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The JBEI GT Collection: A new resource for advanced biofuels research

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

The JBEI GT Collection, the first glycosyltransferase clone collection specifically targeted for the study of plant cell wall biosynthesis, is expected to drive basic scientific understanding of GTs and better enable the manipulation of cell walls for the production of biofuels and other chemical products.

Journal: The Plant Journal
Funder: US Department of Energy's Office of Science

Scientists use X-rays to look at how DNA protects itself from UV light

DOE/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

The molecular building blocks that make up DNA absorb ultraviolet light so strongly that sunlight should deactivate them -- yet it does not. Now scientists have made detailed observations of a 'relaxation response' that protects these molecules, and the genetic information they encode, from UV damage.

Journal: Nature Communications

Treading into a gray area along the spectrum of wood decay fungi

DOE/Joint Genome Institute
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A fungus that can break down all the components of plant cell walls is considered a white rot fungus. If it can only break down cellulose and hemicellulose, it's a brown rot fungus. In the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a team led by DOE Joint Genome Institute fungal researchers suggests that categorizing wood-decaying fungi may be more complicated, broadening the range of fungal decay strategies to be explored for commercializing biofuels production.

Journal: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Funder: US Department of Energy's Office of Science

LLNL, MIT researchers develop new ultralight, ultrastiff 3D printed materials

DOE/Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Imagine a material with the same weight and density as aerogel -- a material so light it's called 'frozen smoke' -- but with 10,000 times more stiffness. This material could have a profound impact on the aerospace and automotive industries as well as other applications where lightweight, high-stiffness and high-strength materials are needed.

Journal: Science

Scientists take first dip into water's mysterious 'no-man's land'

DOE/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Scientists at the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory have made the first structural observations of liquid water at temperatures down to minus 51 degrees Fahrenheit, within an elusive 'no-man's land' where water's strange properties are super-amplified.

Journal: Nature
Funder: US Department of Energy's Office of Science

Dynamic spectroscopy duo

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Berkeley Lab researchers have developed a new technique called two-dimensional electronic-vibrational spectroscopy that can be used to study the interplay between electrons and atomic nuclei during a photochemical reaction. Photochemical reactions are critical to a wide range of natural and technological phenomena, including photosynthesis, vision, nanomaterials and solar energy.

Journal: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Funder: US Department of Energy's Office of Science, National Science Foundation

Study reveals livestock gut microbes contributing to greenhouse gas emissions

DOE/Joint Genome Institute
Peer-Reviewed Publication

The EPA attributes one-fifth of methane emissions to livestock such as cattle, sheep and other ruminants, but the amount of methane produced varies substantially among animals in the same species. As published online June 6, 2014 in Genome Research, a team led by the U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute collaborated with NZ's AgResearch Limited to explore role the microbes living in the rumen play in this process.

Journal: Genome Research
Funder: U.S. Department of Energy Rapid Manufacturing Institute (award number DE-EE0007888) and by the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Basic Energy Sciences

LLNL researchers develop high-quality 3-D metal parts using additive manufacturing

DOE/Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory researchers have developed a new and more efficient approach to a challenging problem in additive manufacturing -- using selective laser melting, namely, the selection of appropriate process parameters that result in parts with desired properties.

Journal: The International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology

Manipulating and detecting ultrahigh frequency sound waves

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Berkeley Lab researchers have demonstrated a technique for detecting and controlling ultrahigh frequency sound waves at the nanometer scale. This represents an advance towards next generation ultrasonic imaging with potentially 1,000 times higher resolution than today's medical ultrasounds.

Journal: Nature Communications
Funder: US Department of Energy's Office of Science

Lawrence Livermore Lab awarded $5.6 million to develop next-generation neural devices

DOE/Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Grant and Award Announcement

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory recently received $5.6 million from the Department of Defense's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to develop an implantable neural interface with the ability to record and stimulate neurons within the brain for treating neuropsychiatric disorders.

Funder: Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency