Missing Baryons Found in Far-Out Reaches of Galactic Halos

Researchers have channeled the universe’s earliest light – a relic of the universe’s formation known as the cosmic microwave background – to solve a missing-matter mystery and learn new things about galaxy formation. Their work could also help us to better understand dark energy and test Einstein’s theory of general relativity by providing new details about the rate at which galaxies are moving toward us or away from us.

A COSMIC Approach to Nanoscale Science

COSMIC, a multipurpose X-ray instrument at Berkeley Lab’s Advanced Light Source, has made headway in the scientific community since its launch less than 2 years ago, with groundbreaking contributions in fields ranging from batteries to biominerals.

Advisory Committee Releases Strategic Plan for U.S. Fusion, Plasma Program

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Fusion Energy Sciences Advisory Committee (FESAC) has adopted and endorsed a new report that lays out a strategic plan for fusion energy and plasma science research over the next decade. The report has been…

Science Snapshots From Berkeley Lab

These news briefs cover topics including gut microbes, tsetse flies in 3D, an energy use framework for heating and cooling, and new gravitational lensing candidates.

Two Berkeley Lab Scientists Honored with the Lawrence Award

The Department of Energy has announced that Susannah Tringe and Dan Kasen, two scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), will receive the Ernest Orlando Lawrence Award, one of DOE’s highest honors. Additionally, former Berkeley Lab scientist M. Zahid Hasan was also named as one of the eight recipients.

Scientists Say Farewell to Daya Bay Site, Proceed with Final Data Analysis

The Daya Bay Reactor Neutrino Experiment collaboration – which made a precise measurement of an important neutrino property eight years ago, setting the stage for a new round of experiments and discoveries about these hard-to-study particles – has finished taking data. Though the experiment is formally shutting down, the collaboration will continue to analyze its complete dataset to improve upon the precision of findings based on earlier measurements.

8 Berkeley Lab Scientists Named 2020 AAAS Fellows

The American Association for the Advancement of Science, the world’s largest general scientific society, today announced that 489 of its members, among them eight scientists at Berkeley Lab, have been named Fellows. This lifetime honor, which follows a nomination and review process, recognizes scientists, engineers, and innovators for their distinguished achievements in research and other disciplines toward the advancement or applications of science.

Know When to Unfold ’Em: Study Applies Error-Reducing Methods from Particle Physics to Quantum Computing

Borrowing a page from high-energy physics and astronomy textbooks, a team of physicists and computer scientists at Berkeley Lab has successfully adapted and applied a common error-reduction technique to the field of quantum computing.

VIDEO: Dark Matter Day Q&A with LUX-ZEPLIN Spokesperson Kevin Lesko

Kevin Lesko, a spokesperson for the LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) dark matter experiment and senior physicist at Berkeley Lab, shares his insights about the mysteries of dark matter, what we know about it, and what we hope to learn about it from LZ, in this Q&A interview at Sanford Lab.

Berkeley Lab Scientists Contribute to New Exploration of Higgs Boson Interactions

A new analysis, featuring important contributions by Berkeley Lab scientists, strongly supports the hypothesis that the Higgs boson interacts with muons, which are heavier siblings of electrons and the lightest particles yet to reveal evidence for these interactions.

Lab Researcher and Physics Undergrad Shares Poster Project Honoring Black Physicists

Inspired by the nation’s grappling with issues of race and racial discrimination, UC Berkeley physics major and Berkeley Lab student assistant Ana Lyons turned to art as a way to contribute to the conversation.

3 Awards Will Support Accelerator R&D for Medical Treatment, Miniaturization, and Machine Learning

U.S. Department of Energy awards announced in July will advance Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) R&D to develop a more effective and compact particle-beam system for cancer treatment, improve particle-beam performance using artificial intelligence, and develop a high-power, rapid-fire laser system for both tabletop and large-scale applications.

New NSF Physics Frontier Center Will Focus on Neutron Star Modeling in ‘Gravitational Wave Era’

A new Physics Frontier Center at UC Berkeley, supported by the National Science Foundation, expands the reach and depth of existing capabilities on campus and at neighboring Berkeley Lab in modeling one of the most violent events in the universe: the merger of neutron stars and its explosive aftermath.

Natalie Roe Named Berkeley Lab’s Associate Director for Physical Sciences

Natalie Roe, who joined Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) as a postdoctoral fellow in 1989 and has served as Physics Division director since 2012, has been named the Lab’s Associate Laboratory Director (ALD) for the Physical Sciences Area. Her appointment was approved by the University of California. The announcement follows an international search.

Another Win for the Standard Model: New Study Defies Decades-Old ‘Discrepancy’ With High-Precision Measurement

A new study dives into a decades-old discrepancy from a Standard Model of particle physics pillar known as “lepton flavor universality,” and provides strong evidence to resolve it.

