U.S. Department of Energy Research News

Public Release: 1-Aug-2013
August 2013 story tips from Oak Ridge National Laboratory
The following are story ideas from the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory for August 2013.

Public Release: 1-Aug-2013

Nature Climate Change
UCI-led team develops more accurate model of climate change's effect on soil
Scientists from UC Irvine and the National Center for Atmospheric Research have developed a new computer model to measure global warming's effect on soil worldwide that accounts for how bacteria and fungi in soil control carbon.

National Science Foundation, US Department of Energy

Public Release: 1-Aug-2013

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Geoscientists unearth mineral-making secrets potentially useful for new technologies
Proteins have gotten most of the attention in studies of how organic materials control the initial step of making the first tiny crystals that organisms use to build structures that help them move and protect themselves. Virginia Tech researchers have discovered that certain types of sugars, known as polysaccharides, may also control the timing and placement of minerals that animals use to produce hard structures.

National Science Foundation, US Department of Energy

Public Release: 1-Aug-2013

Science
CU-Boulder team develops new water splitting technique that could produce hydrogen fuel
A University of Colorado Boulder team has developed a radically new technique that uses the power of sunlight to efficiently split water into its components of hydrogen and oxygen, paving the way for the broad use of hydrogen as a clean, green fuel.

National Science Foundation, US Department of Energy

Public Release: 1-Aug-2013

Cell
New insight into how brain 'learns' cocaine addiction
A team of researchers says it has solved the longstanding puzzle of why a key protein linked to learning is also needed to become addicted to cocaine. Results of the study, published in the Aug. 1 issue of the journal Cell, describe how the learning-related protein works with other proteins to forge new pathways in the brain in response to a drug-induced rush of the "pleasure" molecule dopamine.

NIH/National Institute on Drug Abuse, NIH/National Institute of Mental Health, NIH/National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, NIH/National Cancer Institute, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, US Department of Energy

Public Release: 31-Jul-2013

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Berkeley Lab researchers discover universal law for light absorption in 2D semiconductors
Berkeley Lab researchers have demonstrated a universal law of light absorption for 2D semiconductors. This discovery not only provides new insight into the optical properties of 2D semiconductors and quantum wells, it should also open doors to exotic new optoelectronic and photonic technologies.

US Department of Energy Office of Science, National Science Foundation

Public Release: 31-Jul-2013
Ready-to-sign license speeds up Sandia tech transfer
Sandia National Laboratories is building a portfolio of intellectual property that can be licensed by businesses in as little as an hour.

Public Release: 31-Jul-2013

Journal of Chemical Physics
VCU physicists discover theoretical possibility of large, hollow magnetic cage molecules
Virginia Commonwealth University researchers have discovered, in theory, the possibility of creating large, hollow magnetic cage molecules that could one day be used in medicine as a drug delivery system to non-invasively treat tumors, and in other emerging technologies.

US Department of Energy

Public Release: 30-Jul-2013

Applied Physics Letters
Lawrence Livermore engineering team makes breakthrough in solar energy research
The use of plasmonic black metals could someday provide a pathway to more efficient photovoltaics -- the use of solar panels containing photovoltaic solar cells -- to improve solar energy harvesting, according to researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

Public Release: 29-Jul-2013

Nano Letters
Tetrapod nanocrystals light the way to stronger polymers
Berkeley Lab researchers have developed advanced opto-mechanical stress probes based on tetrapod quantum dots (tQDs) that allow precise measurement of the tensile strength of polymer fibers with minimal impact on the polymer's mechanical properties. These fluorescent tQDs could lead to stronger, self-repairing polymer nanocomposites.

US Department of Energy Office of Science

Public Release: 29-Jul-2013
Field test could lead to reducing CO2 emissions worldwide
An injection of carbon dioxide, or CO2, has begun at a site in southeastern Washington to test deep geologic storage. Battelle researchers based at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory are injecting 1,000 tons of CO2 one-half mile underground to see if the greenhouse gas can be stored safely and permanently in ancient basalt flows.

Department of Energy

Public Release: 29-Jul-2013

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
How does hydrogen metallize?
Hydrogen is deceptively simple. It has only a single electron per atom, but it powers the sun and forms the majority of the observed universe. As such, it is naturally exposed to the entire range of pressures and temperatures available in the whole cosmos. But researchers still struggle to understand even basic aspects of its various forms under high-pressure conditions. New work makes significant additions to our understanding of this vital element's high-pressure behavior.

EFree, US Department of Energy, National Science Foundation

Public Release: 28-Jul-2013

Nature Materials
Speed limit set for ultrafast electrical switch
Researchers from the US Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory have clocked the fastest-possible electrical switching in magnetite, a naturally magnetic mineral. Their results could drive innovations in the tiny transistors that control the flow of electricity across silicon chips, enabling faster, more powerful computing devices.

