June
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June
29, 2001 |
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| Tiny Particle
Causes Big Stir - SNO's first physics results reveal neutrino mass
From the Sun to SNO
Tiny Particle Causes Big StirSNO's First Physics Results Reveal Neutrino MassBy Lynn Yarris
Emitted as the result of thermonuclear reactions in the core of the sun and supernovae, the ghostlike elementary particles called "neutrinos" usually travel unnoticed through space, in immense numbers and across vast distances. However, the discovery that these erstwhile phantoms have mass and are polymorphous generated substantial notice from the media on Earth. The announcement last week of the first physics results from the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO), in which it was shown that solar neutrinos have a mass and can "oscillate" - or change their identity on route from the sun to the earth - made headlines in newspapers all over the globe. The discovery was even the subject of an entire broadcast of the popular ABC news show Nightline. "We're quite pleased with the results," said Kevin Lesko, a physicist with Berkeley Lab's Nuclear Science Division (NSD) who leads the Neutrino Astrophysics Group, in an interview with a reporter from the Associated Press. After more than a year's worth of data, much of which was analyzed at NERSC (the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center), SNO results show that solar neutrinos have small mass, by some estimates 1/60,000ths of an electron. The results also show that neutrinos are oscillating in transit, changing in type or "flavor" from electron (the flavor produced in the sun) to muon or tau neutrinos. These results run contrary to the predictions of the Standard Model of particles and fields, which has successfully explained fundamental physics since the 1970s. They do, however, clear up a mystery that has vexed scientists for three decades. Previous experiments have detected about one-half to two-thirds of the solar neutrinos predicted, based on current understanding of thermonuclear reactions. Our sun is thought to produce more than two hundred trillion trillion neutrinos every second. "We can say with greater than 99 percent confidence that solar neutrinos are undergoing changes (from one flavor to another) on their way to Earth," Lesko told the San Francisco Chronicle. "It's an exciting discovery, and it means that the Standard Model will require some alterations." Solving the mystery of the "missing" solar neutrinos is one of the primary missions of the $60 million SNO facility and its collaboration of more than 100 scientists from 11 other laboratories and universities in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Lesko and his colleagues in the Neutrino Astrophysics Group are prominent participants in this collaboration. Those colleagues include senior NSD scientists Bob Stokstad and Rick Norman, plus Yuen-dat Chan, Xin Chen, Alysia Marino, Colin Okada, and Alan Poon. Lesko himself, like Berkeley Lab, has been involved with the SNO project from its earliest days back in 1989. SNO can be thought of as a type of telescope, although it has little in common with the instruments most people associate with that word. Operating out of a nickel mine more than a mile underground near Sudbury, in the Canadian providence of Ontario, SNO consists of an 18-meter diameter, 58,000 pound, stainless steel geodesic sphere suspended in a pool filled with 7,000 metric tons of purified water. Inside this sphere is an acrylic vessel filled with 1,000 metric tons of heavy water (deuterium oxide or D2O). Attached to the sphere are 9,456 ultra-sensitive light-sensors called photomultiplier tubes. When neutrinos passing through the heavy water interact with deuterium nuclei, flashes of light, called Cerenkov radiation, are emitted. The photomultiplier tubes detect these light flashes and convert them into electronic signals that scientists can analyze. SNO is the first neutrino telescope sensitive enough to measure not only ordinary electron neutrinos, but also the much more rare muon and tau neutrinos. This unprecedented sensitivity was made possible by a design that maximizes SNO's light-collecting capabilities. "It is vital for the success of any neutrino experiment that as many photons as possible be detected," Lesko has said. "Therefore, we had to squeeze as many photomultiplier tubes as possible onto the geodesic dome while maintaining an adequate layer of water shielding between the tubes and the cavity walls of the SNO site."
Gary Koehler, a mechanical engineer in Berkeley Lab's Engineering Division, served as the SNO project's senior designer. His solution to the design challenges was a tesselated sphere surface made up of several hundred panels that come in five different shapes, each of which is built up from repeating patterns of hexagons. The result was a honeycomb pattern covering 60 percent of the sphere with photomultiplier tubes that, thanks to a unique mounting system and a series of corrosion-resistant plastic skirts, are water-tight and can be individually aimed. Engineers Yoichi Kajiyama and Dave Beck assisted Koehler in the design of the mounting system and skirts. NSD and ED scientists and engineers, under Lesko's leadership, also designed the stainless steel support sphere which, in 1993, was assembled at Donal Machine in Petaluma, California. After it was successfully tested, the sphere was disassembled and shipped to Sudbury. In addition to resolving the solar neutrino deficit, the first results from SNO also weigh in on a deficit concerning the total amount of matter in the universe. Perhaps as much as 95 percent of the matter of the universe, as inferred through gravitational effects, is missing - that is, this matter is invisible, or "dark" to us. Some scientists had speculated that because neutrinos are the second most common particles in the universe (after photons), if they had mass they might account for a substantial portion of this dark matter. Not so, says Lesko. "The measurements by SNO, when combined with those of previous measurements, provide a limit on the difference in mass between electron, muon, and tau neutrinos. This is the last piece of information necessary to set a limit on the total mass of all three." The total mass limit, Lesko says, puts the combined mass of all the neutrinos in the universe about equal to the combined mass of all the visible stars. That means neutrinos can account for only a small percentage of all the dark matter. Earlier this month, the SNO collaboration began the next phase of their measurements by adding salt to the heavy water in the acrylic vessel. This will enable them to observe another neutrino reaction with deuterium that is highly sensitive to all three neutrino flavors. The new measurements will enable the collaboration to study the transformation of neutrino flavors with even greater sensitivity. They will also be able to study other properties of neutrinos from the sun and from supernovae. The SNO experiments are expected to run for at least 5 more years. The support structure for the geodesic sphere that now sits at the core of SNO was designed by Lab engineers; it is shown here during its construction in Petaluma.
