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

ORNL Researchers Tune Friction in Ionic Solids at the Nanoscale

Experiments conducted by researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have uncovered a way of controlling friction on ionic surfaces at the nanoscale using electrical stimulation and ambient water vapor.

New Pathway of Valleytronics

A potential avenue to quantum computing currently generating quite the buzz in the high-tech industry is “valleytronics,” in which information is coded based on the wavelike motion of electrons moving through certain two-dimensional (2D) semiconductors.

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How Ionic: Scaffolding is in Charge of Calcium Carbonate Crystals

Using a powerful microscope that lets researchers see the formation of crystals in real time, a team led by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory found that negatively charged molecules — such as carbohydrates found in the shells of mollusks — control where, when, and how calcium carbonate forms.

Screening Plants for Potential Natural Products the New Fashioned Way

Contrary to conventional wisdom, an international collaboration of scientists led by Berkeley Lab researchers demonstrated that cultures of plants grown in labs show sufficient biodiversity to be used for natural product screening.

Pinpointing the Magnetic Moments of Nuclear Matter

Using supercomputing resources at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC), a team of nuclear physicists has made a key discovery in its quest to shed light on the structure and behavior of subatomic particles.

Self-destructive Effects of Magnetically-doped Ferromagnetic Topological Insulators

Research conducted at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory and published in the Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences revealed extreme disorder in a fundamental property of the surface electrons known as the "Dirac mass."

Solving an Organic Semiconductor Mystery

Naomi Ginsberg, a faculty chemist with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of California (UC) Berkeley, led a team that used a unique form of microscopy to study the domain interfaces within an especially high-performing solution-processed organic semiconductor called TIPS-pentacene.

Dark Horse of the Dark Matter Hunt

Scientists on ADMX – short for the Axion Dark Matter eXperiment, which is supported by the Office of Science and the National Science Foundation – are searching for hypothetical particles called axions. The axion is a dark matter candidate that is also a bit of a dark horse.

From the Bottom Up: Manipulating Nanoribbons at the Molecular Level

researchers at the US Department of Energy’s (DOE) Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the University of California, Berkeley, have developed a new precision approach for synthesizing graphene nanoribbons from pre-designed molecular building blocks.

Water, Water, Everywhere — Controlling the Properties of Nanomaterials

Scientists at the US Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory are learning how the properties of water molecules on the surface of metal oxides can be used to better control these minerals and use them to make products such as more efficient semiconductors for organic light emitting diodes and solar cells.

Solar Cell Polymers with Multiplied Electrical Output

A team from Brookhaven National Lab has found a new family of materials that produces "twin" electrical charges on single molecules, potentially paving the way for easy manufacture of more efficient solar devices.

World’s Most Powerful Camera Receives Funding Approval

The 3,200-megapixel centerpiece of the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST), which will provide unprecedented details of the universe and help address some of its biggest mysteries, has received key “Critical Decision 2” approval from the DOE.