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Highest X-ray energy used to probe materials

DOE/Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Scientists for the first time have dived into the effect that an intense X-ray free electron laser (XFEL) has on materials. Using the Linac Coherent Light Source facility at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore scientists probed nitrogen gas at X-ray energies of up to 8 keV (kiloelectronvolts), the highest X-ray energy ever used at an XFEL, to see how it behaved when the laser hit it.

Journal: Physical Review Letters

Microbial world's use of metals mostly unmapped

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Microbes boast a broader and more diverse array of metal-driven chemical processes than scientists imagined. In fact, most have yet to be discovered, according to a first-of-its-kind technique that catalogs all of the metals in a microbe. The method could lead to innovative clean energy and bioremediation technologies.

Journal: Nature
Funder: DOE/US Department of Energy

Global model confirms: Cool roofs can offset carbon dioxide emissions and mitigate global warming

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A new study by researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has found that implementing cool roofs and cool pavements in cities around the world can not only help cities stay cooler, they can also cool the world, with the potential of canceling the heating effect of up to two years of worldwide carbon dioxide emissions.

Journal: Environmental Research Letters
Funder: DOE/US Department of Energy

Drilling down to the nanometer depths of leaves for biofuels

DOE/Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

By imaging the cell walls of a zinnia leaf down to the nanometer scale, energy researchers have a better idea about how to turn plants into biofuels. A team from Lawrence Livermore led by Michael Thelen, in collaboration with researchers from Lawrence Berkeley National Lab and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, has used four different imaging techniques to systematically drill down deep into the cells of Zinnia elegans.

Journal: PLANT PHYSIOLOGY

Correcting a trick of the light brings molecules into view

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Secretary of Energy and former Berkeley Lab Director Steve Chu led the development of a technique that enables the use of optical microscopy to image objects or the distance between them with resolutions as small as 0.5 nanometers -- one-half of one billionth of a meter, or an order of magnitude smaller than the previous best. This super-resolution technique has the potential to revolutionize biological imaging, the secretary says.

Journal: Nature
Funder: US Air Force Office of Scientific Research / Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health

Breaking biomass better

DOE/Joint Genome Institute
Peer-Reviewed Publication

The US Department of Energy is funding several projects focused on identifying enzymes in organisms such as fungi that degrade cellulosic feedstocks. The DOE Joint Genome Institute previously sequenced and published the genomes of two wood-decaying fungi. The genome of a third wood-decaying fungus was published online July 11 in Nature Biotechnology by a team of researchers led by scientists from the DOE JGI and the University of Utrecht.

Journal: Nature Biotechnology
Funder: DOE/US Department of Energy

Genome signatures enable tracking of algal complexity

DOE/Joint Genome Institute
Peer-Reviewed Publication

In the July 9 issue of Science, researchers led by the DOE Joint Genome Institute and the Salk Institute present the 138 million nucleotide genome of the multicellular alga Volvox carteri. The DOE is supporting research into the complex mechanisms present in photosynthetic organisms to better understand how they convert sunlight to energy and how photosynthetic cells control their metabolic processes so that this information can inform the production of renewable biofuels.

Journal: Science
Funder: DOE/US Department of Energy

Nano-sized light mill drives micro-sized disk

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Berkeley Lab researchers have created a nano-sized light mill motor powerful enough to drive micro-sized disks. With rotational speed and direction controlled by the frequency of incident light waves, this new nanomotor should open the door to a broad range of applications in energy and biology as well as in nanoelectromechanical systems.

Journal: Nature Nanotechnology
Funder: DOE/US Department of Energy

Transformation optics make a U-turn for the better

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Berkeley researchers have combined the scientific fields of transformation optics and plasmonics to demonstrate that with only moderate modifications of the dielectric component of a metamaterial, the physical space through which light travels can be altered with promising results, such as the creation of a 180 degree bend that won't alter the energy or properties of a light beam as it makes the U-turn, or a plasmonic version of a Luneburg lens.

Journal: Nano Letters
Funder: National Science Foundation

Shocking results from diamond anvil cell experiments

DOE/Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory physicists are using an ultra-fast laser-based technique they dubbed "nanoshocks" for something entirely different. In fact, the "nanoshocks" have such a small spatial scale that scientists can use them to study shock behavior in tiny samples such as thin films or other systems with microscopic dimensions (a few tens of micrometers). In particular they have used the technique to shock materials under high static pressure in a diamond anvil cell.

Journal: Journal of Applied Physics