University Research | U.S. DOE Office of Science (SC)

DU Physicists Put New Spin on Computer Technology

New research from a team of physicists at the University of Denver has the potential to serve as the foundation for next-generation computer technology.

Thomas Sharkey Joins the PRL

Thomas D. Sharkey, Michigan State University Distinguished Professor and former chair of the MSU Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (BMB) in the College of Natural Science, has become a faculty member of the MSU-DOE Plant Research Laboratory (PRL).

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Recreating Interstellar Ions with Lasers

Using lasers, Michigan State University scientists have essentially duplicated the mechanism that’s found from the center of the galaxy to Earth’s own ionosphere.

How Seawater Strenthens Ancient Roman Concrete

University of Utah geologist Marie Jackson studies the minerals and microscale structures of Roman concrete as she would a volcanic rock. She and her colleagues have found that seawater filtering through the concrete leads to the growth of interlocking minerals that lend the concrete added cohesion.

Flexible Flagella Fight Flow: Bacteria Change a Liquid’s Properties and Escape Entrapment

A new study by researchers at Penn State University used mathematical models to understand how bacteria with flagella -- a collection of spinning hairs used for propulsion that act together like a tail -- overcome forces from the flow of a liquid and navigate complex environments.

Scientists Produce Dialysis Membrane Made from Graphene

MIT engineers have fabricated a functional dialysis membrane from a sheet of graphene — a single layer of carbon atoms, linked end to end in hexagonal configuration like that of chicken wire.

Peanut Family Secret for Making Chemical Building Blocks Revealed

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have discovered the structure of a new plant enzyme, one which could be a useful tool to biotechnologists trying to control the production of tyrosine and its derivatives.

Cellulosic Biofuels Can Benefit the Environment If Managed Correctly

Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy-funded Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (GLBRC) believe cellulosic biofuels – or liquid energy derived from grasses and wood – could become a green fuel of the future, providing an environmentally sustainable way of meeting energy needs.

Ruthenium Rules for New Fuel Cells

Rice University scientists have fabricated a durable catalyst for high-performance fuel cells by attaching single ruthenium atoms to graphene.

Nanostructures Detect Colors

Engineers at Caltech have for the first time developed a light detector that combines two disparate technologies—nanophotonics, which manipulates light at the nanoscale, and thermoelectrics, which translates temperature differences directly into electron voltage—to distinguish different wavelengths of light, including both visible and infrared wavelengths, at high resolution.

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1 Billion Suns: World’s Brightest Laser Sparks New Behavior in Light

By focusing laser light to a brightness 1 billion times greater than the surface of the sun — the brightest light ever produced on Earth — physicists from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln have observed changes in a vision-enabling interaction between light and matter.

New Photoacoustic Technique Detects Gases at Parts-per-Quadrillion Level

A team of researchers has found a way to detect trace gases down to concentrations at the parts-per-quadrillion level using a new variation on the photoacoustic effect, a technique that measures the sound generated when light interacts with molecules.