U.S. Department of Energy Research News

Public Release: 26-Feb-2013
NREL employees honored by industry associations
The US Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory and its employees have garnered new awards and recognition from industry groups for advancing energy efficiency and renewable energy research.

US Department of Energy

Public Release: 26-Feb-2013

Nature Communications
In probing mysteries of glass, researchers find a key to toughness
Glass doesn't have to be brittle. Scientists propose a way of predicting whether a given glass will be brittle or ductile -- a property typically associated with metals like steel or aluminum -- and assert that any glass could have either quality.

US Department of Energy

Public Release: 26-Feb-2013

Cell
Target: Cancer
A microscopy technique developed at the University of Akron could be key to improving cancer treatments with targeted therapeutic drugs.

NIH/National Cancer Institute, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, US Department of Energy

Public Release: 25-Feb-2013

Nature Materials
A new look at high-temperature superconductors
A new method allows direct detection of rapid fluctuations that may help to explain how high-temperature superconducting materials work.

National Science Foundation, US Department of Energy

Public Release: 24-Feb-2013

Nature Materials
Laser mastery narrows down sources of superconductivity
Uncovering the mechanism behind high-temperature superconductivity -- a phenomenon with tremendous value to advances in energy efficiency and sustainability -- remains one of the greatest and most pressing puzzles in physics. Now, using precise laser pulses and atomically perfect 2D materials, collaborating scientists have ruled out one possible source of HTS: Fleeting fluctuations called charge-density waves.

National Science Foundation, US Department of Energy

Public Release: 22-Feb-2013

2013 Energy Innovation Summit
PNNL rolls out its clean energy tech at ARPA-E
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory will present its ARPA-E projects related to solar power, electric and natural gas vehicles, magnets, and heating and cooling at the 2013 Energy Innovation Summit, Feb. 25-27.

US Department of Energy

Public Release: 21-Feb-2013
Solar energy to get boost from cutting-edge forecasts
Applying its atmospheric expertise to solar energy, NCAR is spearheading a three-year, nationwide project to create unprecedented, 36-hour forecasts of incoming energy from the sun. The prototype system will forecast sunlight every 15 minutes over specific solar facilities, thereby enabling utilities to continuously anticipate the amount of available solar energy.

US Department of Energy

Public Release: 21-Feb-2013

Science
Researchers propose new way to probe Earth's deep interior
Researchers propose a new technique that might one day reveal in higher detail than ever before the composition and characteristics of the deep Earth. There's just one catch: it relies on a fifth force of nature that has not yet been detected, but which some particle physicists think might exist. If it does, this new force would connect matter at Earth's surface with matter hundreds to thousands of kilometers below, deep in Earth's mantle.

National Science Foundation, US Department of Energy, Carnegie/DOE Alliance Center

Public Release: 20-Feb-2013

Analytical Chemistry
Explosives vapor detection technology: The new 'sniff test'
A quick, accurate and highly sensitive process to reliably detect minute traces of explosives on luggage, cargo or traveling passengers has been demonstrated by scientists at the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. The vapor detection technology accurately detects and identifies the vapors of even very low-volatility explosives in real time at ambient temperature and without sample pre-concentration.

Public Release: 20-Feb-2013

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Searching for the solar system's chemical recipe
The ratio of isotopes in elements like oxygen, sulfur, and nitrogen were once thought to be much the same everywhere, determined only by their different masses. Then isotope ratios in meteorites, interplanetary dust and gas, and the sun itself were found to differ from those on Earth. Planetary researchers now use Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's Advanced Light Source to study these "mass-independent" effects and their origins in the chemical processes of the early solar system.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration, DOE Office of Science

Public Release: 20-Feb-2013
Cool Earth Solar and Sandia team up in first-ever public-private partnership on Open Campus
In a public-private partnership that takes full advantage of the Livermore Valley Open Campus for the first time, Sandia National Laboratories and Cool Earth Solar have signed an agreement that could make solar energy more affordable and accessible.

Public Release: 19-Feb-2013

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Computer modeling reveals how surprisingly potent hepatitis C drug works
A study by researchers from Los Alamos National Laboratory and a multinational team reveals how daclatasvir, a direct-acting antiviral agent in development for the treatment of hepatitis C virus (HCV), targets one of its proteins and causes the fastest viral decline ever seen with anti-HCV drugs -- within 12 hours of treatment.

National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, University of Illinois Walter Payton Liver Center Guild

Public Release: 19-Feb-2013

Nature Materials
NREL and partners demonstrate quantum dots that assemble themselves
Scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory and other labs have demonstrated a process whereby quantum dots can self-assemble at optimal locations in nanowires, a breakthrough that could improve solar cells, quantum computing, and lighting devices.