From the Sun to SNOFusion reactions in the core of the Sun pump out more than two hundred trillion trillion neutrinos every second - billions of them passing through our bodies. Because of their numbers, neutrinos may hold the answer to some of the most vexing questions in cosmology, and the physics results from the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory may hold the key to unraveling some of these mysteries.
NERSC Tops the ListIBM system ranked the most powerful unclassified
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 Cutting the ceremonial ribbon for the new collaboration are ALS Director Daniel Chemla, AXSUN president Dale Flanders, Berkeley Lab Director Charles Shank, and Jim Lewis, vice president of sales for AXSUN. |
Berkeley Lab's latest successful collaboration with an industrial partner was celebrated on June 15 at the Advanced Light Source (ALS) with the snip of a ceremonial ribbon, designed with alternating logos of the Laboratory and AXSUN Technologies. With that, the ALS launched its part in the company's fabrication of advanced micro-electromechanical structures (MEMS) used in the assembly of integrated photonic products.
The critical first step of creating miniature molds for microstructure components takes place at ALS beamline 3.3.1, built for use by AXSUN of Billerica, Mass., and Livermore. Top officials of the young telecommunications firm joined with representatives of Berkeley Lab, the ALS, and special guests for the dedication, marking the first time that a single private company has paid for an entire ALS beamline.
"It's a win-win for both parties, and illustrates the great value of public-private partnerships," said Lab Director Charles Shank. "The output of this beamline will help address one of our nation's biggest telecommunications challenges, and at the same time, AXSUN's support will increase our capacity to deliver on other scientific missions."
Dale Flanders, President and CEO of AXSUN, said, "We believe that the relationship between Berkeley Lab and AXSUN will serve as a model for future commercialization of dual use technology."
He said AXSUN will "pay for the x-rays that we use," and the full-cost-recovery agreement means the ALS will receive important funding to invest in future research programs there.
AXSUN, which has been in operation since 1999, is a developer and manufacturer of photonic subsystems for optical networking. Their products address a major obstacle in optimizing the performance of fiber-optic networks that power the Internet: specifically to offer complex, integrated subsystems that occupy smaller footprints than today's bulkier versions.
Flanders said the key for his company is to overcome the current "rats' nest" of connecting fiber, and the time-consuming manual methods of putting systems together. AXSUN's optical channel monitors and analyzers replace suitcase-sized packages and reduce them to the size of a credit card.
 Cutting the ceremonial ribbon for the new collaboration are ALS Director Daniel Chemla, AXSUN president Dale Flanders, Berkeley Lab Director Charles Shank, and Jim Lewis, vice president of sales for AXSUN. |
AXSUN's products are designed to manage optical networks through the integration of advanced MEMS devices with a wide range of supporting optical functions. AXSUN's subsystem products are one-tenth the size of those built by hand using bulk optics methods. The result is higher levels of performance and functional density while consuming less power and circuit board space.
Key to this process is the production of microalignment structures used to mount optical elements, such as the lenses to the optical equivalent of a circuit board. That's where the Advanced Light Source beamline comes in.
The ALS has proven to be the ideal vehicle for enabling a process called LIGA, a technology developed in Germany that uses x-ray lithography instead of conventional metal machining to create tiny metal structures with submicron precision. Dale Boehme, director of LIGA technology for AXSUN, described the process: an acrylic sheet bonded to a silicon wafer containing a gold mask of the LIGA structures is exposed to x-rays at the beamline. After the x-rays hit the mask, the acrylic is etched in a manner that creates precise molds of microalignment structures. Boehme told the audience that the ALS "has the ideal energy range for LIGA. The interaction with people here has been great - a perfect match."
The exposed acrylic wafers will be sent to AXSUN's Livermore foundry, where they will be chemically proces-sed, electroplated, lapped and polished, and released from the substrate. This wafer scale process creates thousands of alignment structures on a single three-inch wafer. The structures are then assembled into the photonic platforms.
AXSUN executed a licensing agreement last year for certain LIGA process technology with Sandia National Laboratory, another DOE facility in Livermore, and is continuing to work with Sandia as a research and development partner.
Contributing to the construction of the AXSUN beamline, under the technical direction of Howard Padmore and project management of Jim Krupnick, were William Thur and Sergio Gavidia. Said Padmore, "The path to an industrial LIGA facility at ALS started in 1994 with the programs on two existing time-shared beamlines. The use of LIGA for a dedicated industrial production facility is something that the ALS management strongly backed over the years. It is particularly satisfying to see this project come to fruition working with Dale Boehme at AXSUN, who was responsible for much of this early development work."
President George W. Bush has nominated John H. Marburger, III, the director of Brookhaven National Laboratory, to be director of the White House Office of Science and Technology. If confirmed by the Senate, the 60-year-old physics professor from the State University of New York (SUNY) at Stony Brook will be the administration's top ranking official for setting science policy.
