Slashdot Mirror

Judebert writes: "Berkeley Lab engineers have developed a laser system to measure the elasticity of paper as it whizzes by at 65 mph on a conveyor belt. The benefit is environmental and business savings: paper makers don't have to downgrade a whole roll of paper or use extra pulp (with all the nasty side-effects) to achieve desired paper qualities."

Lars Mooseantlers writes: "The New York Times reports, "Scientists at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California yesterday retracted a 1999 claim that they had created a new, superheavy element." Hmmm... first the Higgs Boson doesn't exist, now Element 118 turns out to be a myth too. Or is it all just part of some wider, cosmic conspiracy? ;)" Mmmmm, ununoctium. Well, I guess this story's out of date, and so is this paper.

taatacgactc writes: "DARPA (DoD) is now supporting the development of a SPICE equivalent for biological circuits (aka BioSPICE). Best of all, it's to be "open source". Given the hyperexponential improvement in biological technology and the bioengineering efforts getting off the ground, fun stuff should be happening. Of course, there is the "dark side"." More information here. The submitter may be overstating the bit about "open source": the proposal says "All software developed as a part of the program will be open, in the sense that program performers and other DARPA authorized users will have the right to view, use, modify, and distribute code within the program authorized community. All derived works including revision, enhancement, modification, translation, abridgement and expansion of code will also remain open in this sense. ... The DARPA Director reserves the right to approve and exercise licensing arrangements depending on the context and the relevance to national security."

Nevyan writes: "A group of researchers from the University of California, Berkeley are developing a device to carve patterns for microchips. They are using a method that creates a much smaller path with less distortion than traditional methods. They are trying to aim for a width of 50 nanometers for placing the maximum nuber of transistors. http://enews.lbl.gov/Science-Articles/Archive/mask less-chips.html"

Nevyan wrote to us about the proposed plan to launch a satellite for the purposes of studying dark energy, by examining the acceleration of the Universe with the satellite. The satellite will be called SNAP - the Super Nova Acceleration Probe.

Atomasoft Corporation writes: "The article here says: 'The first transistors to be fashioned from a single "buckyball" -- a molecule of carbon-60 -- have been reported by scientists with the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the University of California at Berkeley.' It won't take so much time and we will able to buy our Nanocomputers! What would happen if we can store all the information of internet in a sugar cube, in 2010?" As interesting as the buckyball/gold combination is the machine used to make them: "The gold electrodes used in this study were fabricated on Berkeley Lab's 'Nanowriter,' an ultra-high resolution lithography machine that can generate an electron beam at energies up to 100,000 volts with a diameter of only five nanometers."

Dr.Copernicus writes: "A new satellite named HETE-2 was just launched (missile-style from a plane) to study Gamma-Ray Bursts. These mysterious objects are the most powerful explosions known in the universe, yet we don't know exactly what they are. They might result from neutron stars colliding, or stars collapsing, or they might involve black holes. HETE-2 will allow astronomers to study gamma-ray bursts farther away (and farther back in time) than ever before. The satellite partially replaces CGRO which recently had to be crashed into the ocean so that it wouldn't kill people."

Hermann wrote to us with the news that the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has isolated element 118, and it's immediate decay product, element 116. Check out the technical details as well as the 88-Inch Cyclotron used.

Hermann wrote to us with the news that the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has isolated element 118, and it's immediate decay product, element 116. Check out the technical details as well as the 88-Inch Cyclotron used.

Hermann wrote to us with the news that the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has isolated element 118, and it's immediate decay product, element 116. Check out the technical details as well as the 88-Inch Cyclotron used.