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

MSU to Establish Training Program to Address National Shortage in Accelerator Scientists, Engineers

The Accelerator Science and Engineering Traineeship program will bring together MSU’s strengths to formulate a graduate student curriculum that will be implemented by physics and astronomy faculty in the College of Natural Science, the College of Engineering and the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams.

Synthetic Circuits Can Harvest Light Energy

By organizing pigments on a DNA scaffold, an MIT-led team of researchers has designed a light-harvesting material that closely mimics the structure of naturally occurring photosynthetic structures.

When Water Met Iron Deep Inside the Earth, It Might Have Created Conditions for Life

Reservoirs of oxygen-rich iron between the Earth’s core and mantle could have played a major role in Earth’s history, including the breakup of supercontinents, drastic changes in Earth’s atmospheric makeup, and the creation of life, according to recent work from an international research team published in National Science Review.

Supercomputing Speeds Up Deep Learning Training

A team of researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, the University of California, Davis and the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) published the results of an effort to harness the power of supercomputers to train a deep neural network (DNN) for image recognition at rapid speed.

Sensors Applied to Plant Leaves Warn of Water Shortage

MIT engineers have created sensors that can be printed onto plant leaves and reveal when the plants are experiencing a water shortage. This kind of technology could not only save neglected houseplants but, more importantly, give farmers an early warning when their crops are in danger.

Puzzling New Supernova May Be From Star Producing Antimatter

An exploding star that continued to shine for nearly two years — unlike most supernovae, which fade after a few weeks — is puzzling astronomers and leading theorists, including UC Berkeley astrophysicist Daniel Kasen, to suggest that the event may be an example of a star so hot that it produces antimatter in its core.

Ultrafast Magnetic Reversal Points the Way Toward Speedy, Low-Power Computer Memory

Researchers at UC Berkeley and UC Riverside have developed a new, ultrafast method for electrically controlling magnetism in certain metals, a breakthrough that could lead to greatly increased performance and more energy-efficient computer memory and processing technologies.

Perking Up and Crimping the ‘Bristles’ of Polyelectrolyte Brushes

Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology, the University of Chicago, and the Argonne National Laboratory have devised experiments that caused polyelectrolyte brush bristles to collapse and then recover from the collapse.

Discovery of Thin Transparent Film Could Improve Electronics and Solar Cells

A team of researchers, led by the University of Minnesota, have discovered a new nano-scale thin film material with the highest-ever conductivity in its class. The new material could lead to smaller, faster, and more powerful electronics, as well as more efficient solar cells.

Kent State Faculty and Students Play a Key Role in ‘Little Bang’ Being Observed for the First Time With Ultra-High Precision

Kent State University faculty and students in the Department of Physics, in the College of Arts and Sciences, recently played a key role in using a new silicon detector technology to examine nuclear collisions that recreate the Big Bang on a tiny scale at Brookhaven National Laboratory.

New Porous Solids May Lead to Better Drugs

An international team of researchers, led by Mark E. Davis at Caltech, has succeeded in making the first chiral molecular sieves. This discovery opens new areas of investigation in both chemistry and biology, and has broad implications for pharmaceutical companies and other specialized chemical manufacturers.

High-Resolution Climate Models Present Alarming New Projections for U.S.

Illinois atmospheric sciences researchers Zach Zobel and professor Donald Wuebbles led a team that developed new, high-resolution models that may help direct climate policy initiatives at the local level.