Latest News

• share
• favorite_border

The genetic material of Porphyra umbilicalis reveals the mechanisms by which it thrives in the stressful intertidal zone at the edge of the ocean.

• share
• favorite_border

Simultaneous measurements of x-rays and gamma rays emitted in radioactive nuclear decays show that the vacancy left by an electron’s departure, not the atomic structure, influences whether gamma rays are released.

• share
• favorite_border

Seven-year study explains how packets of light are exchanged when protons meet electrons.

• share
• favorite_border

The newly upgraded CEBAF Accelerator opens door to strong force studies.

• share
• favorite_border

Genome-wide rice studies yield first major, large-scale collection of mutations for grass model crops, vital to boosting biofuel production.

• share
• favorite_border

Scientists create widely controllable ultrathin optical components that allow virtual objects to be projected in real environments.

• share
• favorite_border

In just two years, a process that was developed by Molecular Foundry staff and users has nearly doubled the number of materials with the potential for using sunlight to produce fuel.

• share
• favorite_border

Confined within tiny carbon nanotubes, extremely cold water molecules line up in a highly ordered chain.

• share
• favorite_border

Scientists design outstanding catalysts by controlling the composition and shape of these tiny plate-like structures on the nanoscale.

• share
• favorite_border

Scientists set record resolution for patterning materials at sizes as small as a single nanometer using microscope-based lithography.

• share
• favorite_border

Big impacts on crystal formation result from small changes and reveal design principles for new materials for solar cells, more.

• share
• favorite_border

For the first time, self-organized, soft machines powered by molecular motors propelled fluid for hours across meters.

• share
• favorite_border

Specific modifications to fungi DNA may hold the secret to turning common plant degradation agents into biofuel producers.

• share
• favorite_border

Neutrons provide the solution to nanoscale examination of living cell membrane and confirm the existence of lipid rafts.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers convert 80 percent of biomass into high-value products with strategy that's ready for commercialization.

• share
• favorite_border

Switchgrass cultivated during a year of severe drought inhibited microbial fermentation and resulting biofuel production.

• share
• favorite_border

Montmorillonite clays prevent uranium from precipitating from liquids, letting it travel with groundwater.

• share
• favorite_border

Seven-year-study shows plant growth does not sustainably balance carbon losses from solar warming and permafrost thaw.

• share
• favorite_border

Van der Waals force, which that enables tiny crystals to grow, could be used to design new materials.

• share
• favorite_border

Scarce compound, vitamin B12, is key for cellular metabolism and may help shape microbial communities that affect environmental cycles and bioenergy production.

• share
• favorite_border

Microbes leave a large fraction of carbon in anoxic sediments untouched, a key finding for understanding how watersheds influence Earth’s ecosystem.

• share
• favorite_border

New strategy greatly increases the production and secretion of biofuel building block lipids in bacteria able to grow at industrial scales.

• share
• favorite_border

Graphene’s remarkable electronic properties have surprised scientists for years. But electrons move through it too easily to use it in everyday electronics. Scientists are researching a variety of ways to direct its electron traffic: creating nanoribbons of it, stretching it, using it with boron nitride, and even making “artificial atoms” in it.

• share
• favorite_border

Scientists capture excess light energy to produce fuel, essentially storing sunlight’s energy for a rainy day.

• share
• favorite_border

The quest for solar cell materials that are inexpensive, stable, and efficient leads to a breakthrough in thin film organic-inorganic perovskites.

• share
• favorite_border

New supercomputing capabilities help understand how to cope with large-scale instabilities in tokamaks.

• share
• favorite_border

For the first time, scientists modeled the spontaneous bifurcation of turbulence to high-confinement mode, solving a 35-year-old mystery.

• share
• favorite_border

Setting up a supercomputer is far more complicated than just bringing it home from the electronics store. Staff members of the Department of Energy’s supercomputing user facilities spend years on the process, from laying out requirements through troubleshooting. In the end, they run some of the most powerful computers in the world to help solve some of science’s biggest problems.

• share
• favorite_border

Plutonium has more verified and accessible oxidation states than any other actinide element, an important insight for energy and security applications.

• share
• favorite_border

Easily manufactured, rigid membranes with ultra-small pores provides to be ultra-selective in separating chemicals.

• share
• favorite_border

A new uranium-based metal-organic framework, NU-1301, could aid energy producers and industry.

• share
• favorite_border

Calculations of a subatomic particle called the sigma provide insight into the communication between subatomic particles deep inside the heart of matter.

• share
• favorite_border

This is a continuing profile series on the directors of the Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science User Facilities. These scientists lead a variety of research institutions that provide researchers with the most advanced tools of modern science including accelerators, colliders, supercomputers, light sources and neutron sources, as well as facilities for studying the nano world, the environment, and the atmosphere.

• share
• favorite_border

A new polymer, created with a structure inspired by crystalline silicon, may make it easier to build better computers and solar cells.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers succeed in producing larger quantities of a long-lived radioisotope, titanium-44, that generates a needed isotope, scandium-44g, on demand.

• share
• favorite_border

Developing a highly active and acid-stable catalyst for water splitting could significantly impact solar energy technologies.

• share
• favorite_border

Antibody’s molecular structure reveals how it recognizes the Zika virus

• share
• favorite_border

Scientists invented an approach to creating ordered patterns of nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamonds, a promising approach to storing and computing quantum data.

• share
• favorite_border

Redox metabolism was engineered in Yarrowia lipolytica to increase the availability of reducing molecules needed for lipid production.

• share
• favorite_border

Deeper soil layers are more sensitive to warming than previously thought.

• share
• favorite_border

Microbial enzymes create precursors of nylon while avoiding harsh chemicals and energy-demanding heat.

• share
• favorite_border

Scientists may be able to use self-assembly to design new materials with custom characteristics. Understanding self-assembly is particularly important for working with nanoparticles. Scientists supported by the Department of Energy are investigating two major methods of self-assembly. They are looking into both particles that assemble on their own as well as “nano-Velcro” that can pull together particles that wouldn’t otherwise connect on their own.

• share
• favorite_border

Using a genetically modified line of switchgrass, scientists reduced plant cell wall recalcitrance while increasing sugar release over three generations.

• share
• favorite_border

Scientists offer new insights into how the source of electrons in batteries fails.

• share
• favorite_border

State-of-the-art mass spectrometer delivers unprecedented capability to scientists.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers develop the fastest synthetic catalyst for producing hydrogen gas, potentially leading to a new environmentally friendly, affordable fuel.

• share
• favorite_border

Like water, neutrons seek their own level, and watching how they flow may teach us about how the chemical elements were made.

• share
• favorite_border

FIONA (For the Identification Of Nuclide A) is a newly installed device designed to measure the mass numbers of individual atoms of heavy and superheavy elements. FIONA will let researchers learn about the shape and structure of heavy nuclei, guide the search for new elements, and offer better measurements for nuclear fission and related processes.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers demonstrate a new technique that could lead to significantly higher power proton beams to answer tough scientific questions.

• share
• favorite_border

Despite popular conceptions as an offshoot of the environmental movement, much of the field of ecology evolved to meet the needs of the federal government during the Atomic Age. The Department of Energy’s national laboratories played a key role, from developing fundamental theories to computer models. The contributions from the institutions that became Savannah River Ecology Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory still influence the field today.