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

Discovery of Thin Transparent Film Could Improve Electronics and Solar Cells

A team of researchers, led by the University of Minnesota, have discovered a new nano-scale thin film material with the highest-ever conductivity in its class. The new material could lead to smaller, faster, and more powerful electronics, as well as more efficient solar cells.

Kent State Faculty and Students Play a Key Role in ‘Little Bang’ Being Observed for the First Time With Ultra-High Precision

Kent State University faculty and students in the Department of Physics, in the College of Arts and Sciences, recently played a key role in using a new silicon detector technology to examine nuclear collisions that recreate the Big Bang on a tiny scale at Brookhaven National Laboratory.

New Porous Solids May Lead to Better Drugs

An international team of researchers, led by Mark E. Davis at Caltech, has succeeded in making the first chiral molecular sieves. This discovery opens new areas of investigation in both chemistry and biology, and has broad implications for pharmaceutical companies and other specialized chemical manufacturers.

High-Resolution Climate Models Present Alarming New Projections for U.S.

Illinois atmospheric sciences researchers Zach Zobel and professor Donald Wuebbles led a team that developed new, high-resolution models that may help direct climate policy initiatives at the local level.

Presidential Early Career Award goes to Jenny Yang

Jenny Yang, UCI assistant professor of chemistry, has received a 2017 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists & Engineers, the U.S. government’s highest honor for science and engineering professionals in the early stages of their independent research careers.

New Photoacoustic Technique Detects Gases at Parts-per-Quadrillion Level

A team of researchers has found a way to detect trace gases down to concentrations at the parts-per-quadrillion level using a new variation on the photoacoustic effect, a technique that measures the sound generated when light interacts with molecules.

A Step Toward Renewable Diesel

MIT engineers have genetically reprogrammed a strain of yeast so that it converts sugars to fats much more efficiently, an advance that could make possible the renewable production of high-energy fuels such as diesel.

DU Physicists Put New Spin on Computer Technology

New research from a team of physicists at the University of Denver has the potential to serve as the foundation for next-generation computer technology.

How Seawater Strenthens Ancient Roman Concrete

University of Utah geologist Marie Jackson studies the minerals and microscale structures of Roman concrete as she would a volcanic rock. She and her colleagues have found that seawater filtering through the concrete leads to the growth of interlocking minerals that lend the concrete added cohesion.

Analysis to Figure Out How Fast Greenland Is Melting

New University of Arizona research provides the best assessment of Greenland’s past temperatures, and knowing about the past is crucial for projecting the future of Greenland’s vast ice sheet.

Scientists Produce Dialysis Membrane Made from Graphene

MIT engineers have fabricated a functional dialysis membrane from a sheet of graphene — a single layer of carbon atoms, linked end to end in hexagonal configuration like that of chicken wire.

Flexible Flagella Fight Flow: Bacteria Change a Liquid’s Properties and Escape Entrapment

A new study by researchers at Penn State University used mathematical models to understand how bacteria with flagella -- a collection of spinning hairs used for propulsion that act together like a tail -- overcome forces from the flow of a liquid and navigate complex environments.