Marburger is a graduate of Princeton University and received a Ph.D. in applied physics from Stanford University. During the 1970s he was a department chair and dean at the University of Southern California. From 1980 to 1994, he served as SUNY's president and as chairman of the Universities Research Association as it managed construction of the ill-fated Superconducting Supercollider project. He is presently on a leave of absence from SUNY.
Marburger arrived at Brookhaven in 1998 in the wake of a highly publicized controversy over a radioactive leak that had mobilized the Long Island public against the laboratory. Marburger received widespread praise for calming down what had become an ugly feud between laboratory staff and environmental activists. He is now recognized for his strong belief in the importance of communicating science to the general public.
Marburger sees his role as that of "a broker between the scientific community and the administration." However, he cautions that "science is not the only driver for policy," and that the president will always consider other factors, such as economics, in his decisions.
If confirmed by the Senate, as expected, Marburger will also co-chair the President's Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology with venture capitalist Floyd Kvamme.
The Office of Technology Assessment (OTA), the highly respected agency that advised members of Congress on scientific issues from 1972 until 1995 when lawmakers killed it, may be making a comeback. A distinguished panel of 10 scientists, science advocates, and government leaders met in Washington last week to explore ideas for reviving the agency. Although no consensus for a new agency was reached, all agreed that Congress does need better advice on issues of science and technology.
For 23 years OTA was renowned for its panels of scientific experts who produced excellent reports on hot science policy topics, such as genetic engineering, acid rain, electronic surveillance, and renewable energy. OTA inspired the establishment of similar science advisory agencies in other countries.
Some lawmakers, however, felt that OTA had taken on too much of a "liberal" bias and took too long to complete studies that often became quite expensive. When Republicans won control of Congress in 1994 they eliminated the $22 million office. Ever since, many leaders in the scientific community have complained that lawmakers lack a trustworthy and neutral source of expertise on emerging issues in science and technology.
The workshop was organized by M. Granger Morgan of Carnegie Mellon University, who said that at least "we succeeded in getting a national conversation started."
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Jennifer Masangcay, a security staff member at Berkeley Lab for the past year, sports the new attire of Barton Protective Services, the new contractor replacing Burns Security starting July 1. Most of the security staff are expected to stay on following the transition.
Barton is a full service provider specializing in security services to the research community. It is the only contract security firm to have been named by Fortune magazine as one of the 100 best companies to work for in America for two consecutive years.
UC Berkeley Police will continue to provide law enforcement services to the Lab, as always. Photo by Robert Couto
Congress continues to add money to the Bush administration's FY 2002 budget request for DOE. Last week, the House Appropriations subcommittee on energy and water development approved a bill that would provide $641 million more for renewable energy, environmental management and nuclear nonproliferation programs than the $18.7 billion that the White House sought. Later, the House approved by a 376-32 vote a FY02 Interior and related agencies bill that includes $1.5 billion for DOE's energy conservation and fossil energy R&D programs - $314 million more than the Bush administration requested.
The energy and water bill adopted by the subcommittee exceeds last fiscal year's funding for the programs by $444 million. The full House Appropriations Committee is expected to consider the bill today (June 29). Renewable energy technologies would receive $376.8 million under the bill, an increase of $100 million over the budget request and $1 million above the funding for FY 2001. The panel said it boosted funding for environmental management to $7.03 billion - a $699.2 million increase over the budget request "in order to maintain cleanup schedules and meet compliance agreements at sites throughout the country." The amount provided for the program in the bill is $253.4 million above current spending.
DOE science programs would receive $3.16 billion, or $13.9 million below FY01, but $6.5 million more than the Bush administration requested. Several Office of Science programs would be funded at the request level, including high energy physics, at $716.1 million; the Advanced Scientific Computing Research Initiative, at $163 million; and fusion at $248.5 million. Nuclear physics would get a $1 million increase over the request, to $361.5 million. Biological and environmental research would see an increase of $2.9 million over the request, to $445.9 million. And basic energy sciences would receive $1 billion, an increase of $2 million above the request. — Lynn Yarris
As part of a new initiative announced yesterday by Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham, Berkeley Lab will work with the University of California at San Diego to help develop a high-efficiency light source for general illumination applications.
The DOE program offers $85.7 million in research awards to 18 organizations and five universities to perform research and development on cutting edge energy efficiency and clean energy science and technology.
The award to UC San Diego is for $400,000 for "Improving the Efficiency of Solid State Light Sources." University and Berkeley Lab researchers will look for new materials (phosphors) that will produce high quality white light from solid state light sources that emit only a single color of light.
By Lynn Yarris
Is there a more rewarding thrill than to break a record? Whereas most of us must content ourselves with breaking personal bests, earlier this month the scientists and engineers of Berkeley Lab's Superconducting Magnet Group experienced the rush of shattering a world record. The team's newest niobium-tin dipole electromagnet reached an unprecedented field-strength of 14.7 Tesla. This is more than 300,000 times the strength of Earth's magnetic field.
"Our job is to push the technology envelope as far as we can in terms of high magnetic field-strength, and that is what we have done," says Steve Gourlay, a physicist with the Accelerator and Fusion Research Division (AFRD) who lead the team that designed and built the new champion.
 Members of the team that built the record-shattering magnet pose in front of RD-3 in the Building 58 test area. |
Dubbed RD-3, the new world-record-holding magnet is one meter long and weighs several tons. It consists of three magnetic coil modules (a double-pancake outer and single-layer inner) which were wound from more than eight miles' worth of niobium-tin wire.
