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

New Understanding of Superconductor's 'Normal' State May Open the Way to Solving Longstanding Puzzle

Experiments done at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in the Madhavan and Abbamonte laboratories, in collaboration with researchers at six institutions in the U.S., Canada, United Kingdom, and Japan, have shed new light on the electronic properties of this material at temperatures 4°K above Tc.

Growing Pains and How that Might Affect Seed Quality

A team of researchers at Michigan State University are showing how heat affects seed quality in plants targeted for producing biofuels.

Caltech, Berkeley Lab Teams Combines Theory, X-ray Experiments to Explain What’s at Work in Copper Catalyst

Researchers report the mechanics behind an early key step in artificially activating CO2 so that it can rearrange itself to become the liquid fuel ethanol.

Molecular Scale Science May Inform Water Purification Methods and Battery Improvements

A new technique developed by a team including University of Delaware Prof. Neil Sturchio and colleagues at Argonne National Laboratory and the University of Illinois at Chicago has produced real-time observations documenting the chemical reactions that happen between liquids and solids.

Newly Identified Gene Helps Time Spring Flowering in Vital Grass Crops

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison have identified a gene that keeps grasses from entering their flowering cycle until the season is right, a discovery that may help plant breeders and engineers get more from food and energy crops.

D.I.Y. Crystal-Makers Get Refurbished Online Cookbook

In response to popular demand, materials scientists at Duke University have resurrected an online cookbook of crystalline structures that started when the World Wide Web was Netscape Navigator and HTML 1.0.

A New Spin on Electronics

A University of Utah-led team has discovered that a class of “miracle materials” called organic-inorganic hybrid perovskites could be a game changer for future spintronic devices.

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Exploring Elusive High-Energy Particles in an Unusual Metal

Researchers at MIT have observed a novel phenomenon in sheets of tantalum arsenide that mimics the behavior of theorized (but never observed) particles called Weyl fermions.

Standford Scientists Discover High Pressure is the Key to Lighter and Stronger Metal Alloys

Subjecting complex metal mixtures called high-entropy alloys to extremely high pressures could lead to finer control over the arrangement of their atoms, which in turn can result in more desirable properties.

Yearlong Survey Tracks the Microbiome of a Newly Opened Hospital

A 12-month study mapping bacterial diversity within a hospital — with a focus on the flow of microbes between patients, staff and surfaces — should help hospitals worldwide better understand how to encourage beneficial microbial interactions and decrease potentially harmful contact.

NAU Researchers Join Department of Energy Project to Study the Soil Microbiome and its Effect on Carbon Persistence

Northern Arizona University Regents’ Professor Bruce Hungate, director of the Center for Ecosystem Science and Society (Ecoss), recently joined a new initiative lead by LLNL to study how the soil microbiome controls the mechanisms that regulate the stabilization of the organic matter in soil.

Two Simple Building Blocks Produce Complex 3-D Material

Northwestern University scientists have built a structurally complex material from two simple building blocks that is the lowest-density metal-organic framework ever made.