New neutrino telescope for South Pole

The South Pole might seem like an odd place to build neutrino telescopes, but the Antarctic ice is very clear and stable, and features relatively low back-ground radiation. IceCube will be installed to the far left of the station shown here.

Construction has begun on IceCube, a neutrino telescope featuring detectors spread out over a cubic kilometer about a mile beneath the South Pole ice cap. DOE's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) is one of 28 institutes participating in the IceCube collaboration which is aimed at studying the high-energy variety of neutrinos. Originating from the Milky Way and beyond, high-energy neutrinos travel to Earth virtually unobstructed and serve as windows back through time. Their study should provide new insight into questions about the nature of dark matter, the origin of cosmic rays, and other cosmic issues.

[Lynn Yarris, 510/486-5375,
lcyarris@lbl.gov]

Tech stops truck threat in tracks

Pat Lewis demonstrates the latest version of Livermore's Truck Stopping Technology, which now has applications in protecting government facilities, power plants and other buildings housing critical infrastructures.

Government buildings, power plants and other sensitive facilities that could be attacked by a hijacked tanker or truck may soon see an added layer of protection, thanks to a new variation of DOE's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's Truck Stopping Technology. The Laboratory recently unveiled its latest version of the technology, a remote-controlled device that brings trucks to a screeching halt. The device was commissioned by and created for the California Highway Patrol to prevent tankers and other hijacked vehicles from becoming "bombs on wheels." By enabling remote control technology, the device can protect areas where sensitive materials or critical infrastructures are housed.

[Charles A. Osolin, 925-296-5643,
osolin1@llnl.gov]

New lab delves into plants for fuels

DOE's National Renewable Energy Laboratory recently dedicated the Biomass Surface Characterization Laboratory, a new facility designed to give scientists unprecedented insights into the chemical and biological reactions that can transform renewable plant and waste materials into useful sources of energy. The facility features an array of electron and optical microscopes to probe biomass-to-energy processes at the most basic atomic and molecular levels. The new laboratory will support development of new technologies for bio-refineries—which will produce transportation fuels and a range of other products, much as a conventional oil refinery does today.

[Sarah Holmes Barba, 303/275-3023,
sarah_barba@nrel.gov]

Laser spark plug outpowers current systems

Researchers at DOE's National Energy Technology Laboratory recently squeezed additional power out of a laser spark plug that holds promise for replacing existing spark plugs on natural-gas-fired reciprocating engines. Using a miniaturized laser system to produce the laser spark, the researchers were able to generate pulse energy levels seven times greater than systems with similar components, as reported in scientific literature. The researchers are currently improving integral laser focusing optics to produce laser sparks required for reciprocating engines. The laser spark plugs, which cause engines to run cleaner by using less fuel and more air, could improve engine performance while lowering emissions.

[Linda Morton, 304/285-4543,
Linda.morton@netl.doe.gov]

Los Alamos's Bowles leads
by example

Thomas Bowles

In July 2004, Thomas Bowles was named Los Alamos National Laboratory's Chief Science Officer (CSO). The CSO is a senior leadership position at Los Alamos that reflects a growing need to have a champion of science. For the role of champion, a veritable world-class researcher was chosen.

Bowles was named to the CSO position from research in the Laboratory's Physics Division as the principal investigator on the Laboratory's Ultra-Cold Neutron program.

According to Bowles, "It is essential to the Laboratory's future to relieve the stress that the applied and basic research programs face and to carefully plan our future science program. Unless we can do that, it will be difficult to guarantee the long-term viability of the stockpile and to maintain a truly world-class research effort."

Bowles received his Ph.D. from Princeton University and came to Los Alamos in 1979 from a postdoctoral position at Argonne National Laboratory. He founded the Laboratory's weak interaction physics effort that has made Los Alamos a world leader in non-accelerator nuclear and particle physics.

Bowles was elected as an American Physical Society Fellow in 1993, as a Los Alamos Fellow in 1994, and in 2000 received a Laboratory Distinguished Performance Award for his work on the Ultra-Cold Neutron program.

In 2003, the Institute for Nuclear Research of the Russian Academy of Sciences honored him with the M.A. Markov Prize for his work as a principal investigator of the Soviet-American Gallium Experiment, a major solar-neutrino investigation.

As CSO, Bowles will report to the Laboratory Director and focus on enhancing and planning the future of science at the Laboratory. As the person chosen to champion science at Los Alamos , Bowles hopes to lead the same way as he would prefer to be led, by example.

Submitted by DOE's Los Alamos National Laboratory

DOE Pulse highlights work being done at the Department of Energy's national laboratories. DOE's laboratories house world-class facilities where more than 30,000 scientists and engineers perform cutting-edge research spanning DOE's science, energy, national security and environmental quality missions. DOE Pulse is distributed every two weeks. For more information, please contact Jeff Sherwood (jeff.sherwood
@hq.doe.gov, 202-586-5806)