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PNNL supports White House efforts on soil

DOE/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Business Announcement

PNNL is supporting today's announcement by the White House about efforts related to soil sustainability by sponsoring research projects through two research initiatives with funding of $20 million. The research involves a range of diverse projects looking at soil's role in Earth's climate, the environment, food and fuel production.

Funder: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Where the rains come from

DOE/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Intense storms have become more frequent and longer-lasting in the Great Plains and Midwest in the last 35 years. What has fueled these storms? The temperature difference between the Southern Great Plains and the Atlantic Ocean produces winds that carry moisture from the Gulf of Mexico to the Great Plains, according to a new study in Nature Communications.

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

Genes, early environment sculpt the gut microbiome

DOE/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Genetics and birthplace have a big effect on the make-up of the microbial community in the gut, according to research published Nov. 28. in the journal Nature Microbiology. The findings by a team of scientists from two Department of Energy laboratories represent an attempt to untangle the forces that shape the gut microbiome, which plays an important role in keeping us healthy.

Journal: Nature Microbiology
Funder: DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Office of Naval Research

Fuel from sewage is the future -- and it's closer than you think

DOE/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Business Announcement

Sewage to fuel: PNNL research takes this renewable resource closer to reality.

Funder: DOE/US Department of Energy

State's 3 largest public research institutions to increase collaboration

DOE/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Business Announcement

The state's three largest public research institutions have signed a Memorandum of Understanding, which expresses the intent of the parties to increase research collaborations on complex challenges and provide additional research and training opportunities for students in the state. The memorandum was signed recently by leaders at the University of Washington, Washington State University and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

Deep down fracking wells, microbial communities thrive

DOE/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Microbes have a remarkable ability to adapt to the extreme conditions in fracking wells. New finding help scientists understand what is happening inside fracking wells and could offer insight into processes such as corrosion and methane production.

Journal: Nature Microbiology
Funder: DOE/US Department of Energy, National Science Foundation, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation

A cooperative way to make ammonia

DOE/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A better understanding of how bacteria fix nitrogen gas into nitrogen-carrying ammonia could lead to energy savings in industrial processes. Researchers are studying the bacterial enzyme that does this, a complicated enzyme called nitrogenase. In new work, researchers discovered that the two sides of nitrogenase cooperate in producing ammonia, alternating through different steps in a way that makes efficient use of the complex enzyme.

Journal: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Funder: Department of Energy, National Institutes of Health

Super cement's secret

DOE/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Mayenite is one smart cement -- it can be turned from an insulator to a transparent conductor and back. It is also suitable for use as semiconductors in flat panel displays. The secret behind mayenite's magic is a tiny change in its chemical composition. In new work in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers show how components called electron anions help to transform crystalline mayenite, also called C12A7, into semiconducting glass.

Journal: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Funder: Japan Science and Technology Agency, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

PNNL helping make hydropower cheaper, more fish-friendly

DOE/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Grant and Award Announcement

Helping fish migrate past dams could cost a fraction of conventional fish ladders with the help of PNNL's upcoming study of Whooshh Innovations' so-called Salmon Cannon.

Funder: DOE/US Department of Energy

Teasing out the microbiome of the Kansas prairie

DOE/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

PNNL scientists have untangled a soil metagenome -- all the genetic material recovered from a sample of soil -- more fully than ever before, reconstructing portions of the genomes of 129 species of microbes. While it's only a tiny proportion of the estimated 100,000 species in the sample, it's a leap forward for scientists who have had only a fraction of that success to date.

Journal: mSystems
Funder: DOE/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

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