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Using atomic force microscopy, chemist Felix Fischer and physicist Michael Crommie have for the first time captured images of molecules before and after they react, which will allow chemists to better tune reactions to get the products they want.
Tag: physics
Five new Bakar Fellows pursue path to marketplace
June 11, 2013:
Five UC Berkeley scientists eager to take their lab-bench discoveries into the marketplace have been awarded Bakar Fellowships to help them achieve their goals. They are chemist Felix Fischer, biologist Daniela Kaufer, mechanical engineer Lydia Sohn, physicist Feng Wang and plant and microbial biologist Mary Wildermuth.
Nobel laureate to discuss temperature and fate of universe
June 5, 2013:
Nobel laureate Eric A. Cornell will give a free public lecture at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, June 11, titled “Lazy vs. sloppy: The epic story of energy, entropy, temperature, the ultimate fate of the universe and the role of divine intervention.” Cornell’s talk is part of the 21st International Conference on Laser Spectroscopy hosted by UC Berkeley.
Campus to share expertise with Middle Eastern research center
May 22, 2013:
UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Birgeneau signed a memorandum of understanding in April, committing the campus to sharing scientific and technical expertise with a new X-ray research center under construction in Jordan. The center, called SESAME, unites scientists from throughout the Middle East.
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.
Is antimatter anti-gravity?
April 30, 2013:
Most physicists suspect that antimatter and normal matter weigh the same, that is, they are affected the same way by gravity. No direct measurements exist, however, that prove they do. UC Berkeley scientists, part of the ALPHA collaboration at CERN, are working on just such an experiment and have some very rough results.
Media Advisory: May 3 public talk by Fabiola Gianotti, co-discoverer of Higgs boson
April 25, 2013:
Physicist Fabiola Gianotti, co-discoverer of the Higgs boson at the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva, Switzerland, will deliver a free public lecture, “The Higgs Boson and Our Life.” The talk is part of a 3-day celebration of UC Berkeley physicist Bruno Zumino, whose theory of supersymmetry has emerged as a possible explanation for the variety of fundamental particles seen in nature.
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.
Long predicted atomic collapse state observed in graphene
March 7, 2013:
Berkeley physicist Michael Crommie has demonstrated in graphene a strange behavior predicted more than 60 years ago and which holds important implications for the future of graphene-based electronic devices. He and colleagues have imaged the “atomic collapse” states theorized to occur around super-large atomic nuclei.
Physics Nobelist and biotech pioneer Donald Glaser dies at 86
March 1, 2013:
Donald Glaser, a Nobel-prize winning physicist who reinvented himself as a biotech pioneer and later dove into the field of neurobiology, died in his sleep Thursday morning, Feb. 28, at his home in Berkeley. Glaser, a professor emeritus of physics and of molecular and cell biology, was 86.
A rock is a clock: physicist uses matter to tell time
January 10, 2013:
What is the simplest, most fundamental clock? UC Berkeley physicist Holger Müller and his colleagues have shown that a single atom is sufficient to measure time. Conversely, the frequency of matter can be used to define its mass.
Farthest supernova yet for measuring cosmic history
January 9, 2013:
The Supernova Cosmology Project, based at Berkeley Lab and headed by UC Berkeley physicist and Nobel Laureate Saul Perlmutter, has discovered the most distant supernova yet that can be used in cosmological studies. Announced at the American Astronomical Society meeting, it will help answer questions about dark energy and the fate of the universe.
Physicist Art Rosenfeld to receive National Medal of Technology & Innovation
December 26, 2012:
On Dec. 21, President Barack Obama named UC Berkeley and LBNL physicist Arthur Rosenfeld one of this year’s 11 recipients of the National Medal of Technology and Innovation. The annual award honors the nation’s top inventors. Rosenfeld is often called the “godfather of energy efficiency” because of his pioneering work on reducing the nation’s energy usage.
Moore Foundation grant to boost search for dark energy
December 5, 2012:
A $2.1 million grant from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation to the Berkeley Center for Cosmological Physics will fund revolutionary technologies that the proposed BigBOSS project will use to study dark energy with unprecedented precision. BigBOSS, based at Berkeley Lab, will probe the expansion history of the universe, says BCCP director Uros Seljak. professor of physics.
Robert Lin, UC Berkeley pioneer in experimental space physics, dies at 70
November 21, 2012:
Physicist Robert Peichung Lin, a former director of the Space Sciences Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley, who designed and built dozens of instruments to study solar flares, the magnetic fields on the surface of the moon and Mars and the plasma environment of Earth, died suddenly of a stroke on Saturday, Nov. 17.
