Feature Channels: Energy

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Irvine, Calif., Nov. 27, 2023 – Using new super-resolution microscopes, researchers at the University of California, Irvine and the University of Pennsylvania have for the first time observed electrical charge and discharge functions inside mitochondria isolated from cells. A mitochondrion is a structure within a cell that uses aerobic respiration to generate adenosine triphosphate, an organic compound that provides energy to support many processes in living tissues.

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Mediante su Programa de Sustentabilidad Ambiental, NOIRLab de NSF reducirá la totalidad de su huella de carbón anual en un 50% hacia fines de 2027, gracias a distintas asignaciones de fondos suplementarios de la Fundación Nacional de Ciencias de los Estados Unidos para la instalación de paneles solares y baterías en los telescopios de Gemini Sur y Vera C. Rubin, ambos situados en Chile, además de otras mejoras en las instalaciones de la base de operaciones y en las cumbres.

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Through its Environmental Sustainability Program, NSF's NOIRLab will reduce its entire annual carbon footprint by 50% by the end of 2027. This will be achieved through allocations of supplemental funding from the National Science Foundation towards installing solar panels and batteries at Gemini South and Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile as well as other upgrades at both NOIRLab’s Base and Summit facilities.

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Argonne’s newest version of the AAE program takes a more focused approach centered on local communities, with the intent of distributing curricula that other organizations can use for their own science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education.

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Bitcoin mining is often perceived as environmentally damaging because it uses huge amounts of electricity to power its intensive computing needs, but a new study demonstrates how wind and solar projects can profit from bitcoin mining during the precommercial development phase — when a wind or solar farm is generating electricity, but has not yet been integrated into the grid.

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A professor from Binghamton University, State University of New York will lead a research team that recently won a $1.2 million grant from the National Science Foundation to explore the possible faults that could lead to power failures.

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An international research team receives over $4M to advance understanding of carbon nanotube synthesis and its potential for producing industrial materials more sustainably.

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High-energy heavy-ion collisions, while impossible to observe directly, provide invaluable insights into the universe's beginnings. Researchers analyze the final particles produced in these collisions to understand better the properties and mechanisms behind particle production.

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Wits researchers pioneer a new way of searching for Dark Matter. Researchers explore whether Dark Matter particles actually are produced inside a jet of standard model particles.

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One of the annoying side effects of being absorbed in a gripping novel is that the cup of tea on the table becomes cold! Unfortunately, the tea would not heat itself by absorbing the heat around it, just as pieces of a broken egg would not put themselves together or milk mixed in coffee would not separate by itself.

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The joint research team led by Principal Researcher Young Kim of the Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials (KIMM) and professors Min-sung Kim and Dong-kyu Kim of Chung-Ang University has successfully developed an environment-friendly refrigerant compressor using an electrochemical method instead of a mechanical method.

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Maria Goeppert Mayer Fellow Gordon Peterson talks about his work at Argonne National Laboratory researching a class of materials called thermoelectrics.

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Guided by machine learning, chemists at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory designed a record-setting carbonaceous supercapacitor material that stores four times more energy than the best commercial material.

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Sustainable aviation fuels (SAFs) are making news as a way to potentially reduce the greenhouse gas emissions from the aviation industry. Now, the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory has teamed up with DOE’s Idaho National Laboratory on a new project funded by DOE’s Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) called BRIDGES: the Bioenergy Research & Education Bridge.

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Innovators often point to failure as their inspiration for success. Tongchao Liu can relate.That’s because his groundbreaking research on why rechargeable lithium batteries eventually fail — and how to extend their life expectancy — has earned him a place on MIT Technology Review’s list of ​“35 Innovators Under 35” for 2023.

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Long considered myth, freakishly large rogue waves are very real and can split apart ships and even damage oil rigs. Using 700 years’ worth of wave data from more than a billion waves, scientists at the University of Copenhagen and University of Victoria have used artificial intelligence to find a formula for how to predict the occurrence of these maritime monsters. The new knowledge can make shipping safer.

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As the world clamors for carbon-free power, U.S. nuclear reactor developers have responded with a multitude of advanced reactor designs.

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This paradox is called the solar rebound effect: the ratio of the increase in energy consumption to the amount that is generated by the solar panels. In new research out of the Georgia Institute of Technology, Matthew Oliver, an associate professor in the School of Economics, presented this argument for how the economics of solar power really work, in “Tipping the Scale: Why Utility-Scale Solar Avoids a Solar Rebound and What It Means for U.S. Solar Policy,” published in The Electricity Journal.

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Quantum scientists have discovered a rare phenomenon that could hold the key to creating a ‘perfect switch’ in quantum devices which flips between being an insulator and superconductor.

