News Coverage: 2006

Risks of exploiting low-quality sources of oil 12.11.2006 UC Berkeley
Alternative sources of oil, such as low-quality tar sands, oil shale and coal, are drawing the attention of nations around the world — they're abundant and can help nations achieve the security of oil-independence. Energy & Resources Professor Alex Farrell warns, however, that exploiting these sources to make synthetic fuels risks significant environmental damage and presents economic risks as well.

Campus joins state climate registry 11.3.2006 UC Berkeley
As a commitment to reduce campus greenhouse gas emissions, UC Berkeley has joined the California Climate Action Registry. As a member, the campus pledges to report its emissions and look for ways to reduce its carbon footprint.

Open to debate: the fuel-saving benefits of ethanol 11.1.2006 UC Berkeley
Is it a useful alternative while other technologies ramp up? Or do its costs already exceed its potential payoff?

Global warming cap can stimulate CA economy, report says 8.16.2006 UC Berkeley
A new UC Berkeley report delivered to state legislators on Aug. 16 finds that returning California greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020, as envisioned by pending global warming legislation, can boost the annual Gross State Product (GSP) by $60 billion and create 17,000 new jobs.

NSF funds $16 million synthetic biology center 8.3.2006 UC Berkeley
The National Science Foundation has given UC Berkeley $16 million to start a new center that will make biological organisms easier to engineer, transforming the biotechnology, high-tech, pharmaceutical and chemical industries by providing less expensive drugs and fuels, novel materials, biological sensors and replacement organs from stem cells.

UC Berkeley recognized with state's top energy efficiency award 7.13.2006 UC Berkeley
UC Berkeley was one of three recipients of the Flex Your Power Award, California's top energy efficiency award. Vice Chancellor Nathan Brostrom accepted the award from Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger on behalf of the campus.

Q&A on climate change Summer 2006 UC Berkeley College of Chemistry
UC Berkeley atmospheric chemists Kristie Boering and Ron Cohen discussed climate change and its implications in a Q&A.

China-U.S. Climate Change Forum 5.17.2006 UC Berkeley
Top climate scientists from China and the United States will gather May 23-24 with policymakers, Nobel laureates, think tank officials, business representatives, members of the media and others at the University of California, Berkeley, to explore how the world's two biggest producers of greenhouse gas emissions can address global warming and minimize its impacts on the planet.

Alternative energy plan wins contest 5.5.2006 UC Berkeley
An alternative energy company called Aurora BioFuels is the winner of a $25,000 first prize at the eighth annual UC Berkeley Business Plan Competition at the University of California, Berkeley's Haas School of Business.

Bush honors Arthur Rosenfeld with Fermi Award 4.27.2006 UC Berkeley
Physics professor emeritus Arthur Rosenfeld, who is to be honored at an 80th-birthday symposium April 28, has received an even higher honor. He was named by President Bush as the 2005 winner of the Enrico Fermi Award, the federal government's oldest award for scientific achievement.

Muscles burn lactic acid as well as carbos 4.19.2006 UC Berkeley
Most athletes see lactic acid as their enemy, and think that training helps them eliminate the metabolic waste product from their muscles so they will function longer and harder. But UC Berkeley physiologist George Brooks has found that training actually teaches your muscle cells how to use lactic acid as a fuel source to get more bang for the buck.

Nanofibers created in orderly fashion 4.12.2006 UC Berkeley
Researchers at UC Berkeley have found a way to create nanofibers in a direct, continuous and controllable manner using a technique dubbed "near-field electrospinning."

Milestone in quest for cheap antimalarial 4.12.2006 UC Berkeley
Only 16 months ago, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation put up $43 million to develop a low-cost antimalarial drug, artemisinin, using genetically engineered microbes created by UC Berkeley's Jay Keasling. Keasling's lab has now taken a giant step toward that goal, bringing closer the day when a curative dose will cost the poor in Asia and Africa a mere 25 cents.

Climate change is real; the question is how do we respond Spring 2006 UC Berkeley College of Chemistry
In the first of two issues focusing on the topic, the College of Chemistry's NewsJournal explores global warming, its implications, and how the college's researchers are helping to understand and fight the consequences of climate change.

Berkeley Lab Dedicates the Molecular Foundry 3.29.2006 LBNL
Since the introduction of industrial foundries in the 17th century, the shape and size of the objects that can be made at a foundry has been limited only by the ability to liquefy a material and cast it in a mold. At a foundry where objects can be fashioned atom-by-atom or molecule-by-molecule, the potential shapes and sizes are virtually limitless. This is the promise of the Molecular Foundry that was officially dedicated at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) on March 24, 2006.

Haas School to provide training to largest oil company in Norway 3.23.2006 UC Berkeley
UC Berkeley will provide multi-year, comprehensive leadership development and project management training to top executives and project managers of the Norwegian oil company, Statoil, Tom Campbell, dean of UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business announced today.

Student journalists report on "Early Signs" of global warming 3.17.2006 UC Berkeley
Reports from the field by 11 student journalists documenting the impacts of global warming from East Africa to the Arctic will be released weekly by salon.com and NPR's "Living on Earth" program beginning today.

Keck funds project to track life cycle of water 2.23.2006 UC Berkeley
In an effort to understand the complete life cycle of water and, some day, to predict droughts, floods and water supplies, a team of geologists, biologists and chemists at UC Berkeley is embarking on an ambitious project to track the fate of water through the atmosphere, the trees, the soil, the streams and oceans, and back again into the skies.

Ethanol can replace gasoline with significant energy savings, comparable impact on greenhouse gases 1.26.2006 UC Berkeley
Corn-based ethanol is now blended with gasoline in many states, but there is still ongoing debate about whether it's worth the energy and resources needed to grow corn. A new study hopes to resolve that debate. UC Berkeley researchers found that ethanol requires much less oil to produce than gasoline, with comparable environmental impacts.

New report says climate action promotes economic growth in the state 1.23.2006 UC Berkeley
A new report led by UC Berkeley researchers finds that just eight policy strategies can take California halfway to the greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets established by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2005 while increasing the Gross State Product by approximately $60 billion and creating more than 20,000 new jobs.

Solar's Big Future With Small Tech 1.2006 UC Berkeley College of Engineering
UC Berkeley graduate student Ilan Gur and his colleagues have a profound research goal. "In the long run, we'd like to power the world," he says. A PhD candidate in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Gur is leveraging advances in nanoscience to develop ultra-thin and cheap solar cells that someday could be batch produced in bulk, perhaps even roll-to-roll like newspapers are printed. Flexible and durable, the cells might eventually wrap the roofs of buildings or transform a cloth automobile cover into a battery charger.