Narrator: This is Science Today. Geochemists at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory are using the Lab's Advanced Light Source, one of the Department of Energy-sponsored synchrotron light sources, along with high-performance computer technology, to get glimpses underground way beyond what could be done before.

Steefel: It's turned out that the Department of Energy labs and probably Berkeley Lab in particular, are the leaders worldwide in this effort.

Narrator: Berkeley Lab geochemist Carl Steefel explains that they've combined a traditional engineering tool called reactive transport modeling with the Advanced Light Source, which provides high energy, x-ray radiation to a whole series of separate beam lines.

Steefel: Each of which does something different. For example, one of the beam lines that I've used shoots x-rays through a rock sample and gives you basically a 3-D image of the pore structure or the physical structure of that rock. It's called tomograph and it's something that's done when you get a CAT scan at the hospital.

Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.