Public Release: 21-May-2013 Solar and lithium ion car race winners announced
Ninety-seven teams from 28 Colorado schools participated in today's car competitions hosted by the US Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory.
The student teams raced solar and lithium ion powered vehicles they designed and built themselves.
US Department of Energy
Public Release: 21-May-2013 Environmental Science and Technology Going green: Nation equipped to grow serious amounts of pond scum for fuel
A new analysis shows that the nation's land and water resources could likely support the growth of enough algae to produce up to 25 billion gallons of algae-based fuel a year in the United States, one-twelfth of the country's yearly needs. For the best places to produce algae for fuel, think hot, humid and wet. Especially promising are the Gulf Coast and the Southeastern seaboard.
US Department of Energy
Public Release: 21-May-2013 Army Ground Combat Systems adopts Sandia tool for choosing future warfighting vehicles
Sandia National Laboratories, working closely with the Army and other contractors, has developed key components of a software tool to help the Program Executive Office Ground Combat Systems analyze countless what-if scenarios that can be manipulated as technology advances and the global environment, the federal budget or other factors change. Sandia calls this advanced combination of modeling, simulation and optimization decision support software the Capability Portfolio Analysis Tool.
US Army
Public Release: 20-May-2013 Not just blowing in the wind: Compressing air for renewable energy storage
A comprehensive study into the potential for compressed air energy storage in the Pacific Northwest has identified two locations in Washington state that could store enough wind energy to power about 85,000 homes each month.
Bonneville Power Administration, DOE/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Public Release: 19-May-2013 Nature Materials Kinks and curves at the nanoscale
Since 2004, materials scientists and nanotechnology experts have been excited about a special of arrangement of atoms called a "coherent twin boundary" that can add enormous strength to metals like gold and copper. The CTBs are described as "perfect," appearing like a one-atom-thick plane in models and images. New research shows that these boundaries are not perfect. Even more surprising, the newly discovered kinks and defects appear to be the cause of the CTB's strength.
US Department of Energy, National Science Foundation, NASA
Public Release: 16-May-2013 Nature New X-ray method shows how frog embryos could help thwart disease
An international team of scientists using a new X-ray method recorded the internal structure and cell movement inside a living frog embryo in greater detail than ever before.
This result showcases a new method to advance biological research and the search for new treatments for genetic diseases.
Department of Energy
Public Release: 16-May-2013 Science LLNL scientist finds topography of Eastern Seaboard muddles ancient sea level changes
The distortion of the ancient shoreline and flooding surface of the US Atlantic Coastal Plain are the direct result of fluctuations in topography in the region and could have implications on understanding long-term climate change, according to a new study.
Public Release: 16-May-2013 Science Stacking 2-D materials produces surprising results
New experiments reveal previously unseen effects, could lead to new kinds of electronics and optical devices.
US Department of Energy, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, National Science Foundation
Public Release: 16-May-2013 Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters Add boron for better batteries
A graphene-boron compound is theoretically capable of storing double the energy of common graphite anodes used in lithium-ion batteries.
Honda Research Institute, US Department of Energy
Public Release: 16-May-2013 Nano Letters Artificial forest for solar water-splitting
Berkeley Lab researchers have created the first fully integrated artificial photosynthesis nanosystem. While "artificial leaf" is the popular term for such a system, the key to this success was an "artificial forest."
US Department of Energy Office of Science
Public Release: 16-May-2013 ACS Nano DNA-guided assembly yields novel ribbon-like nanostructures
DNA "linker" strands coax nano-sized rods to line up in way unlike any other spontaneous arrangement of rod-shaped objects. The arrangement -- with the rods forming "rungs" on ladder-like ribbons could result in the fabrication of new nanostructured materials with desired properties.
DOE Office of Science
Public Release: 14-May-2013 LLNL and Cool Earth Solar receive $1.7 million for renewable energy demonstration project
The California Energy Commission has awarded $1.7 million to a partnership between Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Cool Earth Solar Inc. to conduct a community-scale renewable energy integration demonstration project at the Livermore Valley Open Campus.
Public Release: 14-May-2013 Saudi Arabia looks to NREL for solar monitoring expertise
Saudi Arabia is planning to move aggressively into renewable energy, with plans to install more solar and wind power in the next 20 years than the rest of the world has installed to date. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is working with the US Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory for training and expertise in measuring its solar resource.
US Department of Energy
Public Release: 9-May-2013 Nature Communications Flawed diamonds promise sensory perfection
By extending the coherence time of electron states to over half a second, a team of scientists from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the University of California at Berkeley, and Harvard University has improved the performance of one of the most potent sensors of magnetic fields on the nanoscale -- a diamond defect no bigger than a pair of atoms called a nitrogen vacancy center. The achievement is important news for nanoscale sensors and quantum computing.
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, National Science Foundation, Israeli Ministry of Defense, North Atlantic Treaty Organization Science for Peace
Public Release: 9-May-2013 Biotechnology for Biofuels New advance in biofuel production
Joint BioEnergy Institute researchers have developed an enzyme-free ionic liquid pretreatment of cellulosic biomass that makes it easier to recover fermentable sugars for biofuels and to recycle the ionic liquid.
US Department of Energy Office of Science
Public Release: 9-May-2013 Science Heady mathematics
Two UC Berkeley applied mathematicians have found a way to mathematically describe the evolution and disappearance of a foam. Using these equations, they were able to generate a movie that shows the complex draining, popping and rearrangement of these bubbles as the foam vanishes.
US Department of Energy, National Science Foundation, NIH/National Cancer Institute
Public Release: 9-May-2013 Marine and Petroleum Geology Geologists study mystery of 'eternal flames'
"Eternal flames" fueled by hydrocarbon gas could shine a light on the presence of natural gas in underground rock layers and conditions that let it seep to the surface, according to research by geologists at the Department of Geological Sciences and the Indiana Geological Survey at Indiana University Bloomington.
US Department of Energy
Public Release: 8-May-2013 Nature Communications Spintronics discovery
In research that is helping to lay the groundwork for the electronics of the future, University of Delaware scientists have confirmed the presence of a magnetic field generated by electrons which scientists had theorized existed, but that had never been proven until now.
US Department of Energy, National Science Foundation
Natural gas power plants can use about 20 percent less fuel when the sun is shining by injecting solar energy into natural gas with a new system being developed by the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.
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