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UC Berkeley and University of Hawaii scientists have shown that complex molecules can form on icy rocks in space, suggesting that comets may have seeded early Earth with the building blocks of life. The team zapped icy snowballs of carbon dioxide and hydrocarbons, producing complex molecules, such as dipeptides, that are capable of catalyzing the formation of more complex structures.
Tag: chemistry
Heady mathematics: Describing popping bubbles in a foam
May 9, 2013:
Applied mathematicians James Sethian and Robert Saye from UC Berkeley and Berkeley Lab have discovered a way to mathematically describe the evolution of bubbles in a foam, and have used the equations to create a computer-generated video showing how the process proceeds.
Melvin Calvin’s moon dust rediscovered at Berkeley Lab
May 8, 2013:
Some 44 years ago, the late chemist Melvin Calvin and colleagues at the Space Sciences Laboratory analyzed moon dust brought back by Apollo 11 and 12, published a paper, and then stashed the dust on a shelf. Archivists at Berkeley Lab rediscovered the precious material, vacuum sealed in a jar, and have returned it to NASA.
Ten Berkeley faculty named to American Academy of Arts and Sciences
April 24, 2013:
Ten Berkeley professors have been named members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a prestigious 233-year-old honorary society of national leaders from academia, business, public affairs and the humanities.
John Hartwig honored for work in synthetic chemistry
March 6, 2013:
The American Chemical Society awarded UC Berkeley chemist John Hartwig its Herbert C. Brown Award For Creative Research In Synthetic Methods “for the creative discovery and insightful development of fundamentally new, broadly utilized” chemical reactions, such as syntheses using transition metals as catalysts.
New details on the molecular machinery of cancer
February 15, 2013:
Chemist Jay Groves and colleagues at Berkeley Lab have used cutting-edge tools to reveal the workings of the epidermal growth factor receptor, which is screwed up in numerous cancers. Their picture of how the receptor changes structure when activated could help scientists understand other cancer triggers.
Nano-High: Feb. 2 talk aimed at local high school students
January 31, 2013:
UC Berkeley sugar chemist Carolyn Bertozzi is the next speaker (Sat., Feb. 2, 10 a.m.) in the Nano-High series of talks sponsored by Berkeley Lab and held periodically this semester in Stanley Hall. Any high school student or teacher can sign up online and then drop in to hear about cutting-edge scientific issues of the day.
Chemist Jean Frechet to receive Japan Prize
January 30, 2013:
Emeritus professor Jean Fréchet, a Professor of the Graduate School in chemistry and chemical and biological engineering, has received a 2013 Japan Prize, one of the most prestigious international awards in science and technology.
Somorjai, Lott honored by National Academy of Sciences
January 9, 2013:
The National Academy of Sciences, the country’s most prestigious scientific organization, has honored UC Berkeley chemist Gabor Somorjai and mathematician John Lott for major contributions to science.
Berkeley 2012 – the year in pictures
December 19, 2012:
New faces, new vitality, reflection and celebration — 2012 brought all that, and more, to UC Berkeley. Here’s a glance back at the year, in pictures.
Four faculty members named fellows of AAAS
November 29, 2012:
Four UC Berkeley faculty members – plant biologist Sheng Luan, cell biologist Kunxin Luo, nuclear engineer Eric Norman and chemist Evan Williams – are among 702 new fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, bringing the campus total to 227.
Sweet diesel! Discovery resurrects process to convert sugar directly to diesel
November 7, 2012:
A long-abandoned fermentation process is being resurrected by UC Berkeley chemists and chemical engineers to produce compounds to feed a catalytic reaction that produces a fuel that looks and acts just like diesel. The fuel has a higher energy content than ethanol, and could help replace nonrenewable transportation fuels.
Harold Johnston, atmospheric chemist who warned of ozone depletion, has died
November 2, 2012:
Harold “Hal” Johnston, professor emeritus of chemistry who in the 1970s was thrust into the limelight after publishing research suggesting that aircraft emissions could deplete atmospheric ozone, died peacefully at his home in Kensington on Oct. 20. He was 92. He was a recpient of the National Medal of Science and several awards for service to society.
Carolyn Bertozzi honored by German foundation for work on sugar chemistry
October 25, 2012:
Carolyn Bertozzi, the T. Z. and Irmgard Chu Distinguished Professor of Chemistry, has been awarded the 2012 Heinrich Wieland Prize for her work on the chemistry of sugars. The prize, accompanied by 50,000 euros, is awarded yearly by the Boehringer Ingelheim Foundation in Germany for biologically and clinically important research.