US Department of Energy Office of Science

Public Release: 26-Jul-2013
Alternative-energy team wins US Department of Energy poster competition using only small words
Using only cartoons, drawings, photos, and the 1,000 most-commonly-used words in the English language, an alternative-energy team has taken first prize in a US DOE poster contest. The Penn State team's poster, titled "Powering Your Car with Sunlight," was selected as the overall winner out of 31 submissions. The poster explains how energy from the Sun is captured by plants and stored in plant cell walls as energy that could be used to power cars.

US Department of Energy

Public Release: 25-Jul-2013

Science
Van Allen Probes pinpoint driver of speeding electrons
Researchers believe they have solved a lingering mystery about how electrons within Earth's radiation belt can suddenly become energetic enough to kill orbiting satellites. Thanks to data gathered from an intrepid pair of NASA probes roaming the harsh space environment within the Van Allen radiation belts, scientists have identified an internal electron accelerator operating within the belts.

Public Release: 25-Jul-2013

PLOS ONE
Microbial who-done-it for biofuels
A multi-institutional collaboration led by researchers with the Joint BioEnergy Institute and Joint Genome Institute has developed a promising technique for identifying microbial enzymes that can effectively deconstruct biomass into fuel sugars under refinery processing conditions.

US Department of Energy Office of Science

Public Release: 21-Jul-2013

Nature Materials
Paper-thin e-skin responds to touch by lighting up
UC Berkeley engineers have created a new e-skin that responds to touch by instantly lighting up. The more intense the pressure, the brighter the light it emits. The material is the first sensor network on flexible plastic that is user-interactive.

Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, US Department of Energy

Public Release: 19-Jul-2013

Nano Letters
Purple sunlight eaters
A protein found in the membranes of ancient microorganisms that live in desert salt flats could offer a new way of using sunlight to generate environmentally friendly hydrogen fuel, according to a new study by researchers at the US Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory.

US Department of Energy

Public Release: 18-Jul-2013
Americans continue to use more renewable energy sources, according to Lawrence Livermore analysis
Americans used more natural gas, solar panels and wind turbines and less coal to generate electricity in 2012, according to the most recent US energy charts released by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

Public Release: 18-Jul-2013

Nano Letters
Stanford scientists break record for thinnest light-absorber
Stanford scientists have built the thinnest, most efficient absorber of visible light on record, a nanosize structure that could lead to less-costly, more efficient, solar cells.

US Department of Energy/Center on Nanostructuring for Efficient Energy Conversion, Marcus & Amalia Wallenberg Foundation

Public Release: 18-Jul-2013

Science
Penn researchers help show new way to study and improve catalytic reactions
A study by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Trieste and Brookhaven National Laboratory has shown a way to precisely design the active elements of a certain class of catalysts, showing which parameters are most critical for improving performance. This highly controlled process could be a new paradigm for fine-tuning catalysts used in everything from making new materials to environmental remediation.

COST, US Department of Energy, National Science Foundation, Air Force Office of Scientific Research

Public Release: 17-Jul-2013

Nature
Elastic electronics: Stretchable gold conductor grows its own wires
Networks of spherical nanoparticles embedded in elastic materials may make the best stretchy conductors yet, engineering researchers at the University of Michigan have discovered.

STX Foundation, US Department of Energy's Office of Science

Public Release: 16-Jul-2013

ACS Nano
Broadband photodetector for polarized light
Using carpets of aligned carbon nanotubes, researchers from Rice University and Sandia National Laboratories have created a solid-state electronic device that is hardwired to detect polarized light across a broad swath of the visible and infrared spectrum.

Lockheed Martin, National Science Foundation, US Department of Energy, Welch Foundation

Public Release: 14-Jul-2013

Nature Physics
Imaging electron pairing in a simple magnetic superconductor
Using a technique to measure the energy required for electrons to pair up and how that energy varies with direction, scientists have identified the factors needed for magnetically mediated superconductivity -- as well as those that aren't.

Department of Energy Office of Science, UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council

Public Release: 14-Jul-2013

Nature Structural & Molecular Biology
Key step in molecular 'dance' that duplicates DNA deciphered
Scientists have captured new details of the biochemical interactions necessary for cell division -- molecular images showing how the enzyme that unwinds the DNA double helix gets drawn to and wrapped around its target. The research may suggest ways for stopping cell division when it goes awry.

National Institutes of Health, UK Medical Research Council, Japan Society for Promotion of Science, Uehara Memorial Foundation