2016 | U.S. DOE Office of Science (SC)

MSU Builds High-Tech Test Track to Improve Crop Performance

Researchers at Michigan State University are studying photosynthesis and many other plant mechanisms in the lab using sophisticated sensors, cameras, software and more to explore the effects of real-world conditions.

Five Scientists Selected as FRIB Fellows

Five scientists have been selected as the first Facility for Rare Isotope Beams-Chinese Scholarship Council research fellows. The fellowship program is part of a memorandum of understanding agreed to between Michigan State University and China’s Peking University.

Disentangling the Plant Microbiome

Duke University researchers and colleagues are studying the microbiome of plants in the field to determine what influences the microbes that live in and on roots and leaves, that in turn, impact the plant’s health and growth.

Supercomputers Fire Lasers to Shoot Gamma Ray Beam

A team of scientists at the University of Texas at Austin used computer simulations to find a possible new source of gamma rays generated from tabletop lasers.

Reconfiguring Active Particles into Dynamic Patterns

Northwestern University engineers discover electrostatic imbalance causes particles to swarm, cluster, and form connected chains.

Stanford Researchers Help to Explain How Stars are Born and Cosmic Structures Evolve

Working with information sent from the Japanese Hitomi satellite, an international team of researchers that include Stanford scientists has obtained the first views of a supermassive black hole stirring hot gas at the heart of a galaxy cluster, like a spoon stirring cream into coffee.

Crop Roots Enact Austerity Measures During Drought to Bank Water

New work from a team led by Carnegie’s José Dinneny discovers a strategy employed by grasses in drought conditions that could potentially be harnessed to improve crop productivity.

Clouds Are Moving Higher, Subtropical Dry Zones Expanding, According to Satellite Analysis

A Scripps Institution of Oceanography at University of California San Diego-led research team analyzing satellite cloud records has found that the cloudy storm tracks on Earth are moving toward the poles and subtropical dry zones are expanding.

UCI Engineer Creates New Technique for Testing Nanomaterials

A University of California, Irvine engineer has invented a method for analyzing nanowires at temperatures approaching 800 degrees Fahrenheit in first-ever experiments, showing the valuable role the materials could play in converting excess heat from machines and electronics into useable electricity.

Flipping Crystals Improves Solar-Cell Performance

A new type of two-dimensional-layered perovskite developed by Northwestern University, Los Alamos National Laboratory and Rice University researchers will open up new horizons for next-generation stable solar-cell devices and new opto-electronic devices such as light-emitting diodes, lasers and sensors.

New Technique Provides Detailed Views of Metals’ Crystal Structure

Researchers at MIT and elsewhere have developed a new combination of methods that can provide detailed information about the microstructure of polycrystalline metals.

New Clues Could Help Scientists Harness the Power of Photosynthesis

Discovery by researchers at Penn State University could enable scientists to engineer crop plants that more efficiently harness the energy of the Sun.