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

Feeding the World by Rewiring Plant “Mouths”

New work from the lab of Dominique Bergmann, honorary adjunct staff member at Carnegie’s Department of Plant Biology and professor at Stanford University, reveals ways that the systems regulating the development of stomata in grasses could be harnessed to improve plant efficiency and agricultural yield.

Solved: First Crystal Structure of a Transcription Terminator Protein

Researchers at the Medical University of South Carolina and elsewhere resolve the first protein structure in a family of proteins called transcription terminators that could provide insight into aging and cancer.

New Material Combines Useful and Typically Incompatible Properties

Most materials, too, are capable of being only one thing at a time, but a team of engineers and physicists at the University of Wisconsin–Madison have created an entirely new material in which completely contradictory properties can coexist.

Study Involving CU-Boulder Shows Fertilizer Can Be Made From Sunlight

A group of scientists led by the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden and involving the University of Colorado Boulder and Utah State University has developed a new, eco-friendly method to produce ammonia, the main ingredient of fertilizer, using light.

Theorists Smooth the Way to Solving One of Quantum Mechanics Oldest Problems

Theoretical chemists at Princeton University have pioneered a strategy for modeling quantum friction, or how a particle’s environment drags on it, a vexing problem in quantum mechanics since the birth of the field.

Printing Metal in Midair

Increasing demand for flexible, wearable electronics, sensors, antennas and biomedical devices has led a team at Harvard’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering and John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) to innovate an eye-popping new way of printing complex metallic architectures – as though they are seemingly suspended in midair.

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Researchers Find Unexpected Magnetic Effect

A new and unexpected magnetic effect in a topological insulator made of Bi2SE3 layers with a EuS layer has taken MIT researchers by surprise and could open up a new pathway to advanced electronic devices and even robust quantum computer architecture.

New Microbiome Center to Combine UChicago, MBL and Argonne Expertise

The University of Chicago, the Marine Biological Laboratory and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory announced on May 13 a new partnership called The Microbiome Center, which will combine the three institutions’ efforts to understand the identity and function of microbes across environments.

CERN’s Large Hadron Collider is Once Again Smashing Protons and Taking Data

Several thousand physicists worldwide, including a group from Southern Methodist University, are analyzing new proton collision data taken by the LHC to unravel the structure of the Higgs.

Scientists Develop Synchronized Molecular Motors

An international team of scientists led by physicist Saw-Wai Hla of Ohio University has created molecular motors that can communicate and synchronize their movements.

UNT Researchers Discover Potential New Paths for Plant-Based Bioproducts

A University of North Texas research team, working as part of the US Department of Energy's BioEnergy Science Center coordinated by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, looked into the roles of enzymes that convert amino acids into lignin in Brachypodium, a fast-growing model grass with a sequenced genome.

Insect Outbreaks Reduce Wildfire Severity

Surprising new University of Vermont research finds that outbreaks by the mountain pine beetle and western spruce budworm can actually reduce wildfire severity.