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

Rice U. Lab Surprised by Ultraflat Magnets

A new paper in Advanced Materials outlines how researchers at Rice, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the University of Southern California (USC) and Kumamoto University in Japan used chemical vapor deposition (CVD) to make atom-thick sheets and, in the same step, tailor their properties by adding other elements through a process known as doping.

Studying Entropy in Metallic Glasses

A team led by Caltech recently solved a decades-old materials science mystery by tracking down the origin of entropy in metallic glasses.

A Stanford Battery Based on Sodium May Offer More Cost-Effective Storage than Lithium

Industrial forecasts predict an insatiable need for battery farms to store renewable energy like solar and wind. Lithium ion batteries may remain tops for sheer performance, but when cost-per-storage is factored in, a Stanford design based on sodium ions offers promise.

Two Princeton Astrophysicists Receive Funding to Study Merging Neutron Stars

Adam Burrows, a professor of astrophysical sciences, and David Radice, an associate research scholar, have won funding for a multifaceted five-year project to investigate “some of the most explosive phenomena, some of the most violent, that occur on a regular basis in the universe,” said Burrows.

Research Collaboration Brings New Concepts for Potassium-Ion Batteries

Researchers at Purdue University are making progress in developing rechargeable batteries based on potassium, a potential alternative to lithium that’s less expensive and far more plentiful, and also have shown how to derive carbon for battery electrodes from old tires.

How to Build Artificial Nanofactories to Power Our Futures: Logistics

Scientists at the MSU-DOE Plant Research Laboratory are trying to build artificial nanofactories to sustainably produce industrial materials or medical tools.

Deer Prefer Native Plants Leaving Lasting Damage on Forests

When rampant white-tailed deer graze in forests, they prefer to eat native plants over certain unpalatable invasive plants, such as garlic mustard and Japanese stiltgrass. These eating habits lower native plant diversity and abundance, while increasing the proportion of plant communities made up of non-native species, according to a new study.

Pop Lends Expertise to International Competition for Metagenomics Software

Mihai Pop, a professor of computer science with a joint appointment in the University of Maryland Institute for Advanced Computer Studies, recently helped judge an international challenge called the Critical Assessment of Metagenome Interpretation (CAMI), which benchmarked metagenomics software.

UW Awarded $12.5 Million to Study Astrophysical Plasma Here on Earth

The U.S. Department of Energy has awarded $12.5 million to the University of Wisconsin–Madison to develop an integrated facility that will expand the frontier of astrophysical plasma research.

Fast-Moving Magnetic Particles Could Enable New Form of Data Storage

New research has shown that an exotic kind of magnetic behavior discovered just a few years ago holds great promise as a way of storing data — one that could overcome fundamental limits that might otherwise be signaling the end of “Moore’s Law,” which describes the ongoing improvements in computation and data storage over recent decades.

Breaking the Rules: Heavy Chemical Elements Alter Theory of Quantum Mechanics

Florida State University researchers found that the theory of quantum mechanics does not adequately explain how the heaviest and rarest elements found at the end of the table function. Instead, another well-known scientific theory — Albert Einstein’s famous Theory of Relativity — helps govern the behavior of the last 21 elements of the Periodic Table.

Melting Solid Below the Freezing Point

Researchers at the Carnegie Institution for Science and Argonne National Laboratory have discovered a new phenomenon of so-called metastability in a liquid phase by melting a high-pressure solid crystal of the metal bismuth via a decompression process below its melting point.