U.S. Department of Energy Research News

Showing stories 401-425 out of 427 stories.
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1-Aug-2001
Lab builds world's first neptunium sphere
For the first time ever, a cross-section of nuclear materials scientists and technicians at the Chemistry and Metallurgy Research (CMR) facility has fashioned an eight- kilogram tungsten-and nickel-clad sphere of neptunium. The actinide metal sphere will be used in criticality safety and nuclear non-proliferation experiments at Technical Area 18, the critical experiments facility.

11-Jul-2001
The great solar car race: Cars will race along Route 66 without a drop of gas
As many as 40 race cars will leave Chicago July 15 in the first-ever attempt to travel America's historic Route 66 without spending a penny on gasoline. In a year that has seen unpredictable energy and gasoline prices, these drivers are betting that sunshine will take them all the way to Los Angeles, a feat that has never been tried in the 75-year history of the highway.

1-Jul-2001
MicroCATS in space
Through a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the Laboratory is furthering the development of micro chemical and thermal systems, or MicroCATS, for chemical processing in space applications. The contract calls for both ground testing and testing in reduced-gravity situations. For Ward TeGrotenhuis and Susie Stenkamp of the Laboratory's chemical and biological processes development group, this means that one or both of them may be experiencing weightlessness and performing mid-air laboratory tests.

1-Jul-2001
Counting cosmic rays
In a cooperative effort, Pacific Northwest built the hardware and NASA supplied the software for the device nicknamed MARIE, for Mars Radiation Environment Experiment.

1-Jul-2001
Coconuts supply power to rural community
A typical coconut palm can produce 50 coconuts annually and lives an average of 75 years. For residents of Alaminos, a rural community in the Philippines, this means a ready supply of fuel for the newly designed small-modular biomass power system (SMB), BioMax 15.

1-Jul-2001
XMM-Newton makes unusual discoveries in Andromeda Galaxy
In its first look at the Andromeda Galaxy, known as M31, the X-ray multi-mirror satellite observatory has revealed several unusual X-ray sources.

1-Jul-2001
A new look at old fission mysteries
When theoretical physicist Peter M�ller worked on his thesis at Los Alamos National Laboratory in 1973, his calculation of the nuclear potential energy for 175 different nuclear shapes, or grid points, pushed the limits of existing computational power. Using one IBM computer punch card to define each grid point, M�ller's total input data card deck for the calculation was about one inch thick.

1-Jul-2001
High-temperature superconducting tape licensed
Los Alamos National Laboratory has licensed patents and applications related to its technology for manufacturing high-temperature superconducting tape to IGC-SuperPower of Latham, N.Y., a wholly owned subsidiary of Intermagnetics General Corp.

1-Jul-2001
Argonne Wakefield Accelerator supplies more Big Bang for buck
Researchers at Argonne National Laboratory have demonstrated a technique � called wakefield acceleration � that can power a linear, high-energy particle accelerator by using a low-energy particle accelerator like a booster in a multistage rocket. This could make possible collisions powerful enough to generate particles not seen since the Big Bang.

1-Jul-2001
Faster, lighter computers possible with nanotechnology
Smaller, lighter computers and an end to worries about electrical failures sending hours of on-screen work into an inaccessible limbo mark the potential result of Argonne research on tiny ferroelectric crystals.

1-Jul-2001
New life for old scrap
Scott Chumbley and Alan Russell, two Ames Laboratory researchers have refined a process that makes it commercially viable to recover the neodymium from tons of stockpiled magnetic scrap.

18-Jun-2001
Pricing programs spur growth of renewable energy technologies
"Green pricing" is an option utilities use to allow consumers to help support electrical production from renewable resources such as solar and wind. A new study by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) identifies key factors for ensuring the success of "green pricing" programs and ranks programs nationwide for their relative effectiveness.

4-Jun-2001
Atomic scale tinker toys
Nanotechnology offers a potential cornucopia of benefits, from palm-sized supercomputers to synthesized antibodies to molecular-scale robots. Such wonders will be constructed from the ground up using nano-sized building blocks.

1-Jun-2001
Protein crystallography resource at neutron research center for imaging proteins
Thanks to a $4.8 million capital commitment from the U.S. Department of Energy, Los Alamos researchers have completed a state-of-the-art neutron diffraction station at Los Alamos' Neutron Scattering Center, part of the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center, known as LANSCE. The new station went on line in December 2000.

1-Jun-2001
Shining a light on novel polymers
A rapidly growing field of research, recognized by a 2000 Nobel Prize in chemistry, focuses on electrically conductive plastic, once thought to be an impossibility.

1-Jun-2001
Biologically inspired nanotechnology
Much of today's scientific revolution is taking place at the nanometer scale. There is growing recognition that an ability to design and manipulate materials at the nanoscale will allow scientists to not only improve existing materials, but also develop entirely new classes of intelligent or "smart" materials for everything from miniaturized laboratories and micro-computers to drug delivery systems. To this end, lessons from biology offer revolutionary approaches.

1-May-2001
MIC researchers escape gravity
Three researchers from IPRT's Microanalytical Instrumentation Center recently flew on NASA's KC-135 reduced-gravity aircraft to test a new system for determining levels of treatment chemicals in water. It's part of an effort to develop novel instrumentation for monitoring the quality of spacecraft drinking water.

24-Apr-2001
New technology could spur growth in photovoltaic panels
Researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) have surpassed two records in solar cell design, paving the way toward reducing the cost of photovoltaics systems that produce electricity directly from sunlight.

1-Apr-2001
Lab-built components bound for outerspace
Jerry Hand and Jim Safly, two Ames Laboratory machinists , have been busy fabricating components for equipment designed to test and monitor the quality of spacecraft drinking water.

1-Apr-2001
The oldest, farthest type Ia supernova was a lucky catch
Berkeley Lab astrophysicist Peter Nugent, working with Adam Riess of the Space Telescope Science Institute, used an IBM SP supercomputer at NERSC to analyze data from an exploding star that had been caught once on purpose and twice by accident by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope.

1-Feb-2001
Ames Lab scientists win Energy 100 Awards
Ames Laboratory research was recognized on the Energy 100 Awards list. Number 24 on the top-100 list was photonic bandgap structures, which was one of only three discoveries and innovations recognized in 1990. Lead-free solder was 36th on the list; one of only two research projects recognized in 1994. Magnetic refrigeration made the 59th spot on the list and was one of 10 discoveries and innovations recognized in 1997.

1-Jan-2001
Joint institute for nanoscience planned
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and the University of Washington are preparing to form a joint institute in early 2001 that will bring together the resources of both institutions to pursue major discoveries in nanoscience and nanotechnology.

1-Jan-2001
Study of ice leads to cool new research
Scientists at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory who studied how ice on comets can store large quantities of gas and release them as the comets near the sun are applying the same approach to new research. They're learning more about how nano-structures could be used to control and enhance chemical reactivity.

31-Dec-2000
Random acts of brightness
Costas Soukoulis, an Ames Laboratory senior physicis and former Iowa State University graduate student Xunya Jiang, now working at DiCon Fiberoptics, Inc., near Berkeley, Calif., have developed a theoretical model that simulates the phenomenon of random lasing, in which photons that follow random paths create a multiple-light-scattering laser.

31-Dec-2000
The stuff that came in from the cold
Despite the best efforts of particle physicists and astrophysicists, most of the Universe is still missing. We know where it is, but we don't know what it is. It is all around us, but we can only see it by looking far, far away. That is the challenge for the Cryogenic Dark Matter Search (CDMS).

Showing stories 401-425 out of 427 stories.
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