Public Release: 12-Feb-2012 Nature Materials Researchers develop method to examine batteries -- from the inside
There is an ever-increasing need for advanced batteries for portable electronics, such as phones, cameras, and music players, but also to power electric vehicles and to facilitate the distribution and storage of energy derived from renewable energy sources. But, once a battery fails, there are no corrective measures -- how do you look inside a battery without destroying it?
US Department of Energy, National Science Foundation
Public Release: 10-Feb-2012 Physical Review Letters Putting the squeeze on planets outside our solar system
Using high-powered lasers, scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and collaborators discovered that molten magnesium silicate undergoes a phase change in the liquid state, abruptly transforming to a more dense liquid with increasing pressure. The research provides insight into planet formation.
Public Release: 10-Feb-2012 Physical Review Letters Hovering not hard if you're top-heavy, NYU researchers find
Top-heavy structures are more likely to maintain their balance while hovering in the air than are those that bear a lower center of gravity, researchers at NYU's Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences and Department of Physics have found. Their findings are counter to common perceptions that flight stability can be achieved only through a relatively even distribution of weight -- and may offer new design principles for hovering aircraft.
National Science Foundation, US Department of Energy
Public Release: 9-Feb-2012 ORNL's Zinkle elected to National Academy of Engineering
Steven J. Zinkle, a senior materials researcher at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, has been elected to the National Academy of Engineering.
Public Release: 9-Feb-2012 Science Hydrogen from acidic water
A technique from Berkley Lab for creating a new molecule that structurally and chemically replicates the active part of the molybdenite catalyst paves the way for developing catalytic materials that can serve as effective low-cost alternatives to platinum for generating hydrogen gas from water.
US Department of Energy/Office of Science
Public Release: 7-Feb-2012 Energy department to launch new energy innovation hub focused on advanced batteries and energy storage
Secretary of Energy Steven Chu announced today plans to launch a new Energy Innovation Hub for advanced research on batteries and energy storage with an investment of up to $120 million over five years. The hub, which will be funded at up to $20 million in fiscal year 2012, will focus on accelerating research and development of electrochemical energy storage for transportation and the electric grid.
US Department of Energy
Public Release: 7-Feb-2012 Nature Communications Nanoshell whispering galleries improve thin solar panels
Engineers at Stanford have created photovoltaic nanoshells that harness a peculiar physical phenomenon to better trap light in the solar materials. The results could dramatically improve the efficiency of thin-film solar cells while reducing their weight and cost.
Center for Nanostructuring for Efficient Energy Conversion, US Department of Energy
Public Release: 5-Feb-2012 Nature Geoscience Tree rings may underestimate climate response to volcanic eruptions
Some climate cooling caused by past volcanic eruptions may not be evident in tree-ring reconstructions of temperature change because large enough temperature drops lead to greatly shortened or even absent growing seasons, according to climate researchers, who compared tree-ring temperature reconstructions with model simulations of past temperature changes.
National Science Foundation, US Department of Energy
Public Release: 5-Feb-2012 Nature Steroids control gas exchange in plants
Plants leaves are sealed with a gas-tight wax layer to prevent water loss. Plants breathe through microscopic pores called stomata on the surfaces of leaves. As the key conduits for CO2 uptake and water evaporation, stomata are critical for both our climate and plant productivity. Thus, not surprisingly, the total number and distribution of stomata are strictly regulated by plants to optimize photosynthesis while minimizing water loss. But the mechanisms for such regulation have remained elusive until now.
National Institutes of Health, US Department of Energy, Herman Frasch Foundation, Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Public Release: 2-Feb-2012 ORNL, partners earn FLC honor for cookstove technology
Envirofit International, the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Colorado State University have won a Federal Laboratory Consortium award for excellence in technology transfer for a clean-burning cookstove designed for the developing world.
Public Release: 1-Feb-2012 PNNL's Mike Kluse named Laboratory Director of the Year
PNNL Director Mike Kluse has been named 2012 Laboratory Director of the Year by the Federal Laboratory Consortium for his support of technology transfer and commercialization.
Public Release: 1-Feb-2012 Nano Letters Self-assembling nanorods: Berkeley Lab researchers obtain 1-, 2- and 3-D nanorod arrays and networks
Berkeley Lab researchers have developed a relatively fast, easy and inexpensive technique for inducing nanorods to self-assemble into aligned and ordered macroscopic structures. This technique should enable more effective use of nanorods in solar cells, magnetic storage devices and sensors, and boost the electrical and mechanical properties of nanorod-polymer composites.
US Department of Energy, Office of Science
Public Release: 1-Feb-2012 Astrophysical Journal Scientists help define structure of exoplanets
Using models similar to those used in weapons research, scientists may soon know more about exoplanets, those objects beyond the realm of our solar system. In a new study, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory scientists and collaborators came up with new methods for deriving and testing the equation of state of matter in exoplanets and figured out the mass-radius and mass-pressure relations for materials relevant to planetary interiors.
Public Release: 31-Jan-2012 Sandia tool determines value of solar photovoltaic power systems
Consistent appraisals of real estate outfitted with photovoltaic installations are a challenge for the nation's real estate industry, but a new tool developed by Sandia National Laboratories and Solar Power Electric and licensed by Sandia addresses that issue.
US Department of Energy/Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy
Public Release: 31-Jan-2012 Astrophysical Journal IBEX probe glimpses interstellar neighborhood
Space scientists, including researchers from Los Alamos National Laboratory, today described the first detailed analyses of captured interstellar neutral atoms -- raw material for the formation of new stars, planets and even human beings. Full details of the research comprise a six-paper special section in the February edition of Astrophysical Journal Supplements.
Public Release: 30-Jan-2012 Nano Letters Research at Rice University leads to nanotube-based device for communication, security, sensing
Researchers at Rice University are using carbon nanotubes as the critical component of a robust terahertz polarizer that could accelerate the development of new security and communication devices, sensors and noninvasive medical imaging systems as well as fundamental studies of low-dimensional condensed matter systems.
US Department of Energy, National Science Foundation, Robert A. Welch Foundation
Public Release: 30-Jan-2012 Reducing ion exchange particles to nano-size shows big potential
Researchers at the US Department of Energy's Savannah River National Laboratory have successfully shown that they can replace useful little particles of an ion exchange material with even tinier nano-sized particles, making them even more useful for a variety of applications.
Public Release: 30-Jan-2012 Angewandte Chemie Bright lights of purity
Berkeley Lab researchers have discovered why a promising technique for making quantum dots and nanorods has so far been a disappointment. Better still, they've also discovered how to correct the problem.
US Department of Energy
Public Release: 30-Jan-2012 Sandia's self-guided bullet prototype can hit target a mile away
Take two Sandia National Laboratories engineers who are hunters, get them talking about the sport and it shouldn't be surprising when the conversation leads to a patented design for a self-guided bullet that could help war fighters.
Computer scientists collect computing tools for next-generation machines
Researchers using the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility's can foresee substantial changes in scientific application code development. The OLCF's new supercomputer, Titan, will use a hybrid architecture of conventional, multipurpose CPUs and high-performance GPUs. The machine will supplant the OLCF's current fastest supercomputer, Jaguar, a Cray XT5 using an entirely CPU-based platform. Members of the OLCF's Application Performance Tools group understand the challenge. Their goal is to make the transition as smooth as possible.
Many physical and chemical processes necessary for biology and chemistry occur at the interface of water and solid surfaces. Researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory publishing in Nature Nanotechnology have now shown that semiconducting carbon nanotubes -- light-emitting cylinders of pure carbon -- have the potential to detect and track single molecules in water.
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