The Office of Biological and Environmental Research plans to
maintain and strengthen its specialized facilities for biological and environmental
research, providing new facilities based on strategic scientific needs.
The
Atmospheric Radiation Measurement program
maintains observation sites in the Southern Great Plains, the Tropical
Western Pacific, and the North Slope of Alaska, gathering data on solar
(incoming) and infrared (outgoing) radiation to improve the modeling of
clouds and radiation in general circulation climate models.
The Free Air CO2 Enrichment (FACE) facility
provides a whole ecosystem platform to study the effects of elevated atmospheric
carbon dioxide concentrations on terrestrial systems
Molecular-level environmental sciences are pursued at the
Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory (EMSL) at
Pacific
Northwest National Laboratory. EMSL supports studies that range
from enzymatics of soil microbes to the properties of cometary ice.
The Production Genomics Facility (PGF), which began operation in 1999
is a key element of the
Joint Genome
Institute. PGF is becoming a high-throughput DNA-sequencing factory
that will continue to apply cutting-edge sequencing technology, automation,
and information management techniques to achieve national human genome
sequencing project goals early in the next decade. The
Mouse Genetics Research Facility, will
also be vital for serving the biological research community.
Biological research is conducted at dedicated beamlines and equipment stations
at synchrotron light sources and neutron sources. Structural biology research
facilities investigate protein structure at the angstrom scale. The synchrotron
beamlines provide structural information in a shorter time and with much
sharper detail than conventional sources of x-rays. These include:
Guidelines for submitting proposals are available from the individual centers.