The previous record field strength for a dipole electromagnet was 13.5 Tesla. It was set in 1997 - also by a niobium-tin electromagnet designed and built here at Berkeley Lab.
Members of the new record-holding team were, in addition to Gourlay, Robert Benjegerdes, Paul Bish, Doyle Byford, Shlomo Caspi, Daniel Dietderich, Ray Hafalia, Charles Hannaford, Hugh Higley, Alan Jackson, Alan Lietzke, Nate Liggins, Alfred McInturff, Jim O'Neil, Evan Palmerston, GianLuca Sabbi, Ron Scanlan, and James Swanson.
Dipole magnets are used to bend and maintain the path of accelerating particle beams. The higher the field strengths of the magnets, the tighter the arc of the beam. With stronger dipole magnets, an accelerator can push particles to much higher relativistic energies around the same-sized circular beam path.
That conventional electromagnets cannot attain a dipole field strength much above 2 Tesla has meant the continuing development of new and better superconducting alloys. However, the use of high field-strength superconducting electromagnets presents its own formidable technical challenge in that superconductivity has a tendency to weaken and disappear in the presence of a strong magnetic field.
"We're charged with developing superconducting magnet technology that not only yields high field strength but is also cost effective for the next generation of accelerators," says Gourlay. "To achieve this, we have been working with a niobium-tin superconductor (Nb3Sn) and emphasizing simplicity in our design."
Today's most powerful particle accelerators, including the Tevatron and the Large Hadron Collider, rely on dipoles fashioned out of a niobium-titanium alloy. This material, while offering the distinct advantage of being ductile, is limited to a field-strength no greater than 10 Tesla. The niobium-tin superconductor was believed in theory to be capable of reaching field strengths in excess of 14 Tesla. However, until the 1997 record-setting performance of the Superconducting Magnet Group's D20 magnet, niobium-tin was considered too brittle and fragile to be able to withstand the forces that threaten to push the coil windings apart.
 Berkeley Lab's RD-3 magnet reached a world-record 14.7 Tesla field strength in its final quenching test, breaking the 1997 record which was also set at Berkeley Lab. Photo by Roy Kaltschmidt |
"These forces are enormous, about 3 million pounds, or more than the combined thrust of more than a dozen 747 planes," says Gourlay. "To withstand this force we needed a really good support structure design."
Designing a champion magnet
The design Gourlay and his colleagues employed is centered around a "common-coil racetrack" geometry, an idea that originated at Brookhaven National Laboratory, in which a pair of coils shaped like an oval racetrack are shared between two apertures to produce opposing magnetic fields.
"A racetrack coil design offers a flat geometry that can handle the forces and is well-suited for use in a particle accelerator," says Gourlay. "It also offers a simplicity of construction that helps make it cost effective."
To overcome the brittleness factor of niobium-tin, Gourlay and his team made their coil modules using a "wind and react" technique. The cable was made from separate strands of niobium and tin, which were fabricated by Oxford Superconducting Technologies. It was then wound around an iron "pole-piece" and impregnated with an epoxy filler to make each coil module. Not until after the cable was wound into the three coil modules were the strands "reacted" to make the superconducting alloy. This reaction was accomplished by heating the cable to about 950 Kelvin (680 degrees Celsius) and baking it at that temperature for two weeks.
To complete the magnet, the coils were encased in an iron yoke, then wrapped in a 40 millimeter thick aluminum shell. For the coils to become superconducting, they have to be cooled to a temperature of about 4.2 Kelvin (-270 degrees Celsius). This starts the process whereby a magnet is "trained" to attain its peak field strength. A magnet will be chilled to make its coils superconducting, then energized up in field strength until an inadvertent warming along some part of the coils causes the magnet to lose its superconductivity. This temporary loss of superconductivity is called "quenching." After quenching occurs, the magnet is re-cooled and training resumes. The process will be repeated until the magnet reaches the field-strength limit dictated by the properties of its superconductor.
"This magnet trained slowly," says Gourlay. "It took us 35 quenches to reach 14.7 Tesla at 4 Kelvin." (The old record of 13.5 Tesla was achieved at 1.8 Kelvin.)
Looking ahead
Records are made to be broken, and the Superconducting Magnet Group is already planning the design of a magnet that should reach a field strength of 15 Tesla.
"We're always looking forward," says Gourlay. "After we reach 15 Tesla, we'll aim for 16 Tesla."
Gourlay does say that in the next magnet, he and his group will concentrate on improving the quality of their magnetic field as well as the quantity.
As part of the Lab's ongoing efforts to mitigate the impact of rolling blackouts, a two-megawatt generator is being installed to affect an up to 15 percent reduction in the Lab's peak electrical demand.
According to Doug Lockhart, the Lab's pointman for onsite energy management, the site work for the project has been completed at the generator's permanent location behind Building 64.
On June 14, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District issued Berkeley Lab a permit to construct the proposed 2MW generator and to operate it no more than 494 hours annually. Actual operating hours are projected to be below the estimate, hopefully no more than 200 hours, Lockhart said. The generator will be delivered on June 28 and be stored for a short period of time in Building 51B, prior to being installed at its permanent location.
The NEPA and CEQA approvals are expected by next week.