X-Rays Recount Origin of Oddball Meteorites

X-ray experiments at Berkeley Lab played a key role in resolving the origin of rare, odd meteorites that have puzzled scientists since their discovery a half-century ago. Known as type IIE iron meteorites, they appear to have originated from a parent body that had a composition featuring both fully melted and unmelted parts – other meteorite types display only one composition.

Scientists Successfully Demonstrate a New Experiment in the Search for Theorized ‘Neutrinoless’ Process

Nuclear physicists affiliated with Berkeley Lab played a leading role in analyzing data for a demonstration experiment in France that has achieved record precision for a specialized detector material.

In International Physics Collaborations, Working Remotely Is Nothing New

Marjorie Shapiro, an experimental particle physicist and faculty senior scientist at Berkeley Lab, has been accustomed to working remotely and observing extreme social distancing from some colleagues for years, given that the scientific experiment she supports is 5,800 miles away.

Now Complete, Telescope Instrument is Poised to Begin Its Search for Answers About Dark Energy

Even as the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument, or DESI, lies dormant within a telescope dome on a mountaintop in Arizona, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the DESI project has moved forward in reaching the final formal approval milestone prior to startup.

Laser, Biosciences Researchers Combine Efforts to Study Viruses in Droplets

Laser and biology experts at Berkeley Lab are working together to develop a platform and experiments to study the structure and components of viruses like the one causing COVID-19, and to learn how viruses interact with their surrounding environment. The experiments could provide new insight on how to reduce the infectiousness of viruses.

DESI Team Prepares for Telescope Instrument’s Restart after Unexpected Shutdown

Despite a temporary shutdown of the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument in Arizona – which was in its final stages of testing in preparation to begin mapping millions of galaxies in 3D when the pandemic struck – a variety of project tasks are still moving forward.

CUORE Underground Experiment in Italy Carries on Despite Pandemic

As the COVID-19 outbreak took hold in Italy, researchers working on a nuclear physics experiment called CUORE at an underground laboratory in central Italy scrambled to keep the ultrasensitive experiment running and launch new tools and rules for remote operations.

Staff at Berkeley Lab’s X-ray Facility Mobilize to Support COVID-19-Related Research

Berkeley Lab’s Advanced Light Source X-ray facility has been recalled to action to support research related to COVID-19, the coronavirus disease that has already infected about 2 million people around the world.

Looking Up From the Mountaintop: Q&A with a Telescope Instrument’s Lead Observer

In this Q&A Satya Gontcho A Gontcho, a lead observer for the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI), shares her experiences at the DESI site near Tucson, Arizona, including evening observing stints to run through detailed checklists and probe how the instrument’s components are working.

Register to Join a Special April 16 Media Tour of a Telescope Instrument that Will Create a 3D Map of Millions of Galaxies

Members of the media are invited to attend a mid-April dedication of the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI), which is scheduled to begin its five-year mission to construct a 3D map of the universe in the coming months.

Particle Physics Turns to Quantum Computing for Solutions to Tomorrow’s Big-Data Problems

Giant-scale physics experiments are increasingly reliant on big data and complex algorithms fed into powerful computers, and managing this multiplying mass of data presents its own unique challenges. To better prepare for this data deluge posed by next-generation upgrades and new experiments, physicists are turning to the fledgling field of quantum computing.

The CUORE Underground Experiment Narrows the Search for Rare Particle Process

The largest set of data yet from an underground experiment called CUORE sets more stringent limits on a theoretical ultra-rare particle process known as neutrinoless double-beta decay that could help to explain the abundance of matter over antimatter in the universe.

Milestone in Advanced Light Source Upgrade Project Will Bring in a New Ring

An upgrade of the Advanced Light Source, a synchrotron at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), has passed an important milestone that will help to maintain the ALS’ world-leading capabilities. On Dec. 23 the DOE granted approval for a key funding step that will allow the project to start construction on a new inner electron storage ring known as an accumulator ring.

How to Get a Particle Detector on a Plane

Berkeley Lab is one of five sites around the globe that is building detector panels for an upgrade project that will improve the performance of a particle detector’s inner tracking system – including its resolution to take snapshots of particle collisions, its durability, and data-collection speed.

The Chemistry of Art: Scientists Explore Aged Paint in Microscopic Detail to Inform Preservation Efforts

To learn more about the chemical processes in oil paints that can damage aging artwork, a team led by researchers at the National Gallery of Art and the National Institute of Standards and Technology conducted a range of studies that included 3D X-ray imaging of a paint sample at Berkeley Lab’s Advanced Light Source.