News By Location

Enzymes, the workhorses of chemical reactions in cells, lead short and brutal lives. This sad fact of nature has limited the possibilities of harnessing enzymes as catalytic tools outside the cell. Scientists at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Wash., have caged single enzymes to create a new class of catalysts called SENs, or single enzyme nanoparticles. The nanostructure protects the catalyst, allowing it to remain active for five months instead of hours.

Like many objects of curiosity in the nanoworld, the DNA molecule has defied visual scrutiny because it lies beyond the "diffraction limit"--a 200 nanometer cutoff where the too-tiny escapes resolution by an optical microscope. PNNL scientists Dehong Hu, Peter Lu and colleagues found their away around this barrier, combining FLIM, or fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy, with AFM, atomic force microscopy.

A team at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) speeds soil's natural aging process to sponge up and trap organic contaminants. In nature, soils age as water-resisting organic compounds accumulate in mineral pores and organic matter of sediments. PNNL speeds this process by injecting soils with a contaminant dissolved in "supercritical" carbon dioxide--a fluid that shares properties of liquids and gases.

Scientists at the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have developed a novel material that can remove mercury and other toxic substances from coal-burning power-plant waste water. "This substance has proven to be an effective and voracious tool for absorbing mercury,"said Shas Mattigod, lead chemist and PNNL project manager. Pore sizes can be tailored for specific tasks.

Besides posing a serious environmental hazard, organophosphate-based pesticides, or OP compounds, are raw material for chemical-warfare nerve agents. Crews responding to a terrorist's nerve-agent attack have had no way to identify the compound they're dealing with until it's too late. Yuehe Lin, a PNNL chief scientist, reports the successful lab test of a disposable OP sensor he fashioned from carbon nanotubes chemically fused to enzymes borrowed from the nervous system-the same enzymes that act as catalysts in neurotransmitters.

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory has instituted the use of Entrust digital signature technology for concurrence on Laboratory Directed Research and Development proposals. This is the first time a DOE electronic signature system and a laboratory system have been directly linked. The improved process eliminates the time and cost associated with traditional paper-intensive processes.

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory has been recognized for transferring technologies that will enhance drug discovery, treat cancer with fewer side effects, and advance the capabilities of sophisticated analytical instruments known as inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometers for biological and biomedical research.

The Northwest Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Network--or N4--is magnifying communication about nano-related research in the Pacific Northwest region.

Ecologists have come to rely on a tiny fly called the midge as an environmental sentinel--an entomological canary-in-a-coal-mine for rivers. They have learned that a variety of midge species thrive in healthy streams, whereas in polluted water, like that near a lead mine, midge species can dwindle to nothing. So by skimming the skins that pupating midges shed as they enter adulthood, ecologists can attain a cheap snapshot of a stream's living conditions.

Being able to find the "needle" of information in a "haystack" of millions of words is a capability with many beneficial uses, particularly to secure the homeland. For more than three decades, scientists at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have developed an array of information visualization tools to help find that crucial needle in the haystack.