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

Is Black Phosphorous the Next Big Thing in Materials?

A team of researchers at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has experimentally confirmed strong in-plane anisotropy in thermal conductivity, along the zigzag and armchair directions of single-crystal black phosphorous nanoribbons.

Xenon, Xenon Everywhere

In their search to find dark matter particles, researchers at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory are in the market for 10 metric tons of xenon in its liquid form.

PIMs May Be the Cup of Choice for Lithium-Sulfur Batteries

Berkeley Lab researchers have found a solution to the polysulfide crossover problem which decreases battery efficiency and life by developing a membrane made from polymers of intrinsic microporosity (PIMs) to block unwanted ion transport.

Reaching for the Horizon

Joint DOE/NSF Nuclear Science Advisory Committee releases new long range plan recommendations on the national program for basic nuclear science research.

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Nanoelectronics Researchers Employ Titan for an Electrifying Simulation Speedup

Researchers at ETH Zurich are using America’s fastest supercomputer to make huge gains in understanding the smallest electronic devices. The team, led by Mathieu Luisier, focuses on further developing the front line of electronics research—simulating and better understanding nanoscale components such as transistors or battery electrodes whose active regions can be on the order of 1 billionth of a meter, or about as long as your fingernails grow in one second.

Berkeley Lab’s Molecular Foundry Featured in Special Issue of Advanced Materials

October 14, 2015 issue highlights several different areas of innovation and promise at Berkeley Lab’s user facility.

Are Data Security Breaches Becoming Larger and More Frequent?

Researchers at Berkeley National Lab and the University of New Mexico have found that digital information may be no more at risk than it was a decade ago.

One Direction: Researchers Grow Nanocircuitry with Semiconducting Graphene Nanoribbons

In a development that could revolutionize electronic ciruitry, a research team from the University of Wisconsin at Madison (UW) and the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory has confirmed a new way to control the growth paths of graphene nanoribbons on the surface of a germainum crystal.

Field Widens for Environments, Microbes That Produce Toxic Form of Mercury

Thawing permafrost and contaminated sediment in marine coastal areas pose some of the greatest risks for the production of highly toxic methylmercury, according to researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

SLAC Experiment Finds Key to Natural Detoxifier’s Reactivity

Researchers working at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory have discovered that a mere 9-trillionths-of-a-meter reduction in the length of a chemical bond dramatically boosts the reactivity of a family of molecules that helps keep humans and many other organisms healthy.

Mapping the Protein Universe

A collaboration of scientists from five national laboratories – led by Argonne – are building a computer program to provide researchers with an extensive library of proteins in order to better understand how they interact; ultimately being able to pull in basic data about DNA sequences and turning them into a complete set of good predictions about proteins and their potential functions.

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Laser Spectroscopy of Ultrathin Semiconductor Reveals Rise of ‘Trion’ Quasiparticles

Insights by Oak Ridge scientists into the dynamics of these exotic-sounding particles may spur real-life applications such as improved materials for solar energy and quantum computing.