US Department of Energy

Public Release: 19-Feb-2013
NREL helps communities assess their readiness for electric vehicles
The U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory has launched a new tool to help local and regional leaders assess the readiness of their communities for the arrival of plug-in electric vehicles.

US Department of Energy

Public Release: 19-Feb-2013
Nation could double energy productivity
Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory have long understood that using energy more efficiently can be just as beneficial as finding new ways to produce energy more efficiently.

US Department of Energy

Public Release: 19-Feb-2013
Fresh faces abundant at Colorado Science Bowl
It was a nail-biter of a finish at the 2013 Colorado High School Regional Science Bowl, hosted by the US Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory, as a record 42 teams -- including 10 schools participating for the first time -- competed for a chance to challenge for the national title. The winner of the Colorado Science Bowl travels to Washington, D.C., for the National Science Bowl in April.

US Department of Energy

Public Release: 18-Feb-2013

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
In fight against cancer, a closer look at nuclear blebbing
Misshapen cell nuclei are frequently observed in the cells of people with cancer and other diseases, but what causes the abnormality -- and why it is associated with certain disorders -- has remained unclear. Northwestern University researchers have developed a mathematical model that clarifies the mechanisms that cause bulges known as "blebs" in cells' nuclear membranes. The work could be a step toward bleb prevention, which may ultimately provide potential therapies for related diseases.

US Department of Energy

Public Release: 18-Feb-2013

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
The role of goop: Research shows pollution doesn't change the rate of droplet formation
When it comes to forming the droplets that make up clouds, a little oily and viscous organic material apparently doesn't matter that much. And that's good news for reducing the uncertainty of climate model predictions.

National Science Foundation, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NASA, US Department of Energy, Office of Naval Research

Public Release: 17-Feb-2013

Nature Materials
New material interface improves functioning of non-silicon-based electronic devices
For the first time, researchers have designed a special material interface that has been shown to add to and to improve the functioning of non-silicon-based electronic devices, such as those used in certain kinds of random access memory. The new method could be used to design improved, more-efficient, multilevel and multifunctional devices, as well as enhanced nanoelectronic components -- such as non-volatile information storage and processing; and spintronic components

US Department of Energy, National Science Foundation

Public Release: 17-Feb-2013

Nature Physics
Dopants dramatically alter electronic structure of superconductor
Study demonstrates that doping dramatically alters the atomic-scale electronic structure of the parent of a high-temperature superconductor, with important consequences for the behavior of the current-carrying electrons. The findings could potentially point to new ways to design superconductors with improved properties.

US Department of Energy, National Science Foundation, UK Research Council, Scottish Funding Council, Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research

Public Release: 17-Feb-2013

Nature Chemistry
Synthetic molecule first electricity-making catalyst to use iron to split hydrogen gas
To make fuel cells more economical, engineers want a fast and efficient iron-based molecule that splits hydrogen gas to make electricity. Online Feb. 17 at Nature Chemistry, researchers report such a catalyst. It is the first iron-based catalyst that converts hydrogen directly to electricity. The result moves chemists and engineers one step closer to widely affordable fuel cells.

Department of Energy

Public Release: 17-Feb-2013

2013 AAAS Annual Meeting
In the blink of an eye: X-ray imaging on the attosecond timescale
Berkeley Lab's Ali Belkacem has been using powerful laboratory-scale lasers to test whether multidimensional nonlinear x-ray spectroscopy on the attosecond timescale is practical for the light sources of the future -- and just what combination of beam characteristics is needed to define them. He'll discuss his work as part of the panel session titled "Attosecond Science in Chemical, Molecular Imaging, Spintronics, and Energy Science."

Public Release: 16-Feb-2013

2013 AAAS Annual Meeting
Previewing the next steps on the path to a magnetic fusion power plant
This is a summary of PPPL physicist George 'Hutch' Neilson's presentation to 2013 AAAS Annual Meeting.

Public Release: 15-Feb-2013

Nature Communications
Rutgers physicists test highly flexible organic semiconductors
Rutgers University physicists have demonstrated extremely flexible organic semiconductors that withstood multiple bending cycles in which the devices were rolled to a radius as small as 200 micrometers. The technology holds promise for making low-cost flexible electronics -- conceivably video displays that bend like book pages or roll and unroll like posters, or wearable circuitry sewn into uniforms or athletic wear.

US Department of Energy, Office of Naval Research

Public Release: 15-Feb-2013

2013 AAAS Annual Meeting
A closer look at life: X-ray microscopy hits the sweet spot for chemical and elemental imaging
Berkeley Lab's Janos Kirz, who pioneered the development of soft x-ray microscopy and spectromicroscopy, will describe 2-D and 3-D x-ray chemical imaging of biological systems in a presentation at the 2013 AAAS annual meeting in Boston titled "Chemical and Elemental Imaging with X-Ray Microscopy."