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

Young Scientist Discovers Magnetic Material Unnecessary to Create Spin Current

Scientists at DOE’s Argonne National Laboratory are working on a surprising discovery that has important implications for the field of spintronics and the development of high-speed, low-power electronics that use electron spin rather than charge to carry information.

Mounting A Charge

Scientists at the University of Chicago and Oak Ridge National Lab, supported by DOE’s Early Career Research Awards, are attacking exascale computing challenges on two fronts: power and resilience.

ORNL Researchers Make Scalable Arrays of ‘Building Blocks’ for Ultrathin Electronics

For the first time, researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have combined a novel synthesis process with commercial electron-beam lithography techniques to produce arrays of semiconductor junctions in arbitrary patterns within a single, nanometer-thick semiconductor crystal.

Simulations Lead to Design of Near-Frictionless Material

Argonne scientists used Mira to identify and improve a new mechanism for eliminating friction, which fed into the development of a hybrid material that exhibited superlubricity at the macroscale for the first time.

Cleaning Up Bunker Oil with White Rot Fungi

Researchers at the DOE Joint Genome Institute evaluate how fungi better known for breaking down plant biomass do in a bioremediation application.

New Technique to Synthesize Nanostructured Nanowires

A new approach to self-assemble and tailor complex structures at the nanoscale, developed by an international collaboration led by the University of Cambridge and IBM, using the facilities at Brookhaven Lab’s Center for Functional Nanomaterials, opens opportunities to tailor properties and functionalities of materials for a wide range of semiconductor device applications.

Perovskite Solar Technology Shows Quick Energy Returns

A joint study by Argonne National Laboratory and Northwestern University found that perovskite-based solar technology has the quickest energy payback time of all current solar technologies.

Scientists Hijack Light-Loving Bacteria to Make High-Value Products

Scientists at PNNL and the Colorado School of Mines have directed a common bacterium to produce more of a valuable fatty acid, lauric acid, than it typically does.

Unearthing Cornerstones in Root Microbiomes

Scientists from the University of North Carolina, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and DOE’s Joint Genome Institute are developing a better understanding of the soil microbes that important for plant growth, and of how they interact through a variety of signals, including regulatory chemicals called phytohormones.

Closer Look at Microorganism Provides Insight on Carbon Cycling

Researchers from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory and the University of Tennessee found that microorganisms called archaea living in marine sediments use completely novel enzymes to break down organic matter into carbon dioxide.

Air Pollution Amplified Extreme Weather, Floods in China

Following the trail of the 2013 Sichuan flood in southwest China, researchers from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and their collaborators found that heavy human-caused air pollution over the Sichuan Basin just upwind contributed to the catastrophic flood.

Gut Microbes Enable Coffee Pest to Withstand Extremely Toxic Concentrations of Caffeine

Research by Berkeley Lab and the U.S. Department of Agriculture could lead to new ways to fight beetle that devastates coffee crops worldwide.