NSF awards $3.4 million to train students in “green chemistry”
August 29, 2012:
The Berkeley Center for Green Chemistry has been awarded a $3.4 million training grant by the National Science Foundation. The grant will train five to six Ph.D. students annually for five years in the principles of green chemistry and the design of clean energy technologies.
Rewriting quantum chips with a beam of light
June 27, 2012:
The promise of ultrafast quantum computing has moved a step closer to reality with a technique to create rewritable computer chips using a beam of light. College of Chemistry professor Jeffrey Reimer and researchers from The City College of New York used light to control the spin of an atom’s nucleus in order to encode information.
UC Berkeley installing first CO2 sensor network in Oakland
June 27, 2012:
Using inexpensive detectors that can fit inside a shoebox, UC Berkeley chemists are installing carbon dioxide and other air pollution sensors in 40 sites around Oakland to explore how detailed, neighborhood-by-neighborhood information can help communities monitor greenhouse gas and other harmful emissions.
Computer model pinpoints prime materials for efficient carbon capture
May 27, 2012:
To slow the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, and thus slow climate change, electric power plants will eventually have to start capturing their carbon dioxide emissions and burying them underground. Chemist Berend Smit and colleagues are working with the power industry to find the best materials to capture and sequester carbon dioxide.
Four UC Berkeley scientists elected to National Academy of Sciences
May 1, 2012:
Four University of California, Berkeley, faculty members – physicists John Clarke and Bernard Sadoulet, chemist John Hartwig and ecologist Mary Power – have been elected members or foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences, bringing UC Berkeley’s total NAS membership to 141.
Fertilizer use responsible for increase in nitrous oxide in atmosphere
April 2, 2012:
UC Berkeley chemists have analyzed the isotopic composition of nitrous oxide – a greenhouse gas – in air samples from as far back as 1940 and found the fingerprint of nitrogen-based fertilizer, proving definitively that the 20 percent increase in atmospheric nitrogen since the Industrial Revolution is largely due to the Green Revolution.
New material cuts energy costs of separating gas for plastics and fuels
March 29, 2012:
In producing hydrocarbons for the chemical industry, refiners must first crack oil at high temperatures and then cool the mixture to liquefy the gases for separation. This energy-intensive chilling step could be eliminated thanks to a new material that can do the gas separation at high temperature.
$3.5 million gift from Dow to develop sustainable chemistry education
February 24, 2012:
With the support of a $3.5 million gift from The Dow Chemical Company Foundation, the College of Chemistry will rebuild its aging undergraduate teaching labs and design a new curriculum based on the principles of sustainability and green chemistry.
Q&A: Carolyn Bertozzi on her love affair with sugar biology
October 18, 2011:
Newly elected to the Institute of Medicine, chemistry professor Carolyn Bertozzi answers questions about her research and teaching and the creative atmosphere at UC Berkeley.
Two UC Berkeley faculty named to Institute of Medicine
October 17, 2011:
Barbara Abrams, professor of epidemiology and of maternal and child health, and Carolyn Bertozzi, professor of chemistry and of molecular and cell biology, have been named to the prestigious Institute of Medicine (IOM), one of the highest national honors in the fields of health and medicine.
Q&A: Barbara Abrams on her prenatal-nutrition research
October 17, 2011:
Professor Barbara Abrams, newly elected to the Institute of Medicine, engages in a Q&A about her research on prenatal nutrition.
Michelle Chang, Ming Hammond receive NIH innovator awards
September 20, 2011:
Ming Hammond and Michelle Chang, two young assistant professors of chemistry, have received 2011 NIH Director’s New Innovator Awards from the National Institutes of Health. These awards support creative but high-risk research that could have a large impact on society.
Hot springs microbe yields record-breaking, heat-tolerant enzyme
July 5, 2011:
Scientists looking for unusual cellulose-digesting enzymes, called cellulases, have found one that works at a higher temperature, 109 degrees Celsius, than any others found to date. The cellulase comes from an Archaea found in a Nevada hot spring.
Late Nobelist Melvin Calvin gets stamp of approval
June 22, 2011:
This month, the U.S. Postal Service issued Forever® stamps celebrating the achievements of Nobel Laureate and late UC Berkeley chemist Melvin Calvin and three other scientists. Calvin was the first scientist to trace in detail the process of photosynthesis, for which he won the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1961.
Three faculty members elected to American Academy of Arts and Sciences
April 19, 2011:
Sociologist Claude Fischer, cognitive scientist Michael Jordon and theoretical chemist Martin Head-Gordon have been elected members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
