Powering Up With a Smart Window
Window material repeatedly switches from being see-through to blocking the heat and converting sunlight into electricity.
Remnant Superconductivity From Invisible Stripes
Scientists used an intense light to unveil hidden rivers that transport electricity with no loss.
Columbia Researchers Squeeze Light into Nanoscale Devices and Circuits
Columbia investigators have made a major breakthrough in nanophotonics research, with their invention of a novel "home-built" cryogenic near-field optical microscope that has enabled them to directly image, for the first time, the propagation and dynamics of graphene plasmons at variable temperatures down to negative 250 degrees Celsius. If researchers can harness this nanolight, they will be able to improve sensing, subwavelength waveguiding, and optical transmission of signals.
Self-Assembling 3D Battery Would Charge in Seconds
A cross-campus collaboration led by Ulrich Wiesner, professor of engineering at Cornell University, has resulted in a novel energy storage device architecture that has the potential for lightning-quick charges for electronic devices.
Understanding the Generation of Light-Induced Electrical Current in Atomically Thin Nanomaterials
Scientists added an imaging capability to Brookhaven Lab's Center for Functional Nanomaterials that could provide the optoelectronic information needed to improve the performance of devices for power generation, communications, data storage, and lighting.
Diamond 'Spin-Off' Tech Could Lead to Low-Cost Medical Imaging and Drug Discovery Tools
An international team led by scientists at Berkeley Lab and UC Berkeley discovered how to exploit defects in nanoscale and microscale diamonds and potentially enhance the sensitivity of magnetic resonance imaging and nuclear magnetic resonance systems while eliminating the need for their costly and bulky superconducting magnets.
PROSPECTing For Antineutrinos
The Precision Reactor Oscillation and Spectrum Experiment (PROSPECT) has completed installation of a novel antineutrino detector that will probe the possible existence of a new form of matter - sterile neutrinos.
How to Cope with Cases of Mistaken Identity: MINERvA's Tale of Pions and Neutrinos
Neutral pion production is a major character in a story of mistaken identity worthy of an Agatha Christie novel.
Perfecting the Noise-Canceling Neutrino Detector
MicroBooNE neutrino experiment cuts through the noise, clearing the way for signals made by the hard-to-detect particle.
Supersonic Waves May Help Electronics Beat the Heat
Researchers at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory made the first observations of waves of atomic rearrangements, known as phasons, propagating supersonically through a vibrating crystal lattice--a discovery that may dramatically improve heat transport in insulators and enable new strategies for heat management in future electronics devices.
Riding Bacterium to the Bank
Jet fuel, pantyhose and plastic soda bottles are all products currently derived from petroleum. Sandia National Laboratories scientists have demonstrated a new technology based on bioengineered bacteria that makes it feasible to produce all three from renewable plant sources.
Flexible, Highly Efficient Multimodal Energy Harvesting
A piezoelectric ceramic foam supported by a flexible polymer support provides a 10-fold increase in the ability to harvest mechanical and thermal energy over standard piezo composites, according to Penn State researchers.
PNNL Successfully Vitrifies Three Gallons of Radioactive Tank Waste
News Release RICHLAND, Wash. -- In a first-of-its-kind demonstration, researchers at the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have vitrified low-activity waste from underground storage tanks at Hanford, immobilizing the radioactive and chemical materials within a durable glass waste form.Approximately three gallons of low-activity Hanford tank waste were vitrified at PNNL's Radiochemical Processing Laboratory in April.
Living Large: Exploration of Diverse Bacteria Signals Big Advance for Gene Function Prediction
Scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), including researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Joint Genome Institute (JGI), have developed a workflow that enables large-scale, genome-wide assays of gene importance across many conditions. The study, "Mutant Phenotypes for Thousands of Bacterial Genes of Unknown Function," has been published in the journal Nature and is by far the largest functional genomics study of bacteria ever published.
Quarks Feel the Pressure in the Proton
Inside every proton in every atom in the universe is a pressure cooker environment that surpasses the atom-crushing heart of a neutron star. That's according to the first measurement of a mechanical property of subatomic particles, the pressure distribution inside the proton, which was carried out by scientists at the Department of Energy's Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility.
X-Ray Laser Reveals Ultrafast Dance of Liquid Water
Researchers have probed the movements of molecules in liquid water that occur in less than 100 millionths of a billionth of a second, or femtoseconds.
Using a 'Magneto-Gravitational Trap,' IU Physicists Measure Neutrons with Unprecedented Precision
Researchers at the IU Center for the Exploration of Energy and Matter have developed a highly accurate way to measure neutron decay rates. It could provide new insight into the state of the universe after the Big Bang.
Keeping Tabs on Polysulfides in Batteries
Optimizing lithium-sulfur battery electrolytes for long life.
Huge "Thermometer" Takes Temperatures of Tiny Samples
New spectroscopic technique measures heat in itty-bitty volumes that could reveal insights for electronics and energy technology.
Profiling Extreme Beams: Scientists Devise New Diagnostic for Cutting-Edge and Next-Gen Particle Accelerators
The world's cutting-edge particle accelerators are pushing the extremes in high-brightness beams and ultrashort pulses to explore matter in new ways. To optimize their performance - and to prepare for next-generation facilities that will push these extremes further - scientists have devised a new tool that can measure how bright these beams are, even for pulses that last only quadrillionths or even quintillionths of a second.
Water, Water, Everywhere, but How Does It Flow?
Scientists use new X-ray technique to see how water moves at the molecular level.
Nanodiamonds Are Forever
Argonne researchers have created a self-generating, very-low-friction dry lubricant that lasts so long it could almost be confused with forever.
Taking the Stress out of Residual Stress Mapping
Researchers from the University of Virginia are using neutrons to explore fundamental work in residual stress mapping that promises more precise science down the road for Oak Ridge National Laboratory and similar facilities around the world. The UVA team's research will provide insight into the accuracy of residual stress mapping measurements in such materials when the neutron beam must travel large distances through the sample.
Tau-Tolly Microtubular!
Structural model of physiological tau-microtubule interactions sheds light on neurological diseases that correlate with their disruption
NASA Spacecraft Finds New Type of Magnetic Explosion
Four NASA spacecraft have observed magnetic reconnection in a turbulent region of the Earth's outer atmosphere known as the magnetosheath, the planet's first line of defense against the intensity of solar wind. The new insights could help us understand how such phenomena affect Earth's atmosphere.