More than 15,000 University staff employees have been automatically granted either one or two years of retirement plan service credit under a new program - the University of California Retirement Plan (UCRP) Service Credit Allocation Program. On June 21, all employees who qualified under the program were notified through the mail, with over 300 letters sent to Berkeley Lab employees. The additional service credit increases the value of future retirement benefits for employees who qualify to receive UCRP retirement benefits.
The program - one of the "look-back" programs under the Temporary Employment Project - was created to provide retirement service credit to certain eligible UCRP members in recognition of past time worked in temporary positions.
For more information about the program or your eligibility, refer to the new policies for temporary employment located under Benefit News on the UCbencom web page at http://www.ucop.edu/bencom/news/tempemp.html.
If you received a letter informing you of an allocation of one or two years and you wish to accept the allocation, you do not need to do anything. The service credit has already been posted to your account at UCOP.
The automatic allocations were based on the best available records maintained by UCOP, so it is always possible that they did not identify everyone who is eligible. If you are a staff employee who did not receive an automatic allocation, you may still be eligible to receive a UCRP service credit allocation upon request if you meet all three of the following criteria:
You had an active University staff appointment on Jan. 1, 2001, or were on an approved leave with or without pay on that date.
You were an active UCRP member on Jan. 1, 2001 or will become a UCRP member by Dec. 31, 2001.
You had a period of temporary employment at UC prior to Jan. 1, 2001 that lasted at least six consecutive months, based on your appointment start and end dates (regardless of the number of hours or percentage of time worked).
Please note: Service while working as a contract employee or contractor at the lab is not considered as eligible employment for a service credit allocation.
To Request an Allocation
If you did not receive a letter from UCOP and you believe you may be eligible for service credit based on these criteria, see the One-time UCRP Service Credit Allocation Program booklet for complete eligibility requirements, forms, and instructions on requesting an allocation. The booklet is available online on the UCbencom website (http://www.ucop.edu/bencom/news/servcredit.html) or from your HR Center or Benefits Office (X6403, benefits@l bl.gov).
To Request an Allocation
Under this program, UCRP members who did receive an allocation but believe they qualify for more service credit may forfeit their allocation and appeal for a correction. Eligibility requirements and information regarding the appeal process for an automatic allocation may be obtained from the One-time UCRP Service Credit Allocation Program booklet or the Benefits Office.
Application Deadlines and Other Information
The deadline set by UCOP to request or appeal the service credit allocation is July 31, 2002. All required documentation must be submitted by that time. However, the Benefits Department will set an earlier internal deadline in order ensure that all requests are properly documented. This deadline will be set according to the volume of requests and the level of documentation required by UCOP, and will be announced at a later date.
The Benefits Office has hired Ramona Jind to serve as the service credit allocation specialist to coordinate the program and help Lab employees research work history records, complete the application for request or appeal of service credit, and answer related questions. She can be reached at X7873 or by e-mail at Rjind@lbl.gov.
UCOP has also posted an article on the UCbencom website to announce this program and will include a question and answer section, which will be updated as questions about the program arise.
For additional Benefits and HR announcements see the Bulletin Board, Page 6.
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Trevor Hawkins, director of the Joint Genome Institute (JGI), will kick off Berkeley Lab's annual Summer Lecture Series on July 11 with a presentation on "The Human Genome Project: Past, Present, and Future."
The series will continue the following four Wednesdays and will be held at noon in the Building 50 auditorium. The one-hour lectures are geared to a general audience and are open to all Lab employees, summer students, teachers, and visitors. Audience members are welcome to bring their lunches to the talks.
Hawkins will address DOE's involvement with the Human Genome Project, JGI's contributions to date, and the future direction of the project. In addition to heading the JGI, Hawkins is also the division director of the Genomics Division.
The JGI is one of the largest publicly funded genome sequencing centers in the world. Established in 1996, it is a consortium initially formed by Berkeley Lab, Lawrence Livermore and Los Alamos National Laboratories.
In addition to its significant role in the effort to sequence the human genome, the Institute is also involved in other genomic programs, such as microbial genomics.
By using high-throughput genomic technologies and computational methods and leveraging the capabilities of the national laboratory system, the JGI is yielding new understanding that can be applied to the fields of energy, the environment, and human health.
The Summer Lecture Series will conclude on Aug. 8 with a celebration of the 100th anniversary of Laboratory founder Ernest Orlando Lawrence. More information on the Lawrence centenary as well as on the other summer lectures will be announced in upcoming issues of Currents.
The Job Hazard Questionnaire (JHQ), the form that identifies required EH&S training for Berkeley Lab staff, has undergone a revision for enhanced clarity, organization, and coverage. The new version can be found online at https://training.lbl.gov.
New sections include areas such as biosafety and lasers. Laboratory employees are encouraged to take advantage of the improved JHQ by either retaking the JHQ entirely or modifying their existing JHQ of record. For more information contact Jack Salazar at X6571 or Nancy Sallee at X7524.
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Fifth-grader Michael Torrey, one of the winners in the DOE's Energy-Smart Inventors contest who worked with Berkeley Lab engineers on his Miniature Hydroelectric Power Plant (MHePP), was honored again this month when Fremont Mayor Gus Morrison declared June 13 Michael Torrey Day.
In January Michael came to Berkeley Lab where our engineers helped him and three other youngsters take their inventions from sketches to prototypes. Hong Dao, Ken Chow and other Lab volunteers worked with Michael on a device that can generate electricity from water running out of household taps. The MHePP uses a Pelton wheel, a generator, and a display panel that can be switched to power a fan, light up a bulb, or charge a battery. Photo by Roy Kaltschmidt
The Facilities Department provides rush courier service with pick-up and delivery both on- and off-site. Transportation can deliver up to 2,000 pounds in the Bay Area or in central or northern California. Onsite materials will be delivered within one hour. For pick-up call X5404.
