2018 | U.S. DOE Office of Science (SC)

An Innovative Approach to Better Energy Storage

A Penn/Drexel research team has engineered a way to manipulate nanomaterials to stand up vertically on a scale that has potential for industrial applications.

Strain Game: Leveraging Imperfections to Create Better-Behaved Quantum Dots

Potentially paving the way toward advanced computers, lasers or optical devices, University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers have revealed new effects in tiny electronic devices called quantum dots.

New Device Could Increase Battery Life of Electronic Devices by More than a Hundred-fold

A group of physicists led by Deepak K. Singh, associate professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Missouri, has applied for a patent for a magnetic material that employs a unique structure—a “honeycomb” lattice that exhibits distinctive electronic properties.

Strings of Electron-Carrying Proteins May Hold the Secret to “Electric Bacteria”

Could a unique bacterium be nature’s microscopic power plant? Scientist Moh El-Naggar and his team at USC think it’s possible. They work with the Shewanella oneidensis species of bacteria, one of a group of microbes that essentially “breathe” rocks.

UF Joins New Center to Create Fuel from Plants

The University of Florida is one of 17 institutions partnering with the University of Illinois in the $115-million Center for Advanced Bioenergy and Bioproducts Innovation (CABBI). Researchers will work to develop efficient ways to grow, transform and market biofuels.

Engineers Turn Plastic Insulator Into Heat Conductor

Engineers at MIT have developed a polymer thermal conductor — a plastic material that, however counterintuitively, works as a heat conductor, dissipating heat rather than insulating it.

Ancient Paper Art, Kirigami, Poised to Improve Smart Clothing

A University at Buffalo-led research team shows how paper-cutting can make ultra strong, stretchable electronics.

WSU, PNNL Strengthen Research Ties to Shape the Future – Together

Embracing the ‘power of partnerships,’ the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and Washington State University today announced the formation of the WSU-PNNL Institutes — a collection of three joint institutes that will advance science and technology in nuclear science and technology, advanced grid and bioproducts.

UT Collaboration Examines How Natural Chemicals in Green Tea Work

Green tea has always been known to have beneficial health effects, but how these effects come about has been a mystery. Now, a team collaborating across the University of Tennessee System has discovered molecular mechanisms with which key chemicals in green tea work.

MSU Scientists' Discovery in Yellowstone 'Extremely Relevant' to Origin of Life

Montana State University scientists have found a new lineage of microbes living in Yellowstone National Park’s thermal features that sheds light on the origin of life, the evolution of archaeal life and the importance of iron in early life.

William Higgins Receives Department of Energy Graduate Student Award

Higgins, a fifth-year graduate student in the lab of Eugenia Kharlampieva, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Chemistry, will study at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, working with John Ankner, Ph.D., lead instrument scientist.

Chemists ‘Crystallize’ New Approach to Materials Science

A team of chemists at the University of California San Diego conducted breakthrough research for materials science—a field for which chemistry frequently provides information about the structure and composition of materials, as well as the processes for making and using them.