2017 | U.S. DOE Office of Science (SC)

Turning the Evolutionary Clock Back on a Light-Sensitive Protein

Scientists at Michigan State University show how the two OCP parts interact and create new synthetic versions of that protein. The goal is to use the OCP in synthetic healthcare systems, powered by light.

WVU Biochemist Goes Online to X-ray Life-Sustaining Crystals

On August 22, Robart, assistant professor of biochemistry in the WVU School of Medicine, used the powerful Advanced Photon Source at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory in Chicago via the Internet to zap three types of life-sustaining crystals with X-rays revealing molecular structures that resemble tangles of corkscrew pasta or patterns of daisies.

$10M DOE Grant to Help Boost Camelina Oilseed Yield

Michigan State University will lead a $10 million U.S. Department of Energy grant to explore ways to boost this promising biofuel crop's yield.

VCU Physicists Discover a Tri-anion Particle with Colossal Stability

A team in the lab of Puru Jena, Ph.D., a distinguished professor in the Department of Physics in the College of Humanities and Sciences, has created the most stable tri-anion particle currently known to science.

DNA Triggers Shape-Shifting in Hydrogels, Opening a New Way to Make ‘Soft Robots’

Biochemical engineers at Johns Hopkins University have used sequences of DNA molecules to induce shape-changing in water-based gels, demonstrating a new tactic to produce soft robots and “smart” medical devices that do not rely on cumbersome wires, batteries or tethers.

Physicists Offer Explanation for Diverse Galaxy Rotations

A team of physicists, led by Hai-Bo Yu of the University of California, Riverside, explain diverse galactic-rotation curves - a graph of rotation speeds at different distances from the center – as collisions by dark matter particles with one another in the inner halo, close to the galaxy’s center – a process called dark matter self-interaction.

NMSU Physics Team Captures Footage of Vortex Within Microscopic Particles

A team of researchers from New Mexico State University’s Department of Physics have, for the first time, created a three-dimensional rendering of a microscopic nanoparticle’s structural transformation induced and controlled by an external electrical source.

Physics Student Awarded U.S. Department of Energy Research Program Award

The Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Office of Science announced today that University of Minnesota physics graduate student Zachary Loren Robinson is one of only 52 graduate students from across the nation selected for DOE’s 2017 Office of Science Graduate Student Research Program Award.

UCLA Bioengineers Discover Mechanism that Regulates Cells' 'Powerhouses'

UCLA bioengineers and their colleagues have discovered a new perspective on how cells regulate the sizes of mitochondria, the parts of cells that provide energy, by cutting them into smaller units.

Slippery Liquid Surfaces Confuse Mussels to Stop Them From Sticking to Underwater Structures

Researchers the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University and collaborators at NTU Singapore have demonstrated that mussels are unable to attach to certain slippery surfaces, making them attractive options for non-toxic, effective anti-fouling coatings for ships and other underwater structures.

Wiesner Team Images Tiny Quasicrystals as They Form

A Cornell multidisciplinary team devised a way to get a "time-lapse" look at the early formation of mesoporous silica nanoparticles, from six-sided crystals all the way to 12-sided quasicrystals.

Computer Models Provide New Understanding of Sickle Cell Disease

Simulations developed by Brown University mathematicians provide new details of how sickle cell disease manifests inside red blood cells, which could help in developing new treatments.