Courier service (two-hour, four-hour, same day, and rush) is also available from IDS Courier, which operates 24 hours a day and provides pick-up and delivery anywhere in the Bay Area and in parts of northern and central California. For information call 548-3263.
If you need to reach a Lab employee but don't know the extension, you may use the Dial by Name option - a voice mail system directory that can directly dial the number of any employee who has a voice mailbox. Dial by Name can be accessed in three ways:
During off-hours: Call the Lab's main number (486-4000), press 1 when prompted, and enter at least four characters of the employee's last name. When enough characters are entered the system states the name. If more than one name matches the characters entered, the system asks you to select the one you want.
During business hours: While holding for a Lab operator (486-4000), press 1 at prompt, and follow procedure listed above.
From your own voice mailbox: Press 6 to record and send a message, then press 00 to address by name.
Remember that others can only find you in the Dial by Name directory if you programmed your name into your voice mailbox. To do so, at the "ready" prompt, press 16 followed by 8.
For more information about this or other voicemail system features, call the Telephone Service Center at X7997 or send email to tsc@lbl.gov.
The Employee Activities Association is once again sponsoring Family Days at Great America on Aug. 25 and Aug. 26. Employees may choose which day they wish to attend.
Tickets at reduced prices will be on sale at the cafeteria entrance on Tuesdays and Thursdays through Aug. 23. Prices are $11 for ages 3 to 6 and $13.50 for ages 7 and higher. (Regular admission price is $42.99.) Tickets will be available in the cafeteria lobby on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 12 to 1 p.m.
For other arrangements contact Lisa Cordova at X5521.
All Lab employees have easy access to the Technical and Electronic Information Department's Photo Gallery, which offers a wealth of colorful images of people and research at Berkeley Lab that can be used for publications, presentations, and displays.. To access it, look up the TEID website at http://www-library.lbl.gov/teid/ and click on Photography at the top, then Gallery on the left. (Or access the Photo Department from the Lab's A-Z index.)
The Gallery is organized by research areas, education and special events, aerial views of the Lab, and favorite panoramic views. A special historical section features our Nobel laureates and other Lab greats, and a QuickTime Gallery offers virtual tours of the Lab. These galleries are being updated on a regular basis.
To order photos or for more information, send e-mail to photo@lbl.gov or call X5731.
The application deadline for the CalPERS Long-Term Care (LTC) program has been extended through Aug. 31. Application kits can be requested only until July 31.
LTC refers to the extended care needed due to chronic illness, injury, or frailties of old age that may be received either at home or in a nursing home, assisted living facility, or adult day care center. All Lab employees, retirees, spouses, parents, and parents-in law, and UCRS members are eligible to apply.
For more information, call (800) 266-1050.
An internal mailing was sent this week to all Laboratory employees hired after April 1, 2000 showing their current personal information kept in the HR/Payroll database, PeopleSoft. The system contains information such as name, address, citizenship status, and education data. PeopleSoft is the primary source for this information, so it is crucial that the data is accurate.
Human Resources asks that everyone take a few moments to review this information and make corrections on the form provided. All corrections or updates must be returned to the Payroll Department at Mailstop 937-600 by Friday, July 13.
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Camshafts - Drosoftballa (25-3) |
Standings after Week 4 |
Tripmobile
12-1 p.m., cafeteria parking
lot
Independence Day Holiday
Shoemobile
7:30 a.m - 3:30 p.m., cafeteria
parking lot
Summer Lecture Series Kicks Off
Trevor Hawkins talks about
the Human Genome Project, noon, Building 50 auditorium
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 July 13 issue is 5 p.m. Monday, July 9.
Berkeley Lab staff members are giving science presentations every morning through mid-July to 40 science teachers from the Vallejo Unified School District and surrounding area. All Lab employees are invited to attend. The teachers are participating in the Integrated Science Partnership Project (ISPP), an effort to strengthen classroom science programs through curriculum development and joint research between teachers and scientists.
