2013 | U.S. DOE Office of Science (SC)

Discovery of New Material State Counterintuitive to Laws of Physics

When you squeeze something, it gets smaller. Unless you’re at Argonne National Laboratory.

Massive Particle Storage Ring to Begin 3,200-Mile Trek on Sunday

How do you move a 50-foot-wide, circular electromagnet from Long Island to the Chicago suburbs in one piece without flexing or twisting it? Very, very carefully.

Ames Laboratory Scientists Discover New Family of Quasicrystals

Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Ames Laboratory have discovered a new family of rare-earth quasicrystals using an algorithm they developed to help pinpoint them. Their research resulted in finding the only known magnetic rare earth icosahedral binary quasicrystals, now providing a “matched set” of magnetic quasicrystals and their closely related periodic cousins.

“Popcorn” Particle Pathways Promise Better Lithium-Ion Batteries

Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories have confirmed the particle-by-particle mechanism by which lithium ions move in and out of electrodes made of lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO4, or LFP), findings that could lead to better performance in lithium-ion batteries in electric vehicles, medical equipment and aircraft.

Testing Artificial Photosynthesis

Berkeley Lab Researchers Develop Fully Integrated Microfluidic Test-bed for Solar-driven Electrochemical Energy Conversion Systems.

Resistivity Switch is Window to Role of Magnetism in Iron-Based Superconductors

Physicists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory have discovered surprising changes in electrical resistivity in iron-based superconductors. The findings, reported in Nature Communications, offer further evidence that magnetism and superconductivity are closely related in this class of novel superconductors.

Berkeley Lab Researchers Increase NMR/MRI Sensitivity through Hyperpolarization of Nuclei in Diamond

Berkeley Lab researchers have demonstrated the first magnetically-controlled nearly complete hyperpolarization of the spins of carbon-13 nuclei located near synthetic defects in diamond crystals. This spin hyperpolarization, which can be carried out with refrigerator-style magnets at room temperature, enhances NMR/MRI sensitivity by many orders of magnitude.

Behind the Scenes of Science

New video shows the essential efforts at Berkeley Lab’s Mechanical Fabrication Facility.

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Atom by Atom, Bond by Bond, a Chemical Reaction Caught in the Act

Berkeley Lab scientists make the first-ever high-resolution images of a molecule as it breaks and reforms chemical bonds.

Models from Big Molecules Captured in a Flash

Berkeley Lab researchers and their colleagues create a new way to model biological molecules caught with a flash of x-rays.

The Formula for Turning Cement Into Metal

In a move that would make the Alchemists of King Arthur’s time green with envy, scientists have unraveled the formula for turning liquid cement into liquid metal. This makes cement a semi-conductor and opens up its use in the profitable consumer electronics marketplace for thin films, protective coatings, and computer chips.

Whirlpools on the Nanoscale Could Multiply Magnetic Memory

At the Advanced Light Source, Berkeley Lab scientists join an international team to control spin orientation in magnetic nanodisks.