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

A New Chloroplast 'App' for Making Biofuels

In addition to doing photosynthesis, the chloroplast is the source of up to 10% of seed oil production in plants. Scientists at Michigan State University are experimenting with harvesting that oil to make biofuels.

New Class of Insulating Crystals Hosts Quantized Electric Multipole Moments

Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Princeton University have theoretically predicted a new class of insulating phases of matter in crystalline materials, pinpointed where they might be found in nature, and in the process generalized the fundamental quantum theory of Berry phases in solid state systems.

The Ref and the Fighter: Two Sides of Plant Defense

In a new study, published in the journal New Phytologist, researchers at Michigan State University have discovered that the genes involved with plant growth and defense are more tangled than previously thought.

Recreating Interstellar Ions with Lasers

Using lasers, Michigan State University scientists have essentially duplicated the mechanism that’s found from the center of the galaxy to Earth’s own ionosphere.

Muon Magnet’s Moment Has Arrived

A global team of more than 150 scientists and engineers, including a team from Michigan State University, will be part of the Muon g-2 experiment, located at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory.

1 Billion Suns: World’s Brightest Laser Sparks New Behavior in Light

By focusing laser light to a brightness 1 billion times greater than the surface of the sun — the brightest light ever produced on Earth — physicists from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln have observed changes in a vision-enabling interaction between light and matter.

In a Possible Step Forward for Gene Therapy, Stanford Researchers Made Mice Glow Like Fireflies

A collaboration between chemists and gene therapy experts produced a new way of inserting the code for modified proteins into the cells of mice. If successful in humans, the technique could be useful for vaccines or cancer therapies.

Chemical Engineering and Chemistry Researchers at Pitt and Penn State Develop Controlled Delivery of Particles via Fluid Flow

Capitalizing on previous studies in self-powered chemo-mechanical movement, researchers at the University of Pittsburgh’s Swanson School of Engineering and Penn State University’s Department of Chemistry have developed a novel method of transporting particles that utilizes chemical reactions to drive fluid flow within microfluidic devices.

Examining Exploding Stars Through the Atomic Nucleus

Michigan State University researchers investigated stellar production of the radioactive isotope aluminum-26 present in the Milky Way and concluded that up to 30 percent could be produced in novae; the rest must be produced in other sources like supernovae.

Rice University Takes Deeper Look at Unconventional Oil and Gas

Rice engineers George Hirasaki and Walter Chapman are leading an effort to better characterize the contents of organic shale by combining standard nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) – the same technology used by hospitals to see inside human bodies – with molecular dynamics simulations.

Penn Researchers Are Among the First to Grow a Versatile Two-dimensional Material

University of Pennsylvania researchers are now among the first to produce a single, three-atom-thick layer of a unique two-dimensional material called tungsten ditelluride. Their findings have been published in 2-D Materials.

Bright Lights, Big Science: Joel Williams Helping Unleash Some of the World’s Brightest X-rays

Thanks to a DOE Office of Science Graduate Student Research award, Joel Williams, a Colorado State University electrical engineering graduate student, is spending the next few months at Los Alamos National Laboratory working on the design of an X-ray free-electron laser.