The lectures are being held every morning from 9 to 10:30 in the Building 50 auditorium. The schedule for the remainder of the summer is:
Monday, July 2
World of Combustion Science &
My Little Corner of It
Speaker: Robert Cheng, Environmental Energy Technologies Division
Tuesday, July 3
Actinides in the Environment
Speaker: Heino Nitsche, Nuclear Science Division
Thursday, July 5
Extra-cellular Signalling and the
Control of Cancer
Speaker: Mary Helen Barcellos-Hoff, Life Sciences Division
Friday, July 6
Probing the Accelerating Universe
Speaker: Susanna Deustua, Physics Division
Monday, July 9
A Talk on Energy Use
Speaker: Mary Ann Piette, Environmental Energy Technologies Division
Tuesday, July 10
Creating Mass from Energy
Speaker: Ben Feinberg, Advanced Light Source
Wednesday, July 11
Evaluating the Potential Impacts of
Climate Change on California
Speaker: Norman Miller, Earth Sciences Division
|
Date |
Course |
Time |
Building |
|
|
7/3 |
EHS 256 |
Lockout/Tagout (LO/TO) |
1:30 - 3:00 |
51-201 |
|
7/5 |
EHS 116 |
First Aid |
8:30 - 12:00 |
48-109 |
|
7/6 |
EHS 275 |
Confined Space |
9:00 - 11:00 |
51-201 |
|
7/6 |
EHS 330 |
Lead Hazard Awareness |
11:00 - 12:00 |
51-201 |
|
7/9 |
EHS 135 |
Earthquake Safety |
10:00 - 12:00 |
48-109 |
|
7/10 |
EHS 10 |
Introduction to EH&S at LBNL* |
8:30 - 10:15 |
50 auditorium |
|
7/10 |
EHS 60 |
Ergonomics for Computer Users |
3:00 - 4:30 |
51-201 |
|
7/11 |
EHS 123 |
Adult CPR |
8:30 - 12:00 |
48-109 |
|
7/11 |
EHS 210 |
Hoist |
10:30 - 12:00 |
51-201 |
|
7/12 |
EHS 278 |
Ladder Safety |
9:00 - 10:00 |
51-201 |
|
7/16 |
EHS 280 |
Laser Safety |
1:00 - 4:00 |
51-201 |
|
7/17 |
EHS 348 |
Chemical Hygiene/Safety |
9:30 - 12:00 |
51-201 |
|
7/17 |
EHS 231 |
Compressed Gas Safety |
1:30 - 4:00 |
51-201 |
|
7/18 |
EHS 530 |
Fire Extinguisher |
10:00 - 11:30 |
48-109 |
|
7/20 |
EHS 400 |
Radiation Protection- Fundamentals |
9:00 - 12:00 |
51-201 |
|
7/23 |
EHS 432 |
Radiation Protection; Lab Safety |
1:00 - 4:00 |
51-201 |
|
7/24 |
EHS 604 |
Hazardous Waste Generators |
9:30 - 11:00 |
51-201 |
|
7/24 |
EHS 622 |
Radioactive/Mixed Waste Generators |
11:00 - 12:00 |
51-201 |
|
7/24 |
EHS 735/ 738/739 |
Biosafety/Bloodborne Pathogen |
1:30 - 2:30 |
51-20 |
|
17/25 |
EHS 210 |
Hoist |
10:30 - 12:00 |
51-201 |
|
7/24 |
EHS 730 |
Medical Biohazardous Waste |
2:30 - 3:30 |
51-201 |
|
7/25 |
EHS 61 |
Ergonomics for Workstation Evaluator |
1:00 - 3:30 |
51-201 |
|
7/26 |
EHS 52 |
Back Safety |
9:00 - 10:30 |
51-201 |
|
7/26 |
EHS 260 |
Basic Electrical Hazard Awareness |
1:30 - 3:00 |
51-201 |
* Includes EHS 392/405, followed by the orientation. Please arrive at 8:15 for sign-in.
For more information or to enroll, contact Valarie Espinoza at VMEspinoza@lbl.gov or enroll via the web at http://www.lbl.gov/ehs/ehstraining/registration/. Preregistration is required for all courses except EHS 10 (Introduction to EH&S). Times and locations are subject to change. For a full, updated schedule of EH&S training sessions see http://www-ia1.lbl.gov/schedule/.
'92 TOYOTA COROLLA DX, dark grey, 139K mi, recent tuneup & timing belt change, 1 owner, all maint records, $3,000/bo, Eli, X5975
'89 PLYMOUTH GRAND VOYAGER LE Turbo, burg, 120K mi, exc cond, new paint, ac, pwr lock, $4,000/bo, Mike, 799-5684
'89 HONDA CRX-SI, silver, 110K mi, 5 spd, up to 40 mpg, ac, am/ fm/cass, sunroof; new muffler/ clutch/timing belt, recent full service, $2,600/bo, David, X7083, 658-3902
'69 VW BEETLE, engine & auto trans in exc cond, body pan rust, 93K mi, proceeds go to elementary school benefit, $1,000/bo, Guy, X4703, 482-1777
VISTA CAMPER SHELL, green, late model Tacoma, like new, mounted but never used, bed carpet kit, Fabtech rear shocks & springs, $900/bo, Bill, X6131
TWO CONTINENTAL TIRES, 195/R14 M+S, used, exc shape, 15K mi, good for at least another 25K mi, $10/ea, Vladimir, X4092
BERKELEY, 1 room in rooming house, July-Aug, 1 blk from campus, near publ trans, $550/mo or $180/wk, Lilian, 713-7525, Yea, X4268
BERKELEY, 2 furn rooms in comfortable 6 bdrm rooming house starting 7/1, 1 rm avail 8/1, incl house phone, active DSL line, w/d, common liv rm, deck in lge garden, off-street parking, housecleaning, $720-$850/mo+part util, Anushka, 486-8153, anushka@ calalum.org
NORTH BERKELEY 1 bdrm, 2 flr garden cottage, approx 500 sq ft, skylights, tile floors, very light, sunny, clean, small upstairs bedroom w/ view of hills, priv entr, offstreet parking, close to bus & BART, walk to Solano/Monterey Mrkt, fully furn, avail Aug, 1-yr lease pref, $l,350/mo+util, first, last, & $700 dep, no smoking indoors, pets possibly ok, Janet, 527-0210, najet@earthlink.net
