2014 | U.S. DOE Office of Science (SC)

Scientists Get to the Heart of Fool's Gold as a Solar Material

A University of Wisconsin-Madison research team tries to find improvements in iron pyrite (fool's gold) that could lead to inexpensive yet efficient solar cells.

String Field Theory Could be the Foundation of Quantum Mechanics

USC scientists uncover a connection that could be a huge boost to string theory.

Stanford Libraries Unearths the Earliest U.S. Website

A piece of web history is made available again for the first time since its debut in the early 1990s.

Stanford Engineers Use Technique From Petrochemical Industry to Store Solar Energy

Chemical engineers at Stanford have designed a catalyst that could help produce vast quantities of pure hydrogen through electrolysis.

New Form of Crystalline Order

A team of researchers from Vanderbilt University and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) reports that it has discovered an entirely new form of crystalline order that simultaneously exhibits both crystal and polycrystalline properties, which they describe as “interlaced crystals.”

Study Finds Extreme Temperature Anomalies Are Warming Faster Than Earth's Average

Research by an Indiana University geographer and colleagues finds that spatial patterns of extreme temperature anomalies -- readings well above or below the mean -- are warming even faster than the overall average.

Proteins Stepping on "Landmines": How They Survive the Immense Heat They Create

How do some proteins survive the extreme heat generated when they catalyze reactions that can happen as many as a million times per second? Work by researchers from Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) and the University of California Berkeley provides an explosive answer to this important question.

Twisted Light, Nanoparticles & Insights Into the Structure of Life

Research team led by the University of Michigan shows that the rotational direction of light can coax inorganic nanoparticles to assemble into left- or right-handed twisting ribbons.

Science Casts Light on Persimmon Pairing and Plant Hybrids

Scientists at the University of California, Davis, and Kyoto University in Japan have discovered how sex is determined in a species of persimmon, potentially opening up new possibilities in plant breeding

Carnegie Mellon Becomes Affiliate of Joint Center for Energy Storage Research

Carnegie Mellon researchers will participate in workshops where they will collaborate with partners, other affiliates and the JCESR hub to find cheaper and more efficient systems for energy storage.

Emergent Behavior Lets Bubbles 'Sense' Environment (video)

Tiny bubbles can reorganize their membranes in response to the surrounding environment, according to work carried out in an international collaboration of engineers at the University of California, Davis, and Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.

Scientists Find Transitions Between States of Matter Are Complicated

The seemingly simple process of phase changes—those transitions between states of matter—is more complex than previously known, according to research based at Princeton University, Peking University and New York University.