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

ASU-led Scientists Discover Why Rocks Flow Slowly in Earth's Middle Mantle

A recent study, led by Arizona State University's School of Earth and Space Exploration Associate Professor Dan Shim, has re-created in the laboratory the conditions found deep in the earth, and used this to discover an important property of the dominant mineral in Earth's mantle, a region lying far below our feet.

Scientists Discover a 2-D magnet

A team led by the University of Washington and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has for the first time discovered magnetism in the 2-D world of monolayers, or materials that are formed by a single atomic layer.

Physicists Use Numerical ‘Tweezers’ to Study Nuclear Interactions

Researchers from North Carolina State University and the Ruhr-Universität Bochum have developed numerical “tweezers” that can pin a nucleus in place, enabling them to study how interactions between protons and neutrons produce forces between nuclei.

Triple Play