U.S. Department of Energy Research News

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: 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: 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: 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: 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."

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
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: 13-Feb-2013

Nature Communications
Engineers show feasibility of superfast materials
University of Utah engineers demonstrated it is feasible to build the first organic materials that conduct electricity on their edges, but act as an insulator inside. These materials, called organic topological insulators, could shuttle information at the speed of light in quantum computers and other high-speed electronic devices.

US Department of Energy, US Army Research Laboratory, National Science Foundation

Public Release: 13-Feb-2013

Nature Communications
Resistance is futile
A team of researchers from Russia, Spain, Belgium, the UK and the US Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory announced findings last week that may represent a breakthrough in applications of superconductivity. The team discovered a way to efficiently stabilize tiny magnetic vortices that interfere with superconductivity -- a problem that has plagued scientists trying to engineer real-world applications for decades.

US Department of Energy

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

Public Release: 7-Feb-2013

Nature Communications
By their powers combined
Thanks to new research by an international team of researchers led by the US Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory, physicists have developed new methods for controlling magnetic order in a particular class of materials known as "magnetoelectrics."

US Department of Energy, NASA

Public Release: 6-Feb-2013

Applied Physics A
High-energy X-rays shine light on mystery of Picasso's paints
The Art Institute of Chicago teamed up with Argonne National Laboratory to unravel a decades-long debate among art scholars about what kind of paint Picasso used to create his masterpieces.

Department of Energy

Public Release: 6-Feb-2013
New coal technology harnesses energy without burning, nears pilot-scale development
A new form of clean coal technology reached an important milestone recently, with the successful operation of a research-scale combustion system at Ohio State University.

US Department of Energy

Public Release: 5-Feb-2013
NREL connects EVs and grid integration
Engineers working at the Vehicle Testing and Integration Facility enjoy a stunning view of the Denver skyline. However, some days the view includes Denver's "brown cloud" -- air pollution caused in part by vehicle emissions. While disheartening, the brown cloud helps the engineers focus on future technologies that will drastically reduce -- and ultimately eliminate -- those emissions.

US Department of Energy

Public Release: 4-Feb-2013
February 2013 story tips from Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Precise optical imaging is vital for better diagnosis of breast cancer. Researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and New Mexico State University have produced a graphene sheet 40 inches in diagonal. By studying the effects of climate change on the Gulf Coastal region's economy, agriculture and energy production, ORNL researchers are addressing key questions posed by the Department of Energy while designing a tool that the scientific community can use to predict how climate change will impact small localized areas elsewhere.

Public Release: 31-Jan-2013

Cell
Genome-wide atlas of gene enhancers in the brain online
Berkeley Lab researchers have unveiled a first-of-its-kind atlas of gene-enhancers in the brain that should greatly benefit future research into the underlying causes of neurological disorders such as autism, epilepsy and schizophrenia.

National Institutes of Health