University Research | U.S. DOE Office of Science (SC)

Genetic Behavior Reveals Cause of Death in Poplars Essential to Ecosystems

Scientists studying the valuable, but vulnerable, black cottonwood poplar have identified the genetic mechanism responsible for the species’ inability to resist a pervasive and deadly disease.

Rice U. Scientists Form Flat Tellurium

Amey Apte and his colleagues at Rice University made tellurium, a rare metal, into a film less than a nanometer (one-billionth of a meter) thick by melting a powder of the element at high temperature and blowing the atoms onto a surface.

Nebraska is Founding Member of Laser-science Network

The University of Nebraska–Lincoln’s Extreme Light Laboratory is one of the founding members of a new research network intended to unite the nation’s most powerful laser facilities.

How Can We Design Electronic Devices that Don't Overheat?

A new thermal transistor could help conduct heat away from delicate electronic components and also insulate them against chip and circuit failure.

Switching Identities: Revolutionary Insulator-like Material Also Conducts Electricity

University of Wisconsin–Madison researchers have made a material that can transition from an electricity-transmitting metal to a nonconducting insulating material without changing its atomic structure.

What Happens When Materials Take Tiny Hits

A team of researchers at MIT has just accomplished the first detailed high-speed imaging and analysis of the microparticle impact process, and used that data to predict when the particles will bounce away, stick, or knock material off the surface and weaken it.

Microscopic "Sunflowers" for Better Solar Panels

A group of scientists from Harvard’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering and John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) has harnessed magnetic fields to control the molecular structure of LCEs and create microscopic three-dimensional polymer shapes that can be programmed to move in any direction in response to multiple types of stimuli.

How Some Algae May Survive Climate Change

Green algae that evolved to tolerate hostile and fluctuating conditions in salt marshes and inland salt flats are expected to survive climate change, thanks to hardy genes they stole from bacteria, according to a Rutgers-led study.

Could Bacteria Fuel the Future?

The U.S. Department of Energy has awarded Eleftherios (Terry) Papoutsakis, the Unidel Eugene du Pont Chair of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Delaware, a three-year, $1.5 million grant to study the production of clostridium bacteria as platforms for biofuels.

Graduate Student Glad Dlott Receives Award to Study Soil Microbes at National Lab

Glade Dlott, a graduate student in the Peay lab at Stanford University, is taking a closer look at soil microbe behavior and interactions. In support of this research, he has received a 2018 Office of Science Graduate Student Research award from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).

Transition Metal Dichalcogenides Could Increase Computer Speed, Memory

Transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) possess optical properties that could be used to make computers run a million times faster and store information a million times more energy-efficiently, according to a study led by Georgia State University.

Harvesting Solar Fuels Through a Bacterium's Unusual Appetite for Gold

A bacterium named Moorella thermoacetica won’t work for free. But UC Berkeley researchers have figured out it has an appetite for gold. And in exchange for this special treat, the bacterium has revealed a more efficient path to producing solar fuels through artificial photosynthesis.