NORTH BERKELEY, B&B, close to shuttle, 1 garden cottage rm & 1 lge rm avail 7/1, 1 person per rm, $850/mo or $300/wk w/ 2 weeks min, Hellen, 527-3252
NORTH BERKELEY, furn lge sunny 1 bdrm apt, walk to stores, BART, public transp & campus, many amenities, priv garden, gated carport, avail yr-round by week/month, Denyse, 848-1830
OAKLAND, furn studio suite in restored Victorian, priv entr, incl bdrm, small kitchen, bth w/ tub & shower, bus to campus 2 blks away, walk to Piedmont/Grand Ave shops/cafes, avail 7/14-12/31, $1,100/mo, Ulli, X5347, 527 6643, Dietrich, 652-7798, cdw@ opendomain.com
ROCKRIDGE AREA, rm in priv house, avail now, 10 min walk to College Ave and LNBL shuttle, $550/mo, X4135, 655-2534
SAN LEANDRO HILLS, bay view, 2 bdrm/1 bth house, 1-car garage, quiet neighbrhd, refrig, w/d, close to 580, Bayfair Mall & BART, $1,500/mo+$1,000 sec dep, 1-yr lease, Bob, X6162, 357-2778
WALNUT CREEK, charming 2 bdrm/1 bth cottage on cul-de-sac, hardwd flrs, fireplace, rear yard w/ garden, 1 mi to downtown & BART, 2 onsite parking spaces, no pets/smoking, 1-yr lease, $1,650/ mo incl gardening, Janice, 895-3584
2 VISITING SCIENTISTS seek furn apt or rooms from approx 8/1-9/10, Ian, X4174, igbrown@ lbl.gov
VISITING PROFESSOR from Austria seeks furn studio/1 bdrm apt near campus or BART, 8/1-9/12, falko.netzer@email.kfunigraz.ac.at
VISITING PROFESSOR seeks apt or small house in Berkeley for 2 months from approx mid-Sept to mid-Nov, djb3@columbia.edu
VISITING SCHOLAR from UK seeks furn 1 or 2 bdrm apt in good area for Jul-Dec, arriving UCB 6/27, Stickland@cf.ac.uk
VISITING SCHOLAR seeks studio/1 bdrm in Berkeley Hills or Kensington, Paola, 528-4985
ANTIOCH, 2,800 sq ft, 4 bdrm/ 3 bth + bonus rm, upgraded carpet, 2-tone int paint, pre-wired surround sound system, easy lawn maint front & back, 40 minutes to LBNL, $376,666, Michael, X2209, 334-8526
APPLE IBOOK, new, 500MHx, 128 MB SDRAM, 20 GB, 2 USB port, 10/100 Ethernet ports, 56K modem, DVD compatible, 12" TFT, $1,200 for everything incl mouse, & adapter, Marc, 647-5246
BOAT & MOTOR, inflatable runabout 9'x 4' w/ wooden floor & transom made by Sevylor for Sears, heavy PVC w/ 3 sep inflatable flotation chambers; motor is lightweight (16#) air-cooled 2.7HP Cruise & Carry 2 cycle outboard, all in great cond, best offer, Bob, (925) 376-2211
COUNTRY FLAME WOOD STOVE, exc cond, takes logs up to 24", glass doors, black w/ brass trim, $450, Barbara, X7840, (925) 939-7754 eves
EL TORO SAILBOAT, teak, hull in bad shape, $50/bo, Guy, X4703, Kathy, 482-1777
FOLDING SCOOTER new in box, never used, silver w/ smoke wheels, comes w/ carry bag, photos at www.geocities.com/kymbakhan/scooter.html, $30, Kymba, X8671, 526-9565
LUGGAGE, black elephant skin texture w/ tan leather trim: garment bag, duffle bag, 1 tote, 1 briefcase, 2 suitcases, $100 for all; set of 4 rolling swivel vinyl kitchen chairs w/ wooden armrests, cream, comfortable, exc cond, $100/set; dishes, service for 8, white/gold trim, serving pieces incl, never used, $45; curtain panels, cream w/ fancy lace, $50, Valerie, X4589, 839-0645 home
KIHEI, MAUI, 1 bdrm condo, across the street from Kam 2 beach (best beach on Maui), fully equipped, view the ocean & Hal-eakela, $400/wk, Fred or Shar, 981-2073 days, 523-4150 eves
PARIS, FRANCE, near Eiffel Tower, furn elegant sunny 2 bdrm apt, avail yr round by week or month, Denyse, 848-1830
SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, spacious chalet in Tyrol area, close to Heavenly, fully furn, peek of lake from the front porch, sleeps 8+, sunny deck, pool & spa in club house, close to casinos & other attractions, $150/day+$75 one time cleaning fee, Angela, X7712, Pat/Maria, 724-9450
TAHOE KEYS at S. Lake Tahoe, 3 bdrm house, 2-1/2 bth, fenced yard, quiet, sunny, close to attractions, priv dock, great view, $175/ night, 2 night min, Bob, (925) 376-2211
FREE CATS to good home, two 10-month-old males, neutered, have all shots, rescued, moving across country and can't take them, need loving home, 742-3446
LOST ON 6/7: keyring w/ several keys, possibly near Bldg 90 or 88, Linnea, X7623, Steve, 704-1912
Ads are accepted only from LBNL employees, retirees, and onsite DOE personnel. Only items of your own personal property may be offered for sale.
Submissions must include name, affiliation, extension, and home phone 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, and are repeated only as space permits. They may not be retracted once submitted for publication.
The deadline for the July 13 issue Thursday, July 5.
