Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's photostream  

Imagine charging your phone as you walk, thanks to a paper-thin generator embedded in the sole of your shoe. This futuristic scenario is now a little closer to reality. Scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have developed a way to generate power using harmless viruses that convert mechanical energy into electricity.

The scientists tested their approach by creating a generator that produces enough current to operate a small liquid-crystal display. It works by tapping a finger on a postage stamp-sized electrode coated with specially engineered viruses. The viruses convert the force of the tap into an electric charge. newscenter.lbl.gov/news-releases/2012/05/13/electricity-f...

The Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society (CITRIS), Berkeley Lab and its National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC), and UC Berkeley’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Department of Electrical Engineering are collaborating to conduct an unprecedented experiment in the area of hydrodynamic monitoring to advance our understanding of water conditions in the Delta. Understanding how the water flows through the Delta on its way to pumping stations and San Francisco Bay is imperative to balance conflicting demands on this critical resource.
www.nersc.gov/news-publications/news/science-news/2012/fl...

The Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society (CITRIS), Berkeley Lab and its National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC), and UC Berkeley’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Department of Electrical Engineering are collaborating to conduct an unprecedented experiment in the area of hydrodynamic monitoring to advance our understanding of water conditions in the Delta. Understanding how the water flows through the Delta on its way to pumping stations and San Francisco Bay is imperative to balance conflicting demands on this critical resource.
www.nersc.gov/news-publications/news/science-news/2012/fl...

The Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society (CITRIS), Berkeley Lab and its National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC), and UC Berkeley’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Department of Electrical Engineering are collaborating to conduct an unprecedented experiment in the area of hydrodynamic monitoring to advance our understanding of water conditions in the Delta. Understanding how the water flows through the Delta on its way to pumping stations and San Francisco Bay is imperative to balance conflicting demands on this critical resource.
www.nersc.gov/news-publications/news/science-news/2012/fl...

Berkeley Lab scientists are exploring whether a common soil bacterium can be engineered to produce liquid transportation fuels much more efficiently than the ways in which advanced biofuels are made today. The process would be powered only by hydrogen and electricity. The goal is a biofuel—or electrofuel, as this new approach is called—that doesn’t require photosynthesis. newscenter.lbl.gov/feature-stories/2012/05/03/electrofuel/