2016 | U.S. DOE Office of Science (SC)

Study Clears Way for New Approaches to Plant Disease

A Washington State University biologist has found what he calls “very strong support” for an 86-year-old hypothesis about how nutrients move through plants. His two-decade analysis of the phenomenon has resulted in a suite of techniques that can ultimately be used to fight plant diseases and make crops more efficient.

Team Simulates a Magnetar to Seek Dark Matter Particle

MIT physicists are proposing a new experiment to detect a dark matter particle called the axion. If successful, the effort could crack one of the most perplexing unsolved mysteries in particle physics, as well as finally yield a glimpse of dark matter.

New Device Steps Toward Isolating Single Electrons for Quantum Computing

David Schuster, assistant professor of physics, and his collaborators at UChicago, Argonne National Laboratory and Yale University have integrated trapped electrons with superconducting quantum circuits, an advance in the effort to develop quantum computers.

Chemistry Method Expedites Path to Useful Molecules for Medicine

Teams led by Guosheng Liu of the Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry (SIOC) and Shannon Stahl of the University of Wisconsin–Madison describe a way to convert carbon-hydrogen bonds into nitriles, common components of bioactive molecules used in medicinal and agricultural applications.

Electron-Phonon Interactions Affect Heat Dissipation in Computer Chips

MIT researchers have found that interactions between electrons and heat-carrying particles called phonons can play a significant role in preventing heat dissipation in microelectronic devices.

Noncoding Mutations Disrupt Cooperative Function of ‘Gene Families’ in Rare Genetic Disorder

Scientists at Johns Hopkins say they are one step closer to understanding the genetic mechanism of a rare, complex, multiple-gene disorder called Hirschsprung’s disease.

New Kind of Supercapacitor Made Without Carbon

Researchers at MIT and elsewhere have for the first time developed a supercapacitor that uses no conductive carbon at all, and that could potentially produce more power than existing versions of this technology.

To Battle Mosquito-Borne Disease, SLAC X-ray Laser Provides New View of Insecticides

An international research team has collected detailed structural data on two proteins in an insecticide by blasting them with an intense beam of bright, fast pulses of light at the Linac Coherent Light Source at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, in order to adapt current larvicides and target the Aedes mosquitoes.

Making Catalysts Smarter

UC Riverside-led team demonstrates optimization and visualization of a catalyst used to convert carbon dioxide waste to methane gas and chemical intermediates.

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UNT Professor Receives Grant for Research that Could Lead to Alternative Energy Use

Kent Chapman, Regents Professor of biological sciences at the University of North Texas, has been awarded a $650,000 grant by the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science. The grant is part of ongoing funding from the DOE and will be used to study the cellular storage of lipids in plants.

UCI-led Study Finds Soil Will Absorb Less Atmospheric Carbon Than Expected This Century

By adding highly accurate radiocarbon dating of soil to standard Earth system models, environmental scientists from the University of California, Irvine and other institutions have learned a dirty little secret: The ground will absorb far less atmospheric carbon dioxide this century than previously thought.

FSU Chemistry Professor Explores Outer Regions of Periodic Table

Florida State University Professor Thomas Albrecht-Schmitt captures the fundamental chemistry of the element berkelium, or Bk on the periodic table.