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

D.I.Y. Crystal-Makers Get Refurbished Online Cookbook

In response to popular demand, materials scientists at Duke University have resurrected an online cookbook of crystalline structures that started when the World Wide Web was Netscape Navigator and HTML 1.0.

A New Spin on Electronics

A University of Utah-led team has discovered that a class of “miracle materials” called organic-inorganic hybrid perovskites could be a game changer for future spintronic devices.

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Exploring Elusive High-Energy Particles in an Unusual Metal

Researchers at MIT have observed a novel phenomenon in sheets of tantalum arsenide that mimics the behavior of theorized (but never observed) particles called Weyl fermions.

Standford Scientists Discover High Pressure is the Key to Lighter and Stronger Metal Alloys

Subjecting complex metal mixtures called high-entropy alloys to extremely high pressures could lead to finer control over the arrangement of their atoms, which in turn can result in more desirable properties.

Two Simple Building Blocks Produce Complex 3-D Material

Northwestern University scientists have built a structurally complex material from two simple building blocks that is the lowest-density metal-organic framework ever made.

Yearlong Survey Tracks the Microbiome of a Newly Opened Hospital

A 12-month study mapping bacterial diversity within a hospital — with a focus on the flow of microbes between patients, staff and surfaces — should help hospitals worldwide better understand how to encourage beneficial microbial interactions and decrease potentially harmful contact.

$3.9 Million Supports Research to Turn Bacteria into Biofuel Producers

Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis have received a $3.9 million grant from the Department of Energy (DOE) to develop bacteria that manufacture renewable biofuels — energy sources made from plants or microbes.

NAU Researchers Join Department of Energy Project to Study the Soil Microbiome and its Effect on Carbon Persistence

Northern Arizona University Regents’ Professor Bruce Hungate, director of the Center for Ecosystem Science and Society (Ecoss), recently joined a new initiative lead by LLNL to study how the soil microbiome controls the mechanisms that regulate the stabilization of the organic matter in soil.

Discovery About Rare Nitrogen Molecules Offers Clues to Makeup of Other Life-Supporting Planets

A team of scientists using a state-of-the-art UCLA instrument reports the discovery of a planetary-scale “tug-of-war” of life, deep Earth and the upper atmosphere that is expressed in atmospheric nitrogen.

X-Ray Detector for Studying Characteristics of Materials

Modern synchrotron x-ray sources, such as the Cornell High Energy Synchrotron (CHESS), produce x-ray beams with unprecedented capabilities. Scientists and engineers use the beams to study the properties of materials as they are subjected to rapid changes in environmental conditions.

U.S. Department of Energy Honors UW VP Synakowski

Edmund “Ed” Synakowski received the DOE’s Meritorious Service Award Wednesday in a ceremony at UW, “for strong and insightful leadership” as the agency’s associate director of science for the past eight years. He began his work at UW in August.

Study Sheds Light on Turbulence in Astrophysical Plasmas

Theoretical analysis by Nuno Loureiro, an associate professor of nuclear science and engineering and of physics at MIT, and Stanislav Boldyrev, a professor of physics at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, uncovers new mechanisms in plasma turbulence.