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Nature-inspired nanotubes that assemble themselves, with precision

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Berkeley Lab scientists have discovered a family of nature-inspired polymers that, when placed in water, spontaneously assemble into hollow crystalline nanotubes. The nanotubes can be tuned to all have the same diameter of between five and ten nanometers, depending on the length of the polymer chain.

Journal: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

New catalyst is 3 times better at splitting water

DOE/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

With a combination of theory and clever, meticulous gel-making, scientists from the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and the University of Toronto have developed a new type of catalyst that's three times better than the previous record-holder at splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen -- the vital first step in making fuels from renewable solar and wind power.

Scientists part the clouds on how droplets form

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A new Berkeley Lab study reveals that much more is happening at the microscopic level of cloud formation than previously thought. The findings could help improve the accuracy of climate change models.

Journal: Science
Funder: DOE/US Department of Energy

Unlocking the secrets of gene expression

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Using cryo-electron microscopy, Berkeley Lab scientist Eva Nogales and her team have made a breakthrough in our understanding of how our molecular machinery finds the right DNA to copy for making proteins, showing with unprecedented detail the role of a powerhouse transcription factor known as TFIID. The study was published this week in Nature.

Journal: Nature
Funder: NIH/National Institute of General Medical Sciences, Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness

Pumping up energy storage with metal oxides

DOE/Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Material scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory have found certain metal oxides increase capacity and improve cycling performance in lithium-ion batteries.

Journal: Journal of Materials Chemistry A

'Disruptive device' brings xenon-NMR to fragile materials

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Scientists have developed a device that enables NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance) spectroscopy, coupled with a powerful molecular sensor, to analyze molecular interactions in viscous solutions and fragile materials such as liquid crystals. In a first, their method allows the sensor, hyperpolarized xenon gas, to be dissolved into minute samples of substances without disrupting their molecular order.

Journal: Angewandte Chemie
Funder: DOE/US Department of Energy

New explosion gas-signature models can help inspectors locate and identify underground nuclear tests

DOE/Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Through experiments and computer models of gas releases, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory scientists have simulated signatures of gases from underground nuclear explosions (UNEs) that may be carried by winds far from the detonation.

Journal: Scientific Reports

X-ray studies at SLAC and Berkeley Lab aid search for Ebola cure

DOE/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

In experiments carried out partly at the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, scientists have determined in atomic detail how a potential drug molecule fits into and blocks a channel in cell membranes that Ebola and related 'filoviruses' need to infect victims' cells.

Shock compression research shows hexagonal diamond could serve as meteor impact marker

DOE/Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

In 1967, a hexagonal form of diamond, later named lonsdaleite, was identified for the first time inside fragments of the Canyon Diablo meteorite, the asteroid that created the Barringer Crater in Arizona.

Journal: Nature Communications

New fuel cell design powered by graphene-wrapped nanocrystals

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Researchers at Berkeley Lab have developed a new materials recipe for a battery-like hydrogen fuel cell that shields the nanocrystals from oxygen, moisture and contaminants while pushing its performance forward in key areas.

Journal: Nature Communications