Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Massive California power outage triggers chaos in science labs

Researchers without access to back-up power scramble to save experiments and invaluable specimens.
  1. Jeff Tollefson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed  Google Scholar

California’s largest utility company shut off power to more than a million people across the northern part of the state on 9 and 10 October. The outage sent scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, scrambling to save specimens and experiments.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-03086-2

Updates & Corrections

  • Correction 11 October 2019: This story originally stated that the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory closed its main facility on 10 October in anticipation of the power outage. Officials closed the site on 9 October.

Subjects

Latest on:

Nature Careers

Jobs

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing

Search

Advanced search

Quick links