Nobelist in physics got his start at Berkeley
October 9, 2012:
An American physicist who shared today’s Nobel Prize in Physics earned his bachelor of arts degree from UC Berkeley in 1965.
Grants help scientists explore boundary between science & science fiction
October 5, 2012:
Astronomer Geoff Marcy and cosmologist and string theorist Raphael Bousso are among 20 scientists awarded research grants to explore innovative and edgy areas of science. In the case of Marcy and Bousso, these areas are on the border between science and science fiction.
Nobel Laureate Adam Riess to discuss mystery of dark energy
October 2, 2012:
Nobel Laureate and alumnus Adam G. Riess will give a free public talk at UC Berkeley about groundbreaking research on the expansion of the universe and its implications for dark energy.
Bernard Sadoulet shares Panofsky Prize for dark matter search
September 27, 2012:
The 2013 Panofsky Prize in Experimental Particle Physics was awarded jointly to UC Berkeley physicist Bernard Sadoulet and Stanford’s Blas Cabrera for their development of new techniques for searching for weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPS), the most popular candidate for the unseen dark matter that permeates the universe.
Biophysicist Carlos Bustamante awarded 2012 Sackler Prize
September 13, 2012:
Carlos Bustamante will share the Raymond and Beverly International Sackler Prize in Biophysics for his “seminal contributions to single molecule biophysics.”. Bustamante is a professor of molecular and cell biology, physics and chemistry, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator and member of the California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences.
CINEMA among tiny CubeSats to be launched Aug. 2
July 31, 2012:
CINEMA, a tiny nanosatellite designed and built by students at UC Berkeley, is scheduled for launch on Aug. 2. Once in Earth orbit, it will monitor the movement of charged particles in the atmosphere that can disrupt power grids on the ground.
Theoretical astrophysicist receives $500,000+, no strings attached
July 24, 2012:
The Simons Foundation of New York initiated a new program of Simons Investigators this year, awarding 21 mathematicians, theoretical physicists and theoretical computer scientists $100,000 per year for 5-10 years, no strings attached. Theoretical astrophysicist Eliot Quataert was one of them.
Higgs fever: Overflow crowd hears about new particle
July 17, 2012:
A July 13 lecture and panel discussion drew overflow crowds to hear about the newly discovered Higgs boson. Physicists Beate Heinemann and Lawrence Hall explained the theory and experiment behind this “third” kind of stuff, while three others explored the implications of the discovery.
Discovery opens door to attacking biofilms that cause chronic infections
July 12, 2012:
Using super-resolution microscopy and continuous fluorescent imaging, UC Berkeley physicists have for the first time revealed the structure of bacterial biofilms, which are responsible for the tenacious nature of bacterial diseases such as cholera and chronic sinusitus. The picture provides new targets for the development of drugs that can tear down these structures.
The Higgs Boson Explained
July 11, 2012:
The Department of Physics has organized a free public lecture and panel discussion at noon on Friday, July 13, titled “The Higgs Boson Explained: What is the Higgs and Why is Everyone So Excited About it?” Five UC Berkeley physicists involved in the search for what some have called the “God Particle” will discuss the significance of the new findings.
Pioneering space physicist Kinsey Anderson has died at 85
June 29, 2012:
Kinsey A. Anderson, a professor emeritus of physics and an international leader in the field now called space physics, died June 11, 2012, at the age of 85.
Theorem unifies superfluids and other weird materials
June 8, 2012:
UC Berkeley physicists Hitoshi Murayama and Haruki Watanabe have proved that counting the number of Nambu-Goldstone bosons in a material reveals the material’s behavior at low temperatures, unifying the description of weird materials such as superfluids, magnets and Bose-Einstein condensates, and allowing the design of new materials with spooky properties.
X-ray telescope to focus on hottest regions of black holes, supernovas
June 8, 2012:
NASA is scheduled to launch an orbiting X-ray satellite on Wednesday, June 13, that will open a new window on the universe, allowing scientists to probe the roiling edges of black holes, exploding stars and the smallest, most frequent flares on the sun. UC Berkeley scientists and engineers helped build the instruments, will operate the satellite, and will analyze the data from supernova explosions.
‘Tony Hawk: Rad Science’ takes flight at Lawrence Hall of Science
May 31, 2012:
The skateboarding star and video-game icon’s gravity-defying performance on Saturday is sold out, but an exhibit of the physical forces that come into play in skateboarding continues through Sept. 3.
Campbell Hall bites the dust, clearing space for LEED-certified replacement
May 10, 2012:
Demolition crews began tearing down the 53-year-old Campbell Hall Thursday to make way for a new, 82,000-square-foot LEED-certified facility for astronomy and physics.
