Public Release: 15-Nov-2012
Environmental Science and Technology
Airborne particles smuggle pollutants to far reaches of globe
Pollution from fossil fuel burning and forest fires reaches all the way to the Arctic, even though it should decay long before it travels that far. Now, lab research can explain how pollution makes its lofty journey: rather than ride on the surface of airborne particles, pollutants snuggle inside, protected from the elements on the way. The results will help scientists improve atmospheric air-quality and pollution transport models.
Department of Energy

Public Release: 13-Nov-2012
Supercomputing 2012
PNNL expertise highlighted at Supercomputing
PNNL research describing new and improved ways to crunch massive amounts of data will be presented at the Supercomputing 2012 conference. Papers to be presented include how to use matching approximation to find similar patterns in different data sets and a new software that helps speed up parallel computations by automatically translating MPI code.

Public Release: 11-Oct-2012
Climatic Change
Earth sunblock only needed if planet warms easily
A new computer analysis of future climate change that considers emissions reductions together with sunlight reduction shows that such drastic steps to cool the earth would only be necessary if the planet heats up easily with added greenhouse gases. The analysis, reported in the journal Climatic Change, might help future policymakers plan for a changing climate.
Fund for Innovative Climate and Energy Research

Public Release: 27-Sep-2012
Nano Letters
Nickelblock: An element's love-hate relationship with battery electrodes
Battery materials on the nano-scale reveal how nickel forms a physical barrier that impedes the shuttling of lithium ions in the electrode, reducing how fast the materials charge and discharge. Published last week in Nano Letters, the research also suggests a way to improve the materials.
Department of Energy

Public Release: 5-Sep-2012
LEDs winning light race to save energy, the environment
A PNNL report shows light-emitting diode light bulbs, also known as LEDs, are more environmentally friendly than compact fluorescent and incandescent lights. LEDs' environmental edge is expected to grow substantially as technology and manufacturing methods improve by 2017.
US Department of Energy

Public Release: 3-Sep-2012
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Mass spec makes the clinical grade
A new mass spectrometry-based test identifies proteins from blood with as much accuracy and sensitivity as the antibody-based tests used clinically, researchers report this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Early Edition online. The head-to-head comparison using blood samples from cancer patients measured biomarkers, proteins whose presence identifies a disease or condition. The technique should be able to speed up development of protein-specific diagnostic tests and treatment.
National Institutes of Health, Department of Energy

Public Release: 21-Aug-2012
American Chemical Society's 244th National Meeting & Exposition
Fueling nuclear power with seawater
A new absorbent material may be able to soak up enough trace uranium in seawater to help fuel future nuclear power plants. Tests by the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory showed the material, which was developed by Oak Ridge National Laboratory, can soak up more than two times the uranium than a similar material developed in Japan.
US Department of Energy

Public Release: 13-Aug-2012
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Fresh water breathes fresh life into hurricanes
An analysis of a decade's worth of tropical cyclones shows that when hurricanes blow over ocean regions swamped by fresh water, the conditions can unexpectedly intensify the storm. Although the probability that hurricanes will hit such conditions is small, ranging from 10 to 23 percent, the effect is potentially large: Hurricanes can become 50 percent more intense, researchers report in a study appearing this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
US Department of Energy, National Science Foundation, National Science Foundation of China