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A probable cause for Parkinson's?

DOE/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A study by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and UCLA's David Geffen School of Medicine reveals that damage in Parkinson's, Alzheimer's and other brain diseases is linked to a natural byproduct of metabolism and oxidative stress called nitration. Researchers surveyed nearly 8,000 proteins in a healthy mouse brain and found nitration on 31 sites along 29 different proteins, half of which had been previously implicated in several of the neurodegenerative diseases.

Journal: Biochemistry
Funder: DOE/US Department of Energy, National Institutes of Health

WSU and PNNL break ground on new facility

DOE/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Washington State University and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory broke ground April 13, 2006, on the Bioproducts, Sciences, and Engineering Laboratory. The BSEL is a $24-million joint effort between WSU and PNNL. Located on the WSU Tri-Cities campus, researchers will use the laboratory to develop processes for converting low-value agricultural byproducts and residues into value-added chemicals for products like plastics, solvents, fibers, pharmaceuticals and fuel additives.

"Smart" energy devices + real-time pricing = increased options for consumers

DOE/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

About 200 volunteers in the Pacific Northwest are testing equipment that is expected to make the power grid more reliable while offsetting huge investments in new transmission and distribution equipment. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory recently launched the Pacific Northwest GridWise^TM Testbed Demonstration, a regional initiative to test and speed adoption of new smart grid technologies that can make the power grid more resilient and efficient.

New system trains good grid operators with bad data

DOE/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Power grid operators now can train like pilots--with simulators providing faulty readings designed to throw them off--thanks to new training tools created by DOE's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and AREVA T&D. Such misleading data and resulting loss of "situational awareness" was identified as a major cause of the August 2003 blackout.

Meeting: 2006 PES General Meeting

You scream, I scream … there's something in my ice cream!

DOE/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Business Announcement

Researchers at the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory developed a patented inspection method that uses sound waves to detect foreign objects in processing streams. Originally developed to look for bone fragments and foreign materials in chicken breasts, the method can also detect cartilage, metal and plastic -- essentially anything that shouldn't be in the product. Battelle, which operates PNNL, funded the research and the method is available for licensing.

High-flying satellites give land managers the low-down on cheatgrass

DOE/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Business Announcement

New software uses NASA satellite imagery and complex computer programs to show the location and growth of cheatgrass, a noxious weed that has invaded the arid West from desert lowlands to high mountains.

Funder: NASA

'Mercury sponge' technology goes from lab to market

DOE/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Business Announcement

A material designed to capture and remove mercury and other toxic substances from industrial waste streams is now available for commercial use.

Funder: DOE/US Department of Energy

New century of thirst for world's mountains

DOE/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

By the century's end, the Andes in South America will have less than half their current winter snowpack, mountain ranges in Europe and the US West will have lost nearly half of their snow-bound water, and snow on New Zealand's picturesque snowcapped peaks will all but have vanished. Such is the dramatic forecast from a new, full-century Pacific Northwest National Laboratory model that offers detail its authors call "an unprecedented picture of climate change."

Journal: Journal of Climate
Funder: DOE/US Department of Energy, National Science Foundation

Buckyballs make room for gilded cages

DOE/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Gold atom clusters have been discovered to be the first known metallic hollow equivalents of the famous hollow carbon fullerenes known as buckyballs. The evidence for what their discoverers call "hollow golden cages" appeared today in the online early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "This is the first time that a hollow cage made of metal has been experimentally proved," said Lai-Sheng Wang, the paper's lead corresponding author.

Journal: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Funder: DOE/US Department of Energy, Guggenheim Foundation, National Science Foundation

A biosensor layered like lasagna

DOE/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory scientists have used electrostatic attraction to layer reactive biological molecules lasagna-like around spaghetti-like carbon nanotubes. This configuration can accommodate a wide range of applications, from ultra-precise blood-sugar monitoring to infectious-agent detection.

Journal: Journal of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology
Funder: DOE/US Department of Energy

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