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

For This Nanocatalyst, One Atom Makes a Big Difference

Combining experimental investigations and theoretical simulations, researchers at Georgia Tech have explained why platinum nanoclusters of a specific size range facilitate the hydrogenation reaction used to produce ethane from ethylene.

New Finding May Explain Heat Loss in Fusion Reactors

Researchers at MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center, working with the University of California - San Diego, General Atomics, and the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, say that they have found the key to the mismatch between theory and experimental results – the interactions between turbulence at the tiniest scale, that of electrons, and turbulence at a scale 60 times larger, that of ions.

Johns Hopkins Researcher Advance Treatment of Tuberculosis By Targeting New Enzyme

Researchers at Johns Hopkins report they have laid the foundation to develop novel antibiotics that work against incurable, antibiotic-resistant bacteria like tuberculosis by targeting an enzyme essential to the production and integrity of bacterial cell walls.

New Nanoparticle Catalysts Could Reduce Need for Precious Metals

Researchers at MIT have found a less-expensive way to get the same amount of catalytic activity, using a lesser amount of platinum or palladium as an atomically-thin coating over a tiny ceramic particle.

Realistic Solar Corona Loops Simulated in Lab

Caltech applied physicists have experimentally simulated the sun's magnetic fields to create a realistic coronal loop in a lab.

2-D Material a Brittle Surprise

Scientists at Rice University have discovered that an atom-thick material being eyed for flexible electronics and next-generation optical devices is more brittle than they expected.

Nanoshells: Potential Catalysts and Cradles of Life

A team of researchers at the University of Michigan have found a way to coax simple, inorganic nanoparticles to spontaneously assemble into shells has been discovered, potentially paving the way for more efficient industrial chemical processing, gene delivery and clean-up of chemical contaminants in the environment

Atomic Imperfections

Using cutting-edge first-principles calculations, researchers at the UC Santa Barbara have demonstrated the mechanism by which transition metal impurities — iron in particular — can act as nonradiative recombination centers in nitride semiconductors.

Rice U. Lab Creates Open-Source Optogenetics Hardware and Software

Rice University bioengineering graduate student Karl Gerhardt and other Rice colleagues have created the first low-cost, easy-to-use optogenetics hardware platform that biologists who have little or no training in engineering or software design can use to incorporate optogenetics testing in their labs.

Unusual Quantum Liquid on Crystal Surface Could Inspire Future Electronics

For the first time, an experiment conducted by researchers at Princeton University and the University of Texas-Austin has directly imaged electron orbits in a high-magnetic field, illuminating an unusual collective behavior in electrons and suggesting new ways of manipulating the charged particles.

Penn Researchers Move One Step Closer to Sustainable Hydrogen Production

Splitting water into its hydrogen and oxygen parts may sound like science fiction, but it’s the end goal of chemists and chemical engineers like Christopher Murray of the University of Pennsylvania and Matteo Cargnello of Stanford University.

Toward Practical Quantum Computers

Researchers from MIT and MIT Lincoln Laboratory report an important step toward practical quantum computers, with a paper describing a prototype chip that can trap ions in an electric field and, with built-in optics, direct laser light toward each of them.