Lawrence Berkeley National Lab

Berkeley Lab's Science at the Theater traveled across the Bay to San Francisco's Herbst Theater for a star turn by two of the Lab's Nobel laureates. George Smoot received the 2006 Nobel Prize in Physics for the "discovery of the blackbody form and anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background radiation." Saul Perlmutter received the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics for "for the discovery of the accelerating expansion of the Universe through observations of distant supernovae." The host for the conversation was KQED's Michael Krasny. Series: "Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory " [Science] [Show ID: 24902]

Shashi Buluswar, the executive director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab’s Institute for Globally Transformative Technologies (LIGTT), chats with Jeff Miller, head of Public Affairs. LIGTT’s mandate is to foster the discovery, development, and deployment of a generation of low-carbon, affordable technologies that will advance sustainable methods to fight global poverty. Series: "Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory " [Science] [Show ID: 24391]

Kathy Yelick, Associate Berkeley Lab Director for Computing Sciences, an organization that advances computational science throughout lab’s research programs, chats with Jeff Miller, head of Public Affairs. Series: "Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory " [Science] [Show ID: 24390]

Omar Yaghi, director of the Molecular Foundry, the nanoscience facility at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, talks with Jeff Miller, head of Public Affairs. Series: "Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory " [Science] [Show ID: 24389]

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory biological engineer Henrik Scheller chats with Sabin Russell, former San Francisco Chronicle reporter turned Berkeley Lab science writer. Scheller hopes to generate modified plants that are potentially more suitable for biofuel production. Series: "Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory " [Science] [Show ID: 22555]

Merrian Fuller from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Environmental Energy Technologies Division joins former San Francisco Chronicle reporter turned Berkeley Lab science writer Sabin Russell to discuss financing and deployment of energy efficiency and renewable energy.

Series: "Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory " [Science] [Show ID: 22554]

Learn why Spencer Klein goes to the ends of the Earth to search for ghostly neutrinos in Antarctica. From Chernobyl to Central Asia, Tamas Torok travels the globe to study microbial diversity in extreme environments. Andrew Minor uses the world's most advanced electron microscopes to explore materials at ultrahigh stresses and in harsh environments. And microbes that talk to computers? Caroline Ajo-Franklin is pioneering cellular-electrical connections that could help transform sunlight into fuel. Series: "Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory " [Science] [Show ID: 23652]

With the apparent end of the Kyoto Protocol era at hand, the role of market forces to drive emission mitigation is entering an uncertain era. Marc Stuart, Founding Partner at Allotrope Partners, discusses what Kyoto accomplished and the lessons to be learned as we move to Carbon 2.0. Series: "Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory " [Public Affairs] [Science] [Show ID: 23614]

In a public talk in front of the Great Pyramid of Kukulcan at Chichen Itza, Berkeley Lab's Nobel Prize-winning astrophysicist George Smoot discusses the remarkable precision that ancient Mayan astronomers achieved solely with the naked eye and comments on the significance of the approaching end of the current World Age of the 5,000-year-long Mayan Long-Count Calendar, due to conclude on the 2012 winter solstice. No, the end of the world is not at hand, Smoot says, but it's true that we're undergoing a fantastic transition in cosmology. The Mayan view of the universe was based on the sun and moon, a handful of planets, and a couple of thousand stars. Ours is an evolving cosmos reaching back over 13 billion years, based on a cornucopia of data accumulating almost daily and including hundreds of billions of galaxies. Series: "Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory " [Science] [Show ID: 23616]

Learn how the Advanced Light Source is improving medicine, paving the way for clean energy, changing the future of computers, and much more. Featured speakers are Berkeley Lab's Roger Falcone, Rachel Segalman, Andrew Westphal, and Stanford University's Axel Brunger. Series: "Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory " [Science] [Show ID: 23303]