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

A Molecular Light Switch?...Just Add Water

A team of researchers from Drexel University, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of California at Berkeley, and Temple University recently published its discovery that it is possible to control UV light production via a chemical reaction that functions like flipping a light switch.

Transparent Metal Films for Smartphone, Tablet and TV Displays

A new material that is both highly transparent and electrically conductive could make large screen displays, smart windows and even touch screens and solar cells more affordable and efficient, according to the Penn State materials scientists and engineers who discovered it.

A New Fusion Collaboration for MIT

Members of MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center (PSFC) community are cheering the start of a long-anticipated physics experiment at the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics in Greifswald, Germany.

New Acoustic Technique Reveals Structural Information in Nanoscale Materials

Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) have developed a new nondestructive technique for investigating these material changes by examining the acoustic response at the nanoscale.

Seeing Stars

University of Virginia astronomers are designing and building a $6 million observatory instrument that will reveal stars 25,000 light years and more away.

Universe's Birth Just a Detection Away

A high-energy physics group at the University of Iowa is trying to learn about the hot plasma created immediately after the universe's creation, using a heavy-ion particle detector designed and built at the UI.

Anatomy of a Microscopic Wood Chipper: New Observations Reveal How an Individual Cellulase Enzyme Operates

A team of scientists at Vanderbilt University, the National University of Singapore, Rutgers, and The State University of New Jersey are studying enzymes to efficiently transform ethanol made from cellulose into a major new renewable fuel source.

Heat Radiates 10,000 Times Faster at the Nanoscale

In a unique ultra-low vibration lab at the University of Michigan, engineers have measured how heat radiates from one surface to another in a vacuum at distances down to 2 nanometers.

Louisiana Company Licenses LSU Physicists’ Industry-Changing Discovery

LSU Physics Professor Shane Stadler and colleagues discovered a breakthrough material that may change the heating and cooling industry.

Harrison Receives Grant for Phosphate Biosensor Research

Professor Maria Harrison of the Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research, an affiliate of Cornell University, has received part of a $1.2 million grant from the Department of Energy to support the development of biosensors to track and measure the movement of phosphate from soil fungi into plant cells in real time.

Doping Powers New Thermoelectric Material

Northwestern University researchers report that adding sodium produces material that is most efficient at converting heat to electricity.

New Catalyst Paves Way for Bio-Based Plastics and Chemicals

Washington State University researchers have developed a catalyst that easily converts bio-based ethanol to a widely used industrial chemical, paving the way for more environmentally friendly, bio-based plastics and products.