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SLAC, Stanford gadget grabs more solar energy to disinfect water faster

DOE/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Researchers at the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Stanford University have created a nanostructured device, about half the size of a postage stamp, that disinfects water much faster than the UV method by also making use of the visible part of the solar spectrum, which contains 50 percent of the sun's energy.

Journal: Nature Nanotechnology

Expanding the stable of workhorse yeasts

DOE/Joint Genome Institute
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Yeasts are physically hard to distinguish, and it is easy to think they are all the same. Metabolically, genetically and biochemically, however, yeasts are highly diverse. So far industry has only harnessed a fraction of the diversity available for biotechnological applications, including biofuel production. In the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a team led by DOE Joint Genome Institute researchers aims to help boost the use of a wider range of yeasts.

Journal: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Funder: DOE/US Department of Energy

Fermi researchers explore new ways of searching for dark matter

DOE/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

Researchers working with more than six years of data from NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope have used novel approaches to search for cosmic signals that could reveal what mysterious dark matter is made of. The scientists looked for hypothetical axion particles, studied the gamma-ray emissions from a large satellite galaxy of our Milky Way and analyzed the faint glow of gamma rays that covers the entire sky.

De-icing agent remains stable at more than a million atmospheres of pressure

DOE/Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory scientists have combined X-ray diffraction and vibrational spectroscopy measurements together with first-principle calculations to examine the high-pressure structural behavior of magnesium chloride.

Journal: Scientific Reports

DOE approves construction of 3-D galaxy-mapping project 'DESI'

DOE/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

A 3-D sky-mapping project that will measure the light of 35 million cosmic objects has received formal approval from the Department of Energy to move forward with construction. Installation of the project, called Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI), is set to begin next year at the Mayall 4-meter telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory near Tucson, Arizona, with observations starting up in January 2019.

3-D Galaxy-mapping project enters construction phase

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Business Announcement

A 3-D sky-mapping project that will measure the light of millions of galaxies and explore the nature of dark energy has received approval to move forward with construction.

New X-Ray microscopy technique images nanoscale workings of rechargeable batteries

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

An X-ray microscopy technique recently developed at Berkeley Lab has given scientists the ability to image nanoscale changes inside lithium-ion battery particles as they charge and discharge. The real-time images provide a new way to learn how batteries work, and how to improve them.

Journal: Science

Stanford-led team reveals nanoscale secrets of rechargeable batteries

DOE/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

An interdisciplinary team has developed a way to track how particles charge and discharge at the nanoscale, an advance that will lead to better batteries for all sorts of mobile applications.

Journal: Science

'Second skin' protects soldiers from biological and chemical agents

DOE/Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

In work that aims to protect soldiers from biological and chemical threats, a team of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory scientists has created a material that is highly breathable yet protective from biological agents.

Journal: Advanced Materials

Physicist trio amplifies SLAC research on mysterious forms of matter

DOE/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

All material things appear to be made of elementary particles that are held together by fundamental forces. But what are their exact properties? Questions with cosmic implications like this drive many of the scientific efforts at the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. Three distinguished particle physicists have joined the lab over the past months to pursue research on two particularly mysterious forms of matter: neutrinos and dark matter.