2023 New's Items

Real-Time Multistep Asymmetrical Disassembly of Nucleosomes and Chromatosomes Visualized by High-Speed Atomic Force Microscopy

Onoa B
Díaz-Celis C
Cañari-Chumpitaz C
Lee A
Bustamante C
2023

During replication, expression, and repair of the eukaryotic genome, cellular machinery must access the DNA wrapped around histone proteins forming nucleosomes. These octameric protein·DNA complexes are modular, dynamic, and flexible and unwrap or disassemble either spontaneously or by the action of molecular motors. Thus, the mechanism of formation and regulation of subnucleosomal intermediates has gained attention genome-wide because it controls DNA accessibility. Here, we imaged nucleosomes and their more compacted structure with the linker histone H1 (chromatosomes) using high-...

Kavli ENSI / Winton Joint Workshop

July 10, 2023

The joint workshop between the Winton Program for the Physics of Sustainability at the University of Cambridge and Kavli ENSI, took place from July 10-14, 2023. The purpose of this conference is to foster interaction between the themes of Winton Program and Kavli ENSI by bringing a team of researchers from Berkeley to the University of Cambridge for a one-week immersive experience, consisting of...

Art Inspiring a Quantum-Ready Vision at the Advanced Quantum Testbed

July 7, 2023

The latest experimental advances in quantum information science (QIS) and technology have opened new opportunities for fundamental scientific discovery and novel technology development.

ChatGPT accelerates chemistry discovery for climate response, study shows

August 7, 2023

UC Berkeley experts taught ChatGPT how to quickly create datasets on difficult-to-aggregate research about certain materials that can be used to fight climate change, according to a new paper published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

Researchers Capture Elusive Missing Step in Photosynthesis

June 14, 2023

After decades of effort, scientists have revealed atomic-scale details of the chemical process that generates the air we breathe – the water splitting step of photosynthesis. The latest work adds to Berkeley Lab’s long legacy in advancing our understanding of photosynthesis and will help the development of fully renewable alternative energy sources.

ChatGPT Chemistry Assistant for Text Mining and the Prediction of MOF Synthesis

Zheng Z
Zhang O
Borgs C
Chayes JT
Yaghi OM
2023

We use prompt engineering to guide ChatGPT in the automation of text mining of metal–organic framework (MOF) synthesis conditions from diverse formats and styles of the scientific literature. This effectively mitigates ChatGPT’s tendency to hallucinate information, an issue that previously made the use of large language models (LLMs) in scientific fields challenging. Our approach involves the development of a workflow implementing three different processes for text mining, programmed by ChatGPT itself. All of them enable parsing, searching, filtering, classification, summarization,...

Irfan Siddiqi New UC Berkeley Physics Chair

June 19, 2023

A professor of physics at UC Berkeley since 2006, Irfan Siddiqi will be the Giancoli Chair of the Department beginning July 1. Siddiqi is a faculty scientist at Berkeley Lab's Applied Mathematics and Computational Research Division, directing the Advanced Quantum Testbed, a state-of-the-art research laboratory that advances quantum computing based on superconducting circuits.

Scientists Create a Longer-Lasting Exciton that May Open New Possibilities in Quantum Information Science

April 25, 2023

In a new study, scientists have observed long-lived excitons in a topological material, opening intriguing new research directions for optoelectronics and quantum computing.

Excitons are charge-neutral quasiparticles created when light is absorbed by a semiconductor. Consisting of an excited electron coupled to a lower-energy electron vacancy or hole, an exciton is typically short-lived, surviving only until the electron and hole recombine, which limits its usefulness in applications.

“If we want to make progress in quantum computing and...

Alessandra Lanzara was a 2023 Bakar Prize Recipient

March 21, 2023

Alessandra Lanzara and her group have invented an instrument that enables scientists to directly map and control in the momentum space the spin quantum number of electrons. This device will facilitate the creation of materials to realize quantum computing, the next revolution in information technology.

Alessandra Lanzara is the Charles Kittel Professor of Physics and a Senior Faculty Scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. She is also the Chair of the Far West section of the American Physical Society. She received her M.S. and Ph.D. from the Universita’ di Roma La...