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

Researchers Improve Performance of Cathode Material by Controlling Oxygen Activity

An international team of researchers has demonstrated a new way to increase the robustness and energy storage capability of a particular class of “lithium-rich” cathode materials—by using a carbon dioxide-based gas mixture to create oxygen vacancies at the material’s surface.

Indiana University Physicists Playing Key Roles in Quest for New Particles

Physicists from Indiana University and Old Dominion University have released a review paper that explores the current state of knowledge on the subatomic particles, quarks and neutrinos, from experiment sites ranging from the Large Hadron Collider to Fermilab and Jefferson Lab.

Injectable Biomaterial Could be Used to Manipulate Organ Behavior

Scientists from two UChicago labs came up with a new material composed of nanoparticles that forms the basis of an ingenious light-activated injectable device that could eventually be used to stimulate nerve cells and manipulate the behavior of muscles and organs.

Feeding the World by Rewiring Plant “Mouths”

New work from the lab of Dominique Bergmann, honorary adjunct staff member at Carnegie’s Department of Plant Biology and professor at Stanford University, reveals ways that the systems regulating the development of stomata in grasses could be harnessed to improve plant efficiency and agricultural yield.

UF Chemistry Professor is First to Use Light to Make Gold Crystal Nanoparticles

A team of University of Florida researchers has figured out how gold can be used in crystals grown by light to create nanoparticles, a discovery that has major implications for industry and cancer treatment and could improve the function of pharmaceuticals, medical equipment and solar panels.

Study Finds That Plant Growth Responses to High Carbon Dioxide Depend on Symbiotic Fungi

Research by an international team of environmental scientists from the United Kingdom, Belgium and United States, including Indiana University, has found that plants that associate with one type of symbiotic fungi grow bigger in response to high levels of carbon dioxide, or CO2, in the atmosphere, but plants that associate with the other major type of symbiotic fungi do not.

MIT Scientists Find Weird Quantum Effects, Even Over Hundreds of Miles

MIT physicists have found that subatomic particles called neutrinos can be in superposition, without individual identities, when traveling hundreds of miles, and not just at quantum, subatomic scales.

World’s Most Sensitive Dark Matter Detector Completes Search

At a conference in the United Kingdom, scientists with the LUX dark matter experiment present results from the detector’s final 20-month run.

Researchers Explore Extraterrestrial Ice

A group of Stanford researchers recently published a paper on their first-of-its-kind research that captured water freezing into an alternative form called ice VII (“ice seven”), which is found within other planetary bodies.

Triple-Layer Catalyst Does Double Duty

Splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen to produce clean energy can be simplified with a single catalyst developed by scientists at Rice University and the University of Houston.

New Research at Pitt Engineering Reveals Potential for Synthetic Materials Systems that Can “Count” and Sense their Size

Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh’s Swanson School of Engineering have utilized computational modeling to mimic such quorum sensing behavior in synthetic materials, which could lead to devices with the ability for self-recognition and self-regulation.

University Researchers Contribute to DUNE, the World's Biggest Neutrino Experiment

A large international team of researchers — including Kansas State University scientists — is turning to tiny particles to address big questions about dark matter, black holes and the origins of the universe.