ESD’s Patricia Fox and Jim Davis recently investigated uranium at Old Rifle, CO, generating a “surface complexation” model and conducting field experiments in which uranium(VI) was desorbed via bicarbonate injected into an aquifer.
ESD’s Sharon Borglin and others are studying how microarray technology—involving the growth of microorganisms in commercially available multiwell plates—enables screening for phenotypic characteristics of a test culture.
A team of LBNL scientists sheds light on individual cell processes by describing how they train infrared radiation from a synchrotron light source on single cells—to find out how they grow, differentiate, and respond to external stimuli.
Noting that bioremediation has historically been approached as a “black box,” Romy Chakraborty and her team prescribe research tools and describe projects that would constitute a systems biology approach for bioremediation.
ESD’s Harry Beller and other LBNL scientists investigate the generation of methyl ketones, a class of compounds that can be synthesized from plant-derived sugars by engineered microbes, for potential application to biofuel production.
ESD’s Ruth Tinnacher and others recently evaluated the relevance of various sorption characteristics for a particular radioactive isotope, as a step toward predicting the mobility of radioactive contaminants in soils and groundwater systems, and assessing the environmental risks associated with nuclear waste repositories and contaminated field sites.
The NGEE project will involve experiments at two different Alaskan sites to study the impact of rapid ecosystem changes caused by permafrost thaw, and how these changes influence greenhouse-gas release to the atmosphere.
Ernie Majer and his team are exploring ways to increase the productivity and effectiveness of energy source recovery and geologic sequestration sites, while simultaneously informing and ensuring the safety of the neighboring public.
Soil microbes carry out life-sustaining functions for our planet, including promoting plant growth. ESD’s Janet Jansson et al. are using a metagenomics approach to better understand soil microbes and their functions.
Researchers in the United States, Europe, and elsewhere are doing metagenomic analyses on a wide variety of soil samples from different climates, regions, and conditions.
