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When it comes to the special sauce of batteries, researchers at PNNL have discovered it's all about the salt concentration. By getting the right amount of salt, right where they want it, they've demonstrated a small lithium-metal battery can recharge about seven times more than batteries with conventional electrolytes.

A mix of factors is contributing to an increasing mortality rate of trees in the moist tropics, where trees in some areas are dying at about twice the rate that they were 35 years ago.

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and OHSU announced today a joint collaboration to improve patient care by focusing research on highly complex sets of biomedical data, and the tools to interpret them. The OHSU-PNNL Precision Medicine Innovation Co-Laboratory, called PMedIC, will provide a comprehensive ecosystem for scientists to utilize integrated 'omics, data science and imaging technologies in their research in order to advance precision medicine - an approach to disease treatment that takes into account individual variability in genes, environment and lifestyle for each person.

PNNL has been honored with three awards for excellence in transferring technologies to private sector by the Federal Laboratory Consortium.

Tiny particles fuel powerful storms and influence weather much more than has been appreciated, according to a study in the Jan. 26 issue of the journal Science. While scientists have known that aerosols may play an important role in shaping weather and climate, the new study shows that the smallest of particles have an outsize effect. The tiny pollutants -- long considered too small to have much impact on droplet formation -- are, in effect, diminutive downpour-makers.

PNNL scientists have created new tiny tubes that could help with water purification and tissue engineering studies.

Scientists have identified a set of biomarkers that indicate which patients infected with the Ebola virus are most at risk of dying from the disease. The results come from one of the most in-depth studies ever of blood samples from patients with Ebola. Researchers found 11 biomarkers that distinguish fatal infections from non-fatal ones and two that, when screened for early upon symptom onset, accurately predict which patients are likely to die.

PNNL researchers have measured the forces that cause certain crystals to assemble, revealing competing factors that researchers might be able to control. The work has a variety of implications in both discovery and applied science. In addition to providing insights into the formation of minerals and semiconductor nanomaterials, it might also help scientists understand soil as it expands and contracts through wetting and drying cycles.