only enhance the experience of the students in Vallejo's classrooms." The teachers will continue to meet regularly at home throughout the school year to discuss their progress with implementing the new curriculum resources. Furthermore, each school has several lead teachers to assist their colleagues in focusing their materials to meet the standards for each grade level. The impact of ISPP's work at the Lab will be gauged by student achievement in the classroom and on standardized tests. The first round of testing took place at the end of the academic year, and these these tests will be evaluated over the next few months. Meanwhile, at the end of their closing presentation last Friday, Clause and Warlick informed the audience of the extensive health benefits of Spirulina, explaining that the green liquid in their cups was in fact a juice made by Odwalla. The audience raised their glasses to the innovative science teachers of ISPP -- and drank.
Bulletin BoardNovelties Galore at Ergonomic Fair
Lab Hosts EPSCoR WorkshopAug. 16-17 -- Radisson Hotel
More than 150 investigators will come to Berkeley next month to participate in a two-day DOE-sponsored event -- the EPSCoR (Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research) Workshop -- hosted by Berkeley Lab. Entitled "Advancing Energy Science and Technology Through Partnerships," the event will be held at the Berkeley Marina Radisson Hotel on Aug. 16 and 17. Participants will visit Berkeley Lab each day for tours of the national user facilities on the Hill. Lab Director Charles Shank will address the gathering on Wednesday, Aug. 16, and a reception will be held that day in the cafeteria from 5 to 6 p.m. A poster session will be part of Thursday's program. The workshop seeks to promote the formation of research partnerships between the faculty at colleges and universities and scientific staff at DOE national laboratories and facilities. Investigators from the EPSCoR states are eligible to apply for Laboratory Partnership Awards. The workshop and EPSCoR program are cosponsored by the National Science Foundation. More information about the workshop may be found at http://www.lbl.gov/conferences/EPSCoR/.
Student Poster Session Next Week
On Aug. 3 the Center for Science and Engineering Education is organizing its largest summer undergraduate student research poster session ever. Nintety-three students from DOE's Energy Research Undergraduate Research Laboratory Fellowship, Community College Initiative in Biotechnology, Environmental Science and Computing, and from the Pre-Service Teacher Training Program will present their Summer 2000 research Nearly all the Laboratory's scientific divisions will be represented. The event will be held from 3 to 5 p.m. in the cafeteria dining area. Refreshments will be provided.
New Dance Series Starts on Monday
Night Club 2-Step will be the featured dance of the new four-week dance lessons series, which starts on Monday, July 31. The essons are held at noon on the lower level of Bldg. 51 (the Bevatron). No previous dance experience is required. Free practice sessions are held every Wednesday at noon. The lessons are taught by professional dance instructor Charlene Van Ness. The cost is $20 for the four-week session or $6 per lesson. Please arrive 10 minutes early to register. For further information contact Joy Kono at jnkono@ lbl.gov or Sharon Fujimura at spfujimura@lbl.gov.
Runaround 2000: In Search of New Ideas
With the 23rd LBNL Runaround less than three months away (Oct. 13) organizers are looking for new ideas for this most popular annual labwide event. Suggestions will be welcomed for prize categories, T-shirt design, or anything else that would make the event a more enjoyable, all-around fun experience. Comments and suggestions may be sent to sederenzo@lbl.gov -- or better yet, everyone is invited to a special brainstorming session to be held at noon on Aug. 4 on the lower level of the cafeteria.
Docent-Led Tour of Chinese Exhibit
Berkeley Lab's Employees Arts Council (EAC) has arranged a docent-led tour of "The Golden Age of Chinese Archaeology" exhibit, to be held on Saturday, Aug. 26 at the Asian Art Museum in Golden Gate Park. Two tours are scheduled at 8:15 a.m. and 8:30 a.m., each limited to 25 people, which will take place before the museum opens to the public. Discounted admission tickets are available through the EAC for $23 each ($18 for members of the Asian Art Museum). For reservations contact Mary Clary at mmclary@lbl.gov or X4940. This is the most extensive exhibition of ancient Chinese art shown in the United States in the past 50 years. The Golden Age of Chinese Archaeology offers visitors a rare glimpse of nearly 240 artifacts recently unearthed throughout China. More than 30 Chinese museums have contributed national treasures spanning 6000 years of history. Included are intricately carved jades, immense bronze sculptures, ornate silver and gold vessels, as well as several of the famous life-size terra-cotta warriors from Xi'an. The exhibit is open through Sept. 11.
CalPERS Long Term Care Deadline Extended to July 31
The application deadline for the CalPERS Long Term Care plan has been extended to July 31. The program offers employees the option of obtaining long-term care coverage that may not be available through other plans. To find out more about the program visit the CalPERS website at http://www.calpers.ca.gov/longtermcare/. Application packets are available at the Benefits Office, X6403.
Mac Users Meeting Changes Topic
The Aug. 9 meeting of the Macintosh Users Group (LBNL MUG) will take a close look at Apple's new hardware offerings, instead of the scheduled talk by an Apple representative. The Apple rep's presentation has been canceled due to the postponment of the release date for Mac OS X beta to September. The MUG meeting will be held as scheduled in Bldg. 90-3148, starting at 11 a.m.
Kites and Culture: The Spirit of Indonesia
From a kite so large it take 20 people to launch it, to delicate kites made from bamboo and leaves, LHS visitors will discover a rare display of Indonesian kites and artifacts during a special exhibit at the Lawrence Hall of Science from July 29 through Aug. 20. The event opens a window to a culture where kite making is an important part of village life, arts, sports, worship, and work. Special events will include:
Sports ResultsLBNL Golf Club Defeats UC
The LBNL Golf Club broke an eight-year losing streak by defeating the UC Golf Club 18.5 to 14.5 in the annual two-person better ball tournament, held on July 8 at the Tilden Park Golf Course. Twenty-two club members participated. UC leads the 17-year competition 10-6-1.
The top finishing pairs are:
Softball Club
Week 9 Animals - Pedal Pushers (10-0)
Standings
1. Ballpark Estimates -- 8-1
Calendar of Events
July 28 - Aug. 11, 2000
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As part of her presentation, teacher
Carolyn Warlick of Hogan High School (right) passes out Spirulina juice
to the audience, while Ken Tosch of Springtown Middle School (above) sticks
to a more traditional approach. Photos by Roy Kaltschmidt