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Missouri University of Science and Technology has long been home to one of the nation’s most diverse energy-focused research portfolios, and leaders are now taking steps to accelerate energy innovation from S&T’s laboratories to the marketplace.

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In 1973, physicist Phil Anderson hypothesized that the quantum spin liquid, or QSL, state existed on some triangular lattices, but he lacked the tools to delve deeper. Fifty years later, a team led by researchers associated with the Quantum Science Center headquartered at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory has confirmed the presence of QSL behavior in a new material with this structure, KYbSe2.

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Started in 2016 by the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO), the Bioprocessing Separations Consortium (SEPCON) was established to address the challenges posed to bring biofuels to market faster and more efficiently. Separating biomass — organic material from plants, agricultural waste and wet waste, among others — is costly and uses a lot of energy.

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The world’s total population is expected to reach 9.9 billion by 2050. This rapid increase in population is boosting the demand for agriculture to cater for the increased demand. Below are some of the latest research and features on agriculture and farming in the Agriculture channel on Newswise.

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Researchers at Johns Hopkins APL made a breakthrough in developing a smart material that changes its behavior based on temperature.

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After a distant star’s explosive death, an active stellar corpse was the likely source of repeated energetic flares observed over several months – a phenomenon astronomers had never seen before.

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Now that ChatGPT has revealed connections in meaning that can emerge from the simple premise of predicting the next word, a team of researchers led by the University of Michigan aims to do the same for atoms strung together to build molecules.

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Discovery of “cooperative” interactions among battery components points to an exciting new approach for designing batteries beyond lithium-ion.

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Battery energy storage systems are being proposed in municipalities across the U.S. PNNL researchers can help community planners guide safe siting and operations.

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Absorbing excess sound to make public environments like theaters and concert halls safer for hearing and using the unwanted sound waves to create electricity is the aim of a paper in Physics of Fluids.

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Sandia National Laboratories researchers have used computer models of closed-loop geothermal systems to determine if they would be economically viable sources of renewable energy. They found that the cost of drilling would need to decrease significantly to hit cost targets.

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Non-toxic and scalable water-based flow batteries would be a good solution for storing renewable energy in urban areas – if it weren't for their very low energy density. Empa researcher David Reber wants to remedy the situation with clever materials design.

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Scientists have developed a new type of lens that focuses an X-ray beam to nanometer levels. The monolithic 2D multilayer Laue lenses (MLLs) can focus an X-ray beam to approximately 10 nanometers. The system overcomes the alignment challenges typically associated with these ultra-high resolution focusing optics. This development was recognized with a Microscopy Today Innovation Award in 2022.

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The team reduced the amount of expensive platinum group metals needed to make an effective cell and found a new way to test future fuel cell innovations.

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Representatives from the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Office of Science and the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) have signed a "Statement of Interest" to launch what both agencies hope will be a significant collaboration on the Electron-Ion Collider (EIC).

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Argonne National Laboratory leads the Fast Reactor Program, which provides key support to industry in demonstrating clean, green advanced nuclear reactor technologies.

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Nikhil Koratkar, Ph.D., John A. Clark and Edward T. Crossan Professor of Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, has been named a fellow of the American Physical Society (APS). Koratkar was recognized for his pioneering contributions to the field of nanoscale science and technology and the use of nanoscale materials in composites and energy storage devices.

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The Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science (KRISS) has developed an electromagnetic wave measurement standard for a candidate frequency band of 6G.

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As the United States works to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, different energy sectors will require different solutions.

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The exotic properties of 2D materials can be manipulated by stacking layers of these materials then modifying them by, for example, applying twists. Researchers have developed a novel microscopy technique to study twisted, layered 2D materials at high spatial resolution using interferometric four-dimensional scanning transmission electron microscopy (4D-STEM).

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Researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have been leading a project to understand how a high-altitude electromagnetic pulse, or EMP, could threaten power plants.

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Two teams that include scientists from U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory have been named finalists for the Association for Computing Machinery 2023 Gordon Bell Prize. Both teams conducted groundbreaking research with the use of high performance exascale computing tools, such as Frontier, a supercomputer at DOE’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL).

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A team of researchers hopes to help remote Indigenous communities in Alaska become more energy efficient.

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The U.S. Department of Energy's Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility is proud to announce nine new graduate fellowships for the 2023-2024 academic year, thanks to ongoing funding from Jefferson Science Associates. These fellowships offer students a unique opportunity to collaborate with leading nuclear physicists at Jefferson Lab and pursue advanced studies at their respective universities.

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Argonne scientists recognized for use of exascale computing tools to achieve high-fidelity simulations of advanced nuclear reactor systems and high-resolution simulations that reduce uncertainty in climate model predictions.