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

CFN Scientist Spotlight: Gregory Doerk Guides the Self-Assembly of Materials to Make Diverse Nanoscale Patterns

Some materials have the unique ability to self-assemble into organized molecular patterns and structures. Materials scientist Gregory Doerk of the Electronic Nanomaterials Group at the Center for Functional Nanomaterials (CFN)—a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science User Facility at Brookhaven National Laboratory—takes advantage of this ability in materials called block copolymers.

Mallory Ladd: A molecular-scale Arctic expedition

The University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK) Bredesen Center student last year finished her third trip to Alaska to collect field data for the Next Generation Ecosystem Experiments-Arctic (NGEE-Arctic) program, supported by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Biological and Environmental Research.

New Study Visualizes Motion of Water Molecules, Promises New Wave of Electronic Devices

An Oak Ridge National Laboratory-led research team used a sophisticated X-ray scattering technique to visualize and quantify the movement of water molecules in space and time, which provides new insights that may open pathways for liquid-based electronics.

A Catalytic Balancing Act

Researchers from the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory, Johns Hopkins University, Drexel University and several universities in South Korea used a new and counterintuitive approach to create a better catalyst that supports one of the reactions involved in splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen.

Read more about A Catalytic Balancing Act

Ames Laboratory-led Research Team Maps Magnetic Fields of Bacterial Cells and Nano-objects for the First Time

A research team led by a scientist from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory has demonstrated for the first time that the magnetic fields of bacterial cells and magnetic nano-objects in liquid can be studied at high resolution using electron microscopy.

Feathers and Whiskers Help Prevent Short Circuits in Plasma Devices

Physicists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) have found a way to prevent plasma — the hot, charged state of matter composed of free electrons and atomic nuclei — from causing short circuits in machines such as spacecraft thrusters, radar amplifiers, and particle accelerators.

INCITE Awards LLNL Researchers with Computing Time at Argonne and Oak Ridge

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) scientists and researchers were among those awarded dedicated time on supercomputers at Argonne(link is external) and Oak Ridge (link is external)national laboratories under a Department of Energy program aimed at supporting computationally intensive, large-scale research projects.

‘Hot’ Electrons Heat Up Solar Energy Research

Solar and renewable energy is getting hot, thanks to nanoscientists — those who work with materials smaller than the width of a human hair — at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory who have discovered new, better and faster ways to convert energy from light into energetic electrons.

New Boeing Method Accelerates Turbulence Modeling Uncertainty Analysis

Boeing researchers recently used resources at the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility to perform simulations that would aid them in identifying and reducing uncertainty in a computational turbulence model called the Spalart–Allmaras model.

When One Reference Genome is Not Enough

An international team led by researchers at the Joint Genome Institute gauged the size of a plant pan-genome - the non-redundant union of all the sets of genes found in individuals of a species - using Brachypodium distachyon, a wild grass widely used as a model for grain and biomass crops, enabling breeders to harness natural diversity to improve traits such as yield, disease resistance, and tolerance of marginal growing conditions.

Neutrons Track Quantum Entanglement in Copper Elpasolite Mineral

A research team including Georgia Institute of Technology professor Martin Mourigal used neutron scattering at Oak Ridge National Laboratory to study copper elpasolite, a mineral that can be driven to an exotic magnetic state when subjected to very low temperatures and a high magnetic field.

Q&A with CFN User Xiaowei Teng

To design nanostructured materials for energy conversion and storage applications, Teng of the University of New Hampshire extensively uses the electron microscopy facilities at Brookhaven Lab's Center for Functional Nanomaterials (CFN).