NEWS RELEASES

DOE Funded News

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 15-Jun-2025 23:09 ET (16-Jun-2025 03:09 GMT/UTC)

9-May-2025

Tapping a new toolbox, engineers buck tradition in new high-performing heat exchanger

University of Wisconsin-Madison
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A team of University of Wisconsin–Madison engineers created a twisty high-temperature heat exchanger that outperformed a traditional straight channel design in heat transfer, power density and effectiveness and used an innovative technique to 3D print and test the metal proof of concept.

Journal: International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer
Funder: DOE/US Department of Energy, U.S. National Science Foundation

7-May-2025

The buried treasure in your old smartphone

Texas A&M University
Grant and Award Announcement

To help reduce the United States’ reliance on foreign sources of critical materials, the U.S. Department of Energy is investing $17 million into 14 projects focused on strengthening the domestic supply chain through safe, sustainable, and cost-effective solutions. Among the selected projects is a collaboration led by Texas A&M University researchers who are developing a new way to pull rare earth elements out of old electronics like tablets, phones and circuit boards.

Funder: DOE/US Department of Energy

7-May-2025

MIT physicists snap the first images of “free-range” atoms

Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Peer-Reviewed Publication

MIT physicists captured the first images of individual atoms freely interacting in space. The pictures reveal correlations among the “free-range” particles that until now were predicted but never directly observed.

Journal: Physical Review Letters
Funder: U.S. National Science Foundation, Air Force Office of Scientific Research, Army Research Office, DOE/US Department of Energy, Defense Advanced Projects Research Agency, David and Lucile Packard Foundation, MIT Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellowship

5-May-2025

University of Texas-led team solves a big problem for fusion energy

University of Texas at Austin
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A new shortcut can help engineers design leak-proof magnetic confinement systems for fusion reactors 10 times as fast as the gold standard method, without sacrificing accuracy. While several other big challenges remain for all magnetic fusion designs, this advance addresses the biggest challenge that’s specific to a type of fusion reactor first proposed in the 1950s, called a stellarator.

Journal: Physical Review Letters
Funder: DOE/US Department of Energy

2-May-2025

Antivenom neutralizes the neurotoxins of 19 of the world’s deadliest snakes

Cell Press
Peer-Reviewed Publication

By using antibodies from a human donor with a self-induced hyper-immunity to snake venom, scientists have developed the most broadly effective antivenom to date, which is protective against the likes of the black mamba, king cobra, and tiger snakes in mouse trials. Described May 2 in the Cell Press journal Cell, the antivenom combines protective antibodies and a small molecule inhibitor and opens a path toward a universal antiserum.

Journal: Cell
Funder: NIH/National Institutes of Health, DOE/US Department of Energy

28-Apr-2025

AI learns to uncover the hidden atomic structure of crystals

Columbia University School of Engineering and Applied Science
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Scientists at Columbia Engineering have created a machine learning algorithm that can observe the pattern produced by nanocrystals to infer the material’s atomic structure, as described in a new study published in Nature Materials.

Journal: Nature Materials
Funder: U.S. National Science Foundation, DOE/US Department of Energy, DOE/US Department of Energy, Columbia Data Science Institute

24-Apr-2025

Quantum sensors tested for next-generation particle physics experiments

California Institute of Technology
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Researchers from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab), Caltech, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (which is managed by Caltech), and other collaborating institutions have developed a novel high-energy particle detection instrumentation approach that leverages the power of quantum sensors—devices capable of precisely detecting single particles.

Journal: Journal of Instrumentation
Funder: DOE/US Department of Energy

24-Apr-2025

Illinois research shows benefits of prairie grass for sustainable aviation fuel

University of Illinois College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Switchgrass has gripped Midwestern soils for millions of years, but soon, the earthbound prairie grass could fly. New studies from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign identify economic and environmental considerations that make switchgrass a candidate for sustainable aviation fuel.

Journal: Journal of Environmental Quality
Funder: DOE/US Department of Energy, DOE/US Department of Energy