2017 | U.S. DOE Office of Science (SC)

Harnessing the Right Amount of Sunshine

Researchers from MIT and the University of Verona have discovered how moss and green algae can protect themselves from too much sun.

Sequencing Reveals How Porphyra Thrives in a Tough Environment

An international research team of 50 scientists led by Susan Brawley, professor of marine sciences at the University of Maine, discovered ancestral mechanisms of cell wall formation, an array of ultraviolet/high light and thermal protection strategies, and a wealth of nutrient transporters encoded by the P. umbilicalis genome.

Nitric Oxide Plays Key Role in Forming Potent Greenhouse Gas

Cornell chemists have uncovered a fresh role for nitric oxide that could send biochemical textbooks back for revision.

Rice Professor Developing Plasmon–Powered Devices for Medicine, Security, Solar Cells

Gururaj Naik, a professor at Rice University, is developing technology to upconvert light by using lasers to power devices that combine plasmonic metals and semiconducting quantum wells.

Harnessing Light to Drive Chemical Reactions

a study from the University of Michigan has shown how a light-harvesting metal transfers energy to a catalytic metal, opening the way for better catalyst designs.

Climate Change to Deplete Some US Water Basins, Reduce Irrigated Crop Yields

A new study by MIT climate scientists, economists, and agriculture experts finds that certain hotspots in the country will experience severe reductions in crop yields by 2050, due to climate change’s impact on irrigation.

Researchers Discover New Class of Chemical Reaction

A new study led by Michael P. Burke, assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Columbia Engineering, has identified the significance of a new class of chemical reactions involving three molecules that each participate in the breaking and forming of chemical bonds.

Deciphering Potent DNA Toxin’s Secrets

A team of Vanderbilt University researchers have worked out the molecular details that explain how this bacterial toxin—yatakemycin (YTM)—prevents DNA replication.

Astrophysics, Galaxy Clusters and the Key to the Universe

Hamilton University student Anya Nugent is working with researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, using a code developed for an innovative algorithm to analyze a three-point correlation function to analyze galaxy triplets and galaxy clustering.

Multitasking Monolayers

Scientists at Vanderbilt University have discovered a natural process that makes patterned monolayers suitable for creating a wide variety of novel materials with dual optical, magnetic, catalytic or sensing capabilities.

UCLA-led Research Offers Clearest Evidence Yet of Long-Sought Majorana Particle

A UCLA-led team of engineers and scientists has found a “smoking gun” signature of the long sought-after Majorana particle. The particle, whose existence was first proposed by Italian theoretical physicist Ettore Majorana in 1937, could be the foundation for a class of robust topological quantum computers.

Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment Breaks Ground

UC Davis researchers including Professor Robert Svoboda, Professor Emilija Pantic, postdoctoral researcher Jingbo Wang, graduate student Steven Gardiner and Hans Berns, research engineer at the Crocker Nuclear Laboratory are participating in a global mega-science experiment involving 1,000 other researchers from 30 countries who are studying neutrinos, which are subatomic particles with most unusual properties.