2018 | U.S. DOE Office of Science (SC)

U of A Partners With DoE, National Labs in New Field of Topological Materials

University of Arkansas physicists are exploring the new field of “topological quantum materials,” which are unusual in that they have a robustness of electrical properties regardless of temperature shifts or changes in structural form.

SUNY Poly Professors Awarded $330,000 for Two Distinct Cutting-Edge Nanotechnology-Centered Research Projects

Dr. Serge Oktyabrsky received $200,000 from the U.S. Department of Energy to develop next-gen scintillation detectors based on quantum dots to enable a better understanding of basic particles. Dr. Spyros Gallis received $130,000 from the National Science Foundation to develop critical material and physical properties of new erbium-doped silicon carbide photonic nanostructures for enhanced biological imaging, quantum communications applications.

Quantum Sound Waves to Open Door for More Powerful Sensors

In a first, scientists with the Institute for Molecular Engineering at the University of Chicago and Argonne National Laboratory have built a mechanical system—a tiny “echo chamber” for sound waves—that can be controlled at the quantum level, by connecting it to quantum circuits.

Microbial Community Members Play Distinct Roles in Biosynthesis

Insights into a microbial metabolic network set the stage for designing microbiomes to synthesize desired bioproducts.

Rare and Diverse Giant Viruses Unexpectedly Found in a Forest Soil Ecosystem

biologist Jeff Blanchard and Ph.D. student Lauren Alteio at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, with others at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Joint Genome Institute (JGI), discovered giant viruses – relatively speaking the size of Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade balloons – in soil at Harvard Forest in Petersham, Massachusetts.

The Energy Implications of Organic Radical Polymers

Dr. Jodie L. Lutkenhaus, an associate professor at Texas A&M University, just published a paper in Nature Materials. The findings presented in this paper represent a significant step toward Lutkenhaus’s ultimate goal: the creation of a battery made entirely of polymers.

Unearthing Evidence: Kansas State University Researchers Examine Processes that Support Soil Health

Ganga Hettiarachchi, Kansas State University professor of agronomy, and her research team have applied a new technique to studying soil chemistry and found direct evidence that the surrounding environment and management practices heavily influence soil carbon stability.

Seeking Origins of Life in Rocks

Stephan Hlohowskyj, a third-year doctoral student in the earth and ecosystem science program in the College of Science and Engineering at Central Michigan University, is using state-of-the-art techniques to explore the origins of life and the first signs of oxygen on Earth by examining trace metals in rocks.

Engineers on a Roll Toward Smaller, More Efficient Radio Frequency Transformers

University of Illinois engineers have minimized the size of one notoriously large element of integrated circuits used for wireless communication – the transformer – creating three-dimensional rolled-up radio frequency transformers that take 10 to 100 times less space, perform better when the power transfer ratio increases, and have a simpler fabrication process than their 2-D progenitors

Understanding the Proton's Weak Side

Research from the Qweak experiment provides a precision measurement of the proton’s weak charge and narrows the search for new physics.

Blazes of Light Reveal How Plants Signal Danger Long Distances

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison are part of a multi-university study that revealed how plant communication systems respond to threats from herbivores. The results, featured in Science, show that once wounded, plants use calcium signals to warn distant tissues of future attacks.

Self-Assembling 3D Battery Would Charge in Seconds

Ulrich Wiesner, the Spencer T. Olin Professor of Engineering in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Cornell University, and collaborators have developed a block copolymer self-assembled 3D energy storage architecture that could help change the way batteries are constructed.