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

Mapping 'Damage Trails' Lets Researchers Follow the Water in Photosystem II

Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis have traced the paths of three water channels in an ancient photosynthetic organism to provide the first comprehensive, experimental study of how that organism uses and regulates water to create energy.

Zwicky Transient Facility Opens Its Eyes to the Volatile Cosmos

A new robotic camera with the ability to capture hundreds of thousands of stars and galaxies in a single shot has taken its first image of the sky, an event astronomers refer to as "first light."

Four Faculty Honored With Presidential Early Career Awards

Four Northwestern University professors — physicist Eric Dahl, chemists Danna Freedman and T. David Harris and mechanical engineer Sinan Keten — have been awarded the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE).

UW Entrepreneurial Pipeline Lands Lactic Solutions in Biofuels Marketplace

When Jim Steele thinks back over the last seven years, from the early research on biofuels, followed by a dream of moving Lactic Solutions LLC technology to the marketplace, and now the acquisition of the company by Lallemand Biofuels & Distilled Spirits (a unit of Lallemand Inc.) last month, he is thankful for the network of UW–Madison entrepreneurial experts.

Creating a Sustainable Earth: Batteries Included

Esther Takeuchi of Brookhaven National Lab and Stony Brook University –- who is credited with more than 150 U.S. patents and developed the battery technology that implanted cardiac defibrillators employ today — is directing a U.S. Department of Energy $10 million Energy Frontier Research Center award on innovative battery systems.

Real-Time Scans of Self-Healing Nanoparticles Show their Energy Storage Potential

Through long shifts at the helm of a highly sophisticated microscope, researchers at Stanford University recorded reactions at near-atomic-scale resolution.

Giant Middle East Dust Storm Caused by a Changing Climate, Not Human Conflict

A dust storm that blanketed seven nations in the Middle East in late summer 2015 was caused by climate factors and unusual weather, not human conflict in Syria, concluded researchers from Princeton, Marquette, Boston, Duke Universities and the Agricultural Research Organization.

Presidential Early Career Award goes to Jenny Yang

Jenny Yang, UCI assistant professor of chemistry, has received a 2017 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists & Engineers, the U.S. government’s highest honor for science and engineering professionals in the early stages of their independent research careers.

Plant Cell Walls' Stretch-But-Don't-Break Growth More Complex than Once Thought

A close-up look at the growth of plant cell walls, which largely determines the way a plant grows and takes shape, offers a better understanding of how the tough-but-flexible walls expand, researchers have found in a recent study.

A Step Toward Mars

A highly successful test of a prototype power generator at the University of Dayton Research Institute bodes well for NASA's plans to expand its exploration of Mars with the next rover mission.

UCI’s New 2-D Materials Conduct Electricity Near the Speed of Light

Physicists at the University of California, Irvine and elsewhere have fabricated new two-dimensional materials with breakthrough electrical and magnetic attributes that could make them building blocks of future quantum computers and other advanced electronics.

Stanford Scientists Test Links Between Extreme Weather and Climate Change

Stanford Professor Noah Diffenbaugh and his research group have developed a framework for testing whether global warming has contributed to particular extreme weather events.