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

Presidential Early Career Award goes to Jenny Yang

Jenny Yang, UCI assistant professor of chemistry, has received a 2017 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists & Engineers, the U.S. government’s highest honor for science and engineering professionals in the early stages of their independent research careers.

New Photoacoustic Technique Detects Gases at Parts-per-Quadrillion Level

A team of researchers has found a way to detect trace gases down to concentrations at the parts-per-quadrillion level using a new variation on the photoacoustic effect, a technique that measures the sound generated when light interacts with molecules.

A Step Toward Renewable Diesel

MIT engineers have genetically reprogrammed a strain of yeast so that it converts sugars to fats much more efficiently, an advance that could make possible the renewable production of high-energy fuels such as diesel.

DU Physicists Put New Spin on Computer Technology

New research from a team of physicists at the University of Denver has the potential to serve as the foundation for next-generation computer technology.

How Seawater Strenthens Ancient Roman Concrete

University of Utah geologist Marie Jackson studies the minerals and microscale structures of Roman concrete as she would a volcanic rock. She and her colleagues have found that seawater filtering through the concrete leads to the growth of interlocking minerals that lend the concrete added cohesion.

Analysis to Figure Out How Fast Greenland Is Melting

New University of Arizona research provides the best assessment of Greenland’s past temperatures, and knowing about the past is crucial for projecting the future of Greenland’s vast ice sheet.

Scientists Produce Dialysis Membrane Made from Graphene

MIT engineers have fabricated a functional dialysis membrane from a sheet of graphene — a single layer of carbon atoms, linked end to end in hexagonal configuration like that of chicken wire.

Flexible Flagella Fight Flow: Bacteria Change a Liquid’s Properties and Escape Entrapment

A new study by researchers at Penn State University used mathematical models to understand how bacteria with flagella -- a collection of spinning hairs used for propulsion that act together like a tail -- overcome forces from the flow of a liquid and navigate complex environments.

Peanut Family Secret for Making Chemical Building Blocks Revealed

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have discovered the structure of a new plant enzyme, one which could be a useful tool to biotechnologists trying to control the production of tyrosine and its derivatives.

Cellulosic Biofuels Can Benefit the Environment If Managed Correctly

Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy-funded Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (GLBRC) believe cellulosic biofuels – or liquid energy derived from grasses and wood – could become a green fuel of the future, providing an environmentally sustainable way of meeting energy needs.

Nanostructures Detect Colors

Engineers at Caltech have for the first time developed a light detector that combines two disparate technologies—nanophotonics, which manipulates light at the nanoscale, and thermoelectrics, which translates temperature differences directly into electron voltage—to distinguish different wavelengths of light, including both visible and infrared wavelengths, at high resolution.

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Research Accelerates Quest for Quicker, Longer-Lasting Electronics

Jing Shi, a professor of physics and astronomy at the University of California, Riverside, and colleagues at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and Arizona State University report they have created a TI film just 25 atoms thick that adheres to an insulating magnetic film, creating a “heterostructure.”