2015 | U.S. DOE Office of Science (SC)

New Material Captures Carbon at Half the Energy Cost

UC Berkeley chemists have made a major leap forward in carbon-capture technology with a material that can efficiently remove carbon from the ambient air of a submarine as readily as from the polluted emissions of a coal-fired power plant.

Forbidden Quantum Leaps Possible with High-res Spectroscopy

Physicists at the University of Michigan have demonstrated "ponderomotive spectroscopy," a new twist on an old tool lets scientists use light to study and control matter with 1,000 times better resolution and precision than previously possible.

Frontier Beneath Our Feet: Seismic Study Aims to Map Earth's Interior in 3-D

Scientists at Princeton University are exploring the Earth’s mantle thanks to a growing earthquake detection network and Titan, a world-class supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Unique Proteins Found in Heat-Loving Organisms Bind Well to Plant Matter

Unique proteins newly discovered in heat-loving bacteria are more than capable of attaching themselves to plant cellulose, possibly paving the way for more efficient methods of converting plant matter into biofuels.

Food-delivery Process Inside Seeds Revealed

New work from a team led by Carnegie’s Wolf Frommer identifies biochemical pathways necessary for stocking the seed’s food supplies. These findings could be targeted when engineering crops for higher yields.

UC Research Partnership Explores How to Best Harness Solar-Power

A University of Cincinnati research partnership is reporting advances on how to one day make solar cells stronger, lighter, more flexible and less expensive when compared with the current silicon or germanium technology on the market.

Grad Student Works Toward Next Generation Particle Accelerator

Matthew Burton, a graduate student at William and Mary, is part of the effort to build a better accelerator at Jefferson Lab.

Inexpensive New Catalysts Can Be Fine-Tuned

Researchers at MIT and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have developed a new type of catalyst that can be tuned to promote desired chemical reactions, potentially enabling the replacement of expensive and rare metals in fuel cells.

New Design Brings World’s First Solar Battery to Performance Milestone

Sunlight makes the new “aqueous solar flow” battery 20 percent more efficient than today’s lithium-iodine batteries.

ASU Research Team Digs Up the Dirt on Microscopic Biodiversity

A team of researchers from Arizona State University and Lawrence Berkeley National Lab has discovered that thousands of bacteria living in soil are connected by a complex metabolic relationship.

New Way to Store Solar Energy Could Lead to More Common Solar Cell Usage

Researchers at Missouri University of Science and Technology have developed a relatively inexpensive and simple way to split water into hydrogen and oxygen through a new electrodeposition method.

Seeking New Sorghum, the ‘Camel of Crops,’ for Biofuels

With funding from the U.S. Department of Energy, researchers at Washington State University and seven other institutions are investigating the development of sorghum crops that can grow in marginal soils with scant water and nitrogen yet produce large quantities of quality plant materials for brewing biofuels.