News
What's New 
Contents
July 2008
June 2008
- Berkeley Lab, NOAA, NASA to Use Research Aircraft in Summertime Atmospheric Greenhouse Gas Sampling Project
- Powering Down in Juneau
May 2008
April 2008
- Revised Edition of Turning Numbers Into Knowledge Released
- Berkeley Lab Examines State-level Renewables Portfolio Standards Policies
March 2008
February 2008
- Robert Sawyer Elected to the National Academy of Engineering
- Maharashtra at the Crossroads: Berkeley Lab-Led Agreement Tackles India's Energy Shortage, Global Climate Change
January 2008
- Feeling the Heat: Berkeley Researchers Make Thermoelectric Breakthrough in Silicon Nanowires
- Berkeley Lab Scientists Find Evidence of Link Between Outdoor Ozone and Building-Related Health Symptoms
July 2008
Climate Change: The Role of Particles and Gases
2008 Summer Lecture Series
Berkeley Lab
July 1, 2008
Here is a video of EETD scientist Surabi Menon delivering her Summer Lecture series talk on climate change.
June 2008
Berkeley Lab, NOAA, NASA to Use Research Aircraft in Summertime Atmospheric Greenhouse Gas Sampling Project
Scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the University of California, the California Air Resources Board, and NASA will use aircraft outfitted with atmospheric sampling devices in mid-June to measure greenhouse gases over California, in an effort to better understand the relative contribution of the state's GHG emissions to the global total.
Powering Down in Juneau
Faced with a crisis that suddenly pushed electricity prices up to five times the usual, Juneau responded with a campaign to cut energy use drastically. How do you save electricity in a hurry? One way to do it is to call in Berkeley Lab scientist Alan Meier, who wrote the book Saving Electricity in a Hurry while on leave to the International Energy Agency.
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May 2008
EETD Researchers Cite Wind Power's Value
For the third consecutive year the U.S. was home to the fastest-growing wind power market in the world, according to a U.S. Department of Energy report whose primary authors were Ryan Wiser and Mark Bolinger, of Berkeley Lab's Environmental Energy Technologies Division.
DOE Press Release
Full article
Darfur Stoves Project — KQED QUEST Television Story
QUEST, a KQED multimedia series exploring Northern California science, environment and nature, highlights the work of Ashok Gadgil and his colleagues.
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April 2008
Revised Edition of Turning Numbers Into Knowledge Released
The revised and updated 2nd edition of Jon Koomey's book Turning Numbers into Knowledge: Mastering the Art of Problem Solving has been released by Analytics Press.
The 2d edition includes a new chapter on data sharing web sites, an epilogue summarizing Koomey's experience debunking an urban legend, an expanded further reading section, numerous updates and improvements throughout, and a new foreword from John P. Holdren, Past President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
Some of the book's chapters can be downloaded in PDF format, as described below.
- The front matter includes the table of contents, the foreword, and the preface (which contains an annotated chapter list).
- Chapter 4 describes the importance of peer review to the scientific process.
- Chapter 11 defines "critical thinking" and describes how that process can improve your analytical work.
- Chapter 28 describes the uses and limitations of models, both simple and complex.
You can send comments or questions to the author at jgkoomey@stanford.edu or http://www.koomey.com.
Berkeley Lab Examines State-level Renewables Portfolio Standards Policies
Renewable electricity is being supported by a growing number of states through the creation of renewables portfolio standards (RPS). A report released by the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) provides a comprehensive overview of the early experiences with these state-level RPS policies.
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March 2008
Saving Power at Peak Hours
Science at the Theater
Berkeley Repertory Theater
Berkeley, California
March 10, 2008
A talk by Mary Ann Piette, scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, on how automated demand response technology is reducing peak power demand in California.
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February 2008
Photo credit: Mark Jacobs
Maharashtra at the Crossroads: Berkeley Lab-Led Agreement Tackles India's Energy Shortage, Global Climate Change
The Indian state of Maharashtra is at a crossroads. Its people endure frequent electricity blackouts due to a booming energy demand that far outpaces energy production. One solution is to build more coal-fired power plants, which are among the chief greenhouse-gas-emitting culprits of climate change. Another solution takes a different approach: reduce electricity demand, and the need for more power plants, by implementing energy-efficiency measures.
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January 2008
Feeling the Heat: Berkeley Researchers Make Thermoelectric Breakthrough in Silicon Nanowires
Energy now lost as heat during the production of electricity could be harnessed through the use of silicon nanowires synthesized via a technique developed by researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the University of California (UC) at Berkeley. The far-ranging potential applications of this technology include DOE's hydrogen fuel cell-powered "Freedom CAR," and personal power-jackets that could use heat from the human body to recharge cell-phones and other electronic devices.
Berkeley Lab Scientists Find Evidence of Link Between Outdoor Ozone and Building-Related Health Symptoms
A team of researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has found evidence that the prevalence of building-related symptoms (BRS) increases with increasing outdoor concentrations of the pollutant ozone. They have also discovered that the type of air filter that some buildings use in their ventilation systems may also play a role in the prevalence of BRS.
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