Argonne, Brandeis University Researchers Examine Infectious Bacterium's Natural Defenses
As a spinoff from their research aimed at fighting a specific parasite, researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory and Brandeis University may have found a way around an infectious bacterium's natural defenses.
Study Finds a Way to Prevent Fires in Next-Generation Lithium Batteries
In a study that could improve the safety of next-generation batteries, researchers discovered that adding two chemicals to the electrolyte of a lithium metal battery prevents the formation of dendrites - "fingers" of lithium that pierce the barrier between the battery's halves, causing it to short out, overheat and sometimes burst into flame.
Automating Microbial Genome Sequence Decontamination
A study in The ISME Journal describes a tool called ProDeGe developed by U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute (DOE JGI) scientists that is the first computational protocol for quick and automated removal of contaminant sequences from draft microbial genomes.
Researchers Correlate Incidences of Rheumatoid Arthritis and Giant Cell Arteritis with Solar Cycles
New release reports correlation between incidences of rheumatoid arthritis and giant cell arteritis with solar cycles.
New Optics Technology Opens Door to High-Resolution Atomic-Level Hard X-Ray Studies
An international collaboration involving two U.S. Department of Energy national laboratories has demonstrated a way to reach dramatically smaller focal sizes for hard X-rays, opening the door to research with hard X-rays at atomic-scale.
Argonne Scientists Announce First Room-Temperature Magnetic Skyrmion Bubbles
Researchers at UCLA and Argonne National Laboratory announced today a new method for creating magnetic skyrmion bubbles at room temperature. The bubbles, a physics phenomenon thought to be an option for more energy-efficient and compact electronics, can be created with simple equipment and common materials.
Newly Discovered Property Could Help Beat the Heat Problem in Computer Chips
X-ray studies at the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory have for the first time observed an exotic property that could warp the electronic structure of a material in a way that reduces heat buildup and improves performance in ever-smaller computer components.
Land Management Practices to Become Important as Biofuels Use Grows
The handling of agricultural crop residues appears to have a large impact on soil's ability to retain carbon, making land management practices increasingly important, according to researchers at Argonne National Laboratory.
Scientists See Ripples of a Particle-Separating Wave in Primordial Plasma
Scientists in the STAR collaboration at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider, a particle accelerator exploring nuclear physics and the building blocks of matter at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory, have new evidence for what's called a "chiral magnetic wave" rippling through the soup of quark-gluon plasma created in RHIC's energetic particle smashups. The findings are described in a paper that will be highlighted as an Editors' Suggestion in Physical Review Letters.
BESC, Mascoma Develop Revolutionary Microbe for Biofuel Production
Biofuels pioneer Mascoma LLC and the Department of Energy's BioEnergy Science Center have developed a revolutionary strain of yeast that could help significantly accelerate the development of biofuels from nonfood plant matter.
Story Tips from the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, June 2015
1) Suitability mapping. 2) Safer landings. 3) Rooftop A/C retrofit. 4) Clothes dryers that could use vibrations instead of heat.
Giant Structures Called Plasmoids Could Simplify the Design of Future Tokamaks
Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) have for the first time simulated the formation of structures called "plasmoids" during Coaxial Helicity Injection (CHI), a process that could simplify the design of fusion facilities known as tokamaks. Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) have for the first time simulated the formation of structures called "plasmoids" during Coaxial Helicity Injection (CHI), a process that could simplify the design of fusion facilities known as tokamaks. The findings, reported in the journal Physical Review Letters, involve the formation of plasmoids in the hot, charged plasma gas that fuels fusion reactions. These round structures carry current that could eliminate the need for solenoids - large magnetic coils that wind down the center of today's tokamaks - to initiate the plasma and complete the magnetic field that confines the hot gas. "Understanding this
Using Robots at Berkeley Lab, Scientists Assemble Promising Antimicrobial Compounds
There's an urgent demand for new antimicrobial compounds that are effective against constantly emerging drug-resistant bacteria. Two robotic chemical-synthesizing machines at the Molecular Foundry have joined the search.
Spiraling Laser Pulses Could Change the Nature of Graphene
A new study predicts that researchers could use spiraling pulses of laser light to change the nature of graphene, turning it from a metal into an insulator and giving it other peculiar properties that might be used to encode information.
DNA Double Helix Does Double Duty in Assembling Arrays of Nanoparticles
In a new twist on the use of DNA in nanoscale construction, scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory and collaborators put synthetic strands of the biological material to work in two ways: They used ropelike configurations of the DNA double helix to form a rigid geometrical framework, and added dangling pieces of single-stranded DNA to glue nanoparticles in place.
Engineering Phase Changes in Nanoparticle Arrays
Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory have just taken a big step toward the goal of engineering dynamic nanomaterials whose structure and associated properties can be switched on demand. In a paper appearing in Nature Materials, they describe a way to selectively rearrange the nanoparticles in three-dimensional arrays to produce different configurations, or phases, from the same nano-components.
Scientists Mix Matter and Anti-Matter to Resolve Decade-Old Proton Puzzle
This new result has allowed researchers to determine the reason behind a large discrepancy in the data between two different methods used to measure the proton's electric form factor.
Visualizing How Radiation Bombardment Boosts Superconductivity
Study shows how heavy-ion induced atomic-scale defects in iron-based superconductors "pin" potentially disruptive quantum vortices, enabling high currents to flow unimpeded. The study opens a new way forward for designing and understanding superconductors that can operate in demanding high-current, high magnetic field applications, such as zero-energy-loss power transmission lines and energy-generating turbines.
Researchers Watch Protein 'Quake' after Chemical Bond Break
Scientists for the first time have precisely measured a protein's natural "knee-jerk" reaction to the breaking of a chemical bond - a quaking motion that propagated through the protein at the speed of sound.
Supernova Hunting with Supercomputers
Using a "roadmap" of theoretical calculations and supercomputer simulations performed by Berkeley Lab's Daniel Kasen, astronomers observed a flash of light caused by a supernova slamming into a nearby star, allowing them to determine the stellar system from which a Type Ia supernova was born. This finding confirms one of two competing theories about Type Ia supernovae birth.
A Little Drop Will Do It: Tiny Grains of Lithium Can Dramatically Improve the Performance of Fusion Plasmas
Small amount of lithium produces surprisingly large improvement of performance of fusion plasma.
ORNL Demonstrates First Large-Scale Graphene Composite Fabrication
One of the barriers to using graphene at a commercial scale could be overcome using a method demonstrated by researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
CLAIRE Brings Electron Microscopy to Soft Materials
Berkeley Lab researchers, working at the Molecular Foundry, have invented a technique called "CLAIRE" that extends the incredible resolution of electron microscopy to the non-invasive nanoscale imaging of soft matter, including biomolecules, liquids, polymers, gels and foams.
Intense Lasers Cook Up Complex, Self-Assembled Nanomaterials
New technique developed at Brookhaven Lab makes nanomaterial self-assembly 1,000 times faster and could be used for industrial-scale solar panels and electronics
Two Large Hadron Collider Experiments First to Observe Rare Subatomic Process
Two experiments at the Large Hadron Collider at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva, Switzerland, have combined their results and observed a previously unseen subatomic process.