News Archive | U.S. DOE Office of Science (SC)

Chemists Settle Longstanding Debate on How Methane is Made Biologically

Scientists from Pacific Northwest National Lab and the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor determined that microbes make methane using a chemical reaction that involves a molecule, called a methyl radical, which was less favored by previous research. The team’s work, which appears in the journal Science, is vital for understanding how methane is made and how to make things from it.

ORNL Demonstrates Large-Scale Technique to Produce Quantum Dots

A method to produce significant amounts of semiconducting nanoparticles for light-emitting displays, sensors, solar panels and biomedical applications has gained momentum with a demonstration by researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Slimming Down Supercomputers

Scientists curb the energy appetite of the nation’s “answer machines.”

Read more about Slimming Down Supercomputers

CFN User Spotlight: Frances Ross Studies Nanowire Growth

Frances Ross, a materials scientist at IBM’s Thomas J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, New York, studies the mechanism by which atoms spontaneously self-assemble into nanowires—structures that are thousands of times longer than they are wide.

How Would IBM’s Quiz-Show Computer, Watson, Do as a Competitor in the National Science Bowl?

Eric Brown of IBM Watson Health spoke about the Grand Challenges program, designing the Watson computer that played and won Jeopardy!, and the quest for solutions in natural language processing.

Technique Improves the Efficacy of Fuel Cells

Researchers using the Advanced Photon Source at Argonne have found a way to harness the quantum behavior of solid oxide fuel cells to make them even more efficient and robust.

Why Did the Electron Cross the Solar Cell? William Tisdale Knows

PECASE recipient’s technique tracks charged particles, offering insights for solar cells, LEDs, and more.

Speeding Up Key Oxygen-Oxygen Bond-Formation Step in Water Oxidation

A team of scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory, Adam Mickiewicz University, and Baruch College, City University of New York, has synthesized two new molecular catalysts for water oxidation.

Unlocking the Secrets of Irregular Data: Milind Kulkarni

Purdue University associate professor receives presidential honor.

Crafting Complex Materials to Solve the Mystery of Magnetism

In the quest to synthesize a useful material not found in nature, a team led by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory devised a multidimensional analysis approach that combines multiscale synthesis, characterization, and modeling techniques. With this approach, they obtained the first direct measurement of atomic-scale ordering in LMNO, a material of interest for thermoelectric applications.

Nusnin Akter: A Role Model for Young Women and Underrepresented Minority Engineers

Stony Brook University doctoral student and Brookhaven Lab guest researcher brings her passion and curiosity for scientific research to the lab and the community.

Berkeley Lab Scientists Discover Surprising New Properties in a 2-D Semiconductor

Working with scientists from the Advanced Light Source and Materials Sciences Division of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the researchers at Berkeley’s Molecular Foundry have synthesized a new class of semiconductor with exceptional optical characteristics – made of three-atoms thick, clean layers of molybdenum diselenide – then studied the material with a Molecular Foundry microscope that can visualize atoms and their electronic wave functions.