U.S. Department of Energy Research News

Public Release: 13-Mar-2013
Biomass research collaboration seeks to improve biofuel efficiency, bio-products quality
A Kansas State University biochemical engineer has a key role in a research project between universities, industries and federal agencies that seeks to refine and improve the conversion of biomass into better drop-in biodiesel, biolubricants, jet fuel and other value-added products.

US Department of Agriculture, US Department of Energy

Public Release: 11-Mar-2013
Lyncean Technologies, Inc. receives $1.1M grant from DOE to develop the Compact Light Source
Lyncean Technologies, Inc. has received a Fast-Track SBIR grant of $1.1M from the Department of Energy to further develop their flagship product, the Compact Light Source, a miniature synchrotron that produces tunable, high-quality X-rays for broad scientific and industrial use. The grant will be performed in collaboration with SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory.

US Department of Energy

Public Release: 7-Mar-2013

Plant Journal
Biologists produce rainbow-colored algae
What can green algae do for science if they weren't, well, green? That's the question biologists at UC San Diego sought to answer when they engineered a green alga used commonly in laboratories, Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, into a rainbow of different colors by producing six different colored fluorescent proteins in the algae cells.

US Department of Energy, California Energy Commission

Public Release: 7-Mar-2013

PLOS ONE
Illuminating fractures: X-ray imaging sheds new light on bone damage
Using cutting-edge X-ray techniques, Cornell University researchers have uncovered cellular-level detail of what happens when bone bears repetitive stress over time, visualizing damage at smaller scales than previously observed. Their work could offer clues into how bone fractures could be prevented.

National Institutes of Health, US Department of Energy

Public Release: 5-Mar-2013
Biomass analysis tool is faster, more precise
A screening tool from the US Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory eases and greatly quickens one of the thorniest tasks in the biofuels industry: determining cell wall chemistry to find plants with ideal genes.

US Department of Energy

Public Release: 4-Mar-2013

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Lawrence Livermore helps find link to arsenic-contaminated groundwater
A team of researchers from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Barnard College, Columbia University, University of Dhaka, Desert Research Institute and University of Tennessee found that the arsenic in groundwater in the region is part of a natural process that predates any recent human interaction, such as intensive pumping.

Public Release: 4-Mar-2013
March story tips
By introducing microbial fuel cells into the corn stover biorefinery waste recovery process, a team of researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory has demonstrated a new way to produce bioenergy from the process waste stream. Quantitative analyses of vitamins can be done in minutes with minimal processing, saving time and money with a technique successfully demonstrated by a team of Oak Ridge National Laboratory researchers.

Public Release: 2-Mar-2013

Science
Mysterious electron stash found hidden among Van Allen belts
US researchers, including a trio from Los Alamos National Laboratory, have witnessed the mysterious appearance of a relatively long-lived zone of high-energy electrons stored between Earth's Van Allen radiation belts.

Public Release: 27-Feb-2013

Nature
Reading the human genome
Berkeley Lab researchers have achieved a major advance in understanding how genetic information is transcribed from DNA to RNA by providing the first step-by-step look at the biomolecular machinery that reads the human genome.

National Institutes of Health, NIH/National Institute of General Medical Sciences, NIH/National Cancer Institute

Public Release: 26-Feb-2013
NREL's economic benefit to Colorado totals $814.8 million in FY 2012
The net economic benefit of the US Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory to Colorado's economy was $814.8 million in fiscal year 2012, according to a study by the University of Colorado's Leeds School of Business.

US Department of Energy

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

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: 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: 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
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: 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

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: 15-Feb-2013

2013 AAAS Annual Meeting
Data challenges the APB on BPA
A controversial component of plastic bottles and canned food linings that have helped make a safer food supply has recently come under attack: bisphenol A. BPA has the potential to mimic estrogen if blood and tissue levels are high enough. Now, an analysis of almost 150 BPA exposure studies shows that in the general population, people's exposure may be many times too low for BPA to effectively mimic estrogen in the human body.

Environmental Protection Agency

Public Release: 14-Feb-2013

Science
A dual look at photosystem II using the world's most powerful X-ray laser
Artificial photosynthesis and other new technologies based on Metalloenzyme catalysis will benefit from a technique for simultaenously collecting both diffraction and spectroscopy data demonstrated by Berkeley Lab and SLAC researchers at the world's most powerful X-ray laser.

US Department of Energy Office of Science

Public Release: 14-Feb-2013

Molecular Cell
Revealing the secrets of motility in archaea
The protein structure of the archaellum, the motor that propels many species of Archaea, the third domain of life, has been characterized for the first time by a team from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology. A ring made of six identical proteins derives energy from hydrolyzing adenosine triphosate and uses this energy to drive shape changes, both assembling and rotating the archaellum's whiplike propeller.

National Institutes of Health, Max Planck Institute, Max Planck Society, Dutch Science Organization, US Department of Energy Office of Science

Public Release: 14-Feb-2013

Science
X-ray laser sees photosynthesis in action
Opening a new window on the way plants generate the oxygen we breathe, researchers used the LCLS X-ray free-electron laser to simultaneously look at the structure and chemical behavior of a natural catalyst involved in photosynthesis for the first time.

US Department of Energy/Office of Science

Public Release: 12-Feb-2013
HIPPO global-scale air chemistry dataset now available
Data from the HIAPER Pole-to-Pole Observations study of greenhouse gases and aerosols are now available to the atmospheric research community and the public. This comprehensive dataset provides the first high-resolution, vertically resolved measurements of over 90 unique atmospheric species collected during a series of nearly pole-to-pole flights over the Pacific Ocean, across all seasons. The suite of atmospheric trace gases and aerosols is pertinent to understanding the carbon cycle and challenging global climate models.

National Science Foundation, NCAR, US Department of Energy/CDIAC

Public Release: 12-Feb-2013

Nature Methods
Nature Methods study: Using light to control cell clustering
A new study from engineers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the University of California, Berkeley, pairs light and genetics to give researchers a powerful new tool for manipulating cells. Results of the study, published in the journal Nature Methods, show how blue light can be used as a switch to prompt targeted proteins to accumulate into large clusters.

US Department of Energy/Office of Basic Energy