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

Inexpensive Chip-based Device May Transform Spectrometry

A new advance by researchers at MIT could make it possible to produce tiny spectrometers that are just as accurate and powerful but could be mass produced using standard chip-making processes. This approach could open up new uses for spectrometry that previously would have been physically and financially impossible.

Duo Awarded Grant to Develop New Energy Storage Solutions

With a recent three-year, $750,000 award from the Department of Energy EPSCoR program, Xiong and co-Principal Investigator Elton Graugnard, both from the Micron School of Materials Science and Engineering, are collaborating with researchers from Argonne National Laboratory to develop cathode materials that improve the capacity and lifetime of sodium ion batteries.

Colorado State University Selected for New Nationwide High-intensity Laser Network

Colorado State University scientists are joining a new research network called LaserNetUS, established by a two-year, $6.8 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy.

Nuclear Fusion: Wrestling with Burning Questions on the Control of 'Burning Plasmas'

Recent work by members of Lehigh’s Plasma Control Laboratory will be presented at the 27th International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Fusions Conference in Gandhinagar, India. Their first piece of work, entitled “Physics-model-based Real-time Optimization for the Development of Steady-state Scenarios at DIII-D,” discusses recent experimental results that demonstrate the effectiveness of a model-based real-time optimization scheme to consistently achieve desired advanced scenarios at predefined times.

Georgetown Professor Awarded Two Department of Energy Grants

Professor James Freericks of the Department of Physics has received two grants totaling $1.75 million from the U.S. Department of Energy. The grants are both part of the Department of Energy’s recent $218 million initiative to promote quantum information science.

Genetic Behavior Reveals Cause of Death in Poplars Essential to Ecosystems

Scientists studying the valuable, but vulnerable, black cottonwood poplar have identified the genetic mechanism responsible for the species’ inability to resist a pervasive and deadly disease.

Rice U. Scientists Form Flat Tellurium

Amey Apte and his colleagues at Rice University made tellurium, a rare metal, into a film less than a nanometer (one-billionth of a meter) thick by melting a powder of the element at high temperature and blowing the atoms onto a surface.

Nebraska is Founding Member of Laser-science Network

The University of Nebraska–Lincoln’s Extreme Light Laboratory is one of the founding members of a new research network intended to unite the nation’s most powerful laser facilities.

How Can We Design Electronic Devices that Don't Overheat?

A new thermal transistor could help conduct heat away from delicate electronic components and also insulate them against chip and circuit failure.

Switching Identities: Revolutionary Insulator-like Material Also Conducts Electricity

University of Wisconsin–Madison researchers have made a material that can transition from an electricity-transmitting metal to a nonconducting insulating material without changing its atomic structure.

What Happens When Materials Take Tiny Hits

A team of researchers at MIT has just accomplished the first detailed high-speed imaging and analysis of the microparticle impact process, and used that data to predict when the particles will bounce away, stick, or knock material off the surface and weaken it.

Stanford Study Shows Regions Increasingly Suffer Hot, Dry Conditions at the Same Time

A new study from Stanford University suggests that the kind of hot, dry conditions that can shrink crop yields, destabilize food prices and lay the groundwork for devastating wildfires are increasingly striking multiple regions simultaneously as a result of a warming climate.