U.S. Department of Energy Research News

Public Release: 15-Oct-2012

Nature Materials
Another advance on the road to spintronics
Using a new technique called HARPES, for Hard x-ray Angle-Resolved PhotoEmission Spectroscopy, Berkeley Lab researchers have unlocked the ferromagnetic secrets of dilute magnetic semiconductors, materials of great interest for spintronic technology.

US Department of Energy Office of Science

Public Release: 11-Oct-2012

2012 Fusion Energy Conference
Mug handles could help hot plasma give lower-cost, controllable fusion energy
New hardware lets engineers maintain the plasma used in fusion reactors in an energy-efficient, stable manner, making the system potentially attractive for use in fusion power plants.

US Department of Energy

Public Release: 11-Oct-2012
University of Tennessee receives DOE funds to improve nuclear safety
The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, will take part in two US Department of Energy projects totaling more than nine million dollars which involve a team of institutions to improve upon nuclear energy safety and efficiency.

US Department of Energy

Public Release: 10-Oct-2012

Nature Chemistry
The best of both catalytic worlds
Berkeley Lab researchers have combined the best properties of heterogeneous and homogeneous catalysts by encapsulating metallic nanoclusters within the branched molecular arms of dendrimers. The results are heterogenized homogeneous nanocatalysts that are sustainable and feature high reactivity and selectivity.

US Department of Energy/Office of Science

Public Release: 8-Oct-2012

Plant Physiology
Computational model IDs potential pathways to improve plant oil production
Using a computational model they designed to incorporate detailed information about plants' interconnected metabolic processes, scientists at the US Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory have identified key pathways that appear to "favor" the production of either oils or proteins. The research, now published online in Plant Physiology, may point the way to new strategies to tip the balance and increase plant oil production.

US Department of Energy/Office of Science

Public Release: 8-Oct-2012
Grant-winning PPPL scientists lead fusion to the edge
A center based at the US Department of Energy's Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory has won a highly competitive $12.25 million grant to develop computer codes to simulate a key component of the plasma that fuels fusion energy. The five-year DOE award could produce software that helps researchers design and operate facilities to create fusion as a clean and abundant source of energy for generating electricity.

US Department of Energy/Office of Science

Public Release: 8-Oct-2012

Nature Methods
A welcome predictability
Berkeley Lab researchers have developed an adapator that makes the genetic engineering of microbial components substantially easier and more predictable.

National Science Foundation

Public Release: 8-Oct-2012

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Adaptable button mushroom serves up genes critical to managing the planet's carbon stores
The button mushroom occupies a prominent place in our diet; in nature, Agaricus bisporus decays leaf matter on the forest floor. An international collaboration led by the French institute INRA and the US Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute has determined the full repertoire of A. bisporus genes. Their report shows the metabolic strategies of Agaricus might not be present in white-rot and brown-rot fungi and suggests implications for forest carbon management.

US Department of Energy

Public Release: 4-Oct-2012

C3E Women in Clean Energy Symposium
C3E award winners announced at Women in Clean Energy Symposium
An MIT and DOE symposium highlighted women's increasing leadership in energy research, industry and government.

MIT Energy Initiative, US Department of Energy

Public Release: 4-Oct-2012
Sandia Labs benchmark helps wind industry measure success
Sandia National Laboratories published the second annual 2012 Wind Plant Reliability Benchmark on Monday, and the results should help the nation's growing wind industry benchmark its performance, understand vulnerabilities and enhance productivity.

US Department of Energy

Public Release: 4-Oct-2012

Advanced Energy Materials
Researchers reveal how solvent mixtures affect organic solar cell structure
Controlling "mixing" between acceptor and donor layers, or domains, in polymer-based solar cells could increase their efficiency, according to a team of researchers that included physicists from North Carolina State University.

US Department of Energy

Public Release: 4-Oct-2012
Story tips from the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, October 2012
These are story ideas from recent research from the US Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Public Release: 3-Oct-2012
New sophisticated control algorithms poised to revolutionize electric battery technology
Engineers at the University of California, San Diego, have developed sophisticated estimation algorithms that allow lithium-ion batteries to run more efficiently, potentially reducing their cost by 25 percent and allowing the batteries to charge twice as fast as is currently possible. In one instance, electric batteries could be charged in just 15 minutes. The researchers at the Jacobs School of Engineering are sharing a $9.6 million grant from the Department of Energy.

US Department of Energy

Public Release: 28-Sep-2012
Songs in the key of sea
Scientists at the US Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory have used special algorithms to create musical patterns from data collected from microbes in the western English Channel.

US Department of Energy

Public Release: 28-Sep-2012
UA engineering leads $5.5 million DOE project to create low-cost solar energy
Solar power may be clean and renewable, but solar panels are inefficient and do not work at night. Could concentrated solar power be the salty solution?

US Department of Energy

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: 27-Sep-2012

Science
Uranium-contaminated site yields wealth of information on microbes 10 feet under
At sites contaminated with heavy metals, remediation often involves feeding the naturally occurring bacteria in the soil to encourage them to turn soluble metals into solids that won't leech into aquifers and streams. To find out what these microbes are doing, UC Berkeley scientists performed a metagenomic analysis of the underground microbial community at one former uranium mill site in Colorado, assigning more than 150,000 sequenced genes to 80 bacteria and Archaea.

US Department of Energy

Public Release: 25-Sep-2012
Wayne State University researcher's calculations will help unlock new energy sources
A Wayne State University researcher is part of a national project to find accessible sources of natural gas. Jaewon Jang, Ph.D., assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering in the College of Engineering, recently received a two-year, $178,000 grant from the US Department of Energy to aid in the search for methane hydrates in oceans and permafrost, such as the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska's North Slope.

US Department of Energy

Public Release: 24-Sep-2012
Most biofuels are not 'green'
First tops, then flops. That is one way of summing up the history of biofuels so far. A new study led by Empa gives an up-to-date picture of the ecobalance of various biofuels and their production processes. Only a few are overall more environmentally friendly than petrol.

Swiss Federal Authorities, US Department of Energy

Public Release: 20-Sep-2012

Nano Letters
ORNL research uncovers path to defect-free thin films
A team led by Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Ho Nyung Lee has discovered a strain relaxation phenomenon in cobaltites that has eluded researchers for decades and may lead to advances in fuel cells, magnetic sensors and a host of energy-related materials.

Public Release: 19-Sep-2012

Nature
World record holder
Northwestern University scientists have developed a thermoelectric material that is the best in the world at converting waste heat to electricity. This is very good news once you realize nearly two-thirds of energy input is lost as waste heat. The material could signify a paradigm shift. With a very environmentally stable material that is expected to convert 15 to 20 percent of waste heat to useful electricity, thermoelectrics now could see more widespread adoption by industry.

US Department of Energy

Public Release: 17-Sep-2012

Physical Review Letters
Dry-run experiments verify key aspect of Sandia nuclear fusion concept
Magnetically imploded tubes, intended to help produce controlled nuclear fusion at scientific "break-even" energies or better within the next few years, have functioned successfully in preliminary tests.

Sandia Laboratory-Directed Research and Development Program, National Nuclear Security Administration

Public Release: 13-Sep-2012
Water-wise biofuel crop study to alter plants metabolic, photosynthesis process
A five-year, multi-institutional $14.3 million United States Department of Energy grant to explore the genetic mechanisms of crassulacean acid metabolism and drought tolerance in desert-adapted plants was awarded to a team of researchers including John Cushman, a biochemistry professor at the University of Nevada, Reno; Xiaohan Yang at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL); James Hartwell at the University of Liverpool, UK; and Anne Borland at Newcastle University, UK and ORNL. They aim to apply this knowledge to biofuel crops.

US Department of Energy, Genome Scineces

Public Release: 12-Sep-2012
Jay Keasling wins Heinz Award
Jay Keasling, Berkeley Lab Associate Director for Biosciences and leading authority on synthetic biology who has engineered microbial "factories" to manufacture a frontline antimalarial drug and biofuel substitutes for gasoline, diesel and jet fuel, has won a 2012 Heinz Award. Presented by the Heinz Family Foundation, the award carries with it a cash prize of $250,000.

Heinz Family Foundation

Public Release: 12-Sep-2012
Sandia, OurEnergyPolicy.org release 'Goals of Energy Policy' poll results
US energy policy should simultaneously pursue security of its energy supply, economic stability and reduced environmental impacts, says a national poll of energy professionals jointly prepared by Sandia National Laboratories and OurEnergyPolicy.org. The findings of the national poll, "The Goals of Energy Policy," show that the vast majority -- more than 85 percent -- of the 884 energy professionals surveyed prefer policy making that pursues all three goals at once.