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Soil science: Healing our planet's ills from the ground up

DOE/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Soil depletion hastened the collapse of at least one society, the Greeks, and contributed to economic hardship as recently as the last century in the Great Plains of the United States. With climate change and population growth affecting the services provided by soil, a team of scientists say more attention should be paid to protecting and rejuvenating soil. Strategies for doing so include refocusing and boosting research, and communicating its importance to the public.

Journal: Soil Science Society of America Journal

A paperweight for platinum

DOE/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A new combination of nanoparticles and graphene results in a more durable catalytic material for fuel cells, according to work published today online at the Journal of the American Chemical Society. The catalytic material is not only hardier but more chemically active as well. The researchers are confident the results will help improve fuel cell design.

Journal: Journal of the American Chemical Society
Funder: DOE/US Department of Energy

Tool makes search for Martian life easier

DOE/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

PNNL-developed ion funnel technology could make finding life on Mars's surface easier when coupled with a laser and a mass spectrometer that are placed directly on the robotic arm of a space rover.

Journal: Planetary and Space Science
Funder: NASA

No longer pining for organic molecules to make particles in the air

DOE/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

The fresh scent of pine has helped atmospheric scientists find missing sources of organic molecules in the air -- which, it could well turn out, aren't missing after all. In work appearing in this week's Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences early edition online, researchers found that particles containing compounds such as those given off by pine trees evaporate more than 100 times slower than expected by current air-quality models.

Journal: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Funder: DOE/US Department of Energy

PNNL recognized for technology transfer

DOE/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Grant and Award Announcement

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory has been given three awards from the Federal Laboratory Consortium for bringing lab-developed technologies to the marketplace. The award-winning technologies analyze trace gas, create a common chemical from plants and more easily study live cells.

Funder: DOE/US Department of Energy

6 PNNL scientists elected 2010 AAAS Fellows

DOE/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Grant and Award Announcement

Six researchers at the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have been elected fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Outsmarting the wind

DOE/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory scientists are researching how radar weather instruments can help improve predictions on when and how strongly winds will blow. They're testing the instruments from a working wind farm in southeastern Washington State with the goal of helping power grid operators better manage the intermittent stress that spinning wind turbines put on the electrical grid.

Funder: DOE/US Department of Energy
Meeting: AGU Fall Meeting 2010

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory's 2010 AGU tip sheet

DOE/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

PNNL scientists will present a variety of research - including studies of clouds, aerosols and carbon sequestration -- at the 2010 American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting Dec. 13-17 in San Francisco.

Funder: DOE/US Department of Energy, NASA
Meeting: AGU Fall Meeting 2010

Scientists begin 5-month study of cloud life cycles

DOE/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Grant and Award Announcement

For the next five months, a dense collection of remote-sensing instruments will gather data from the clouds at four different elevations on Mount Werner in the Steamboat Springs ski area. Scientists will use these data to study how clouds -- especially those that produce rain and snow -- evolve in mountainous terrain. They will use the data to verify the accuracy of measurements used in computer models of the Earth's climate system.

Funder: DOE/US Department of Energy

Charging makes nano-sized electrodes swell, elongate and spiral

DOE/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

New high-resolution images of electrode wires made from materials used in rechargeable lithium ion batteries shows them contorting as they become charged with electricity. The thin, nano-sized wires writhe and fatten as lithium ions flow in during charging, according to a paper in this week's issue of the journal Science. The work suggests how rechargeable batteries eventually give out and might offer insights for building better batteries.

Journal: Science
Funder: DOE/US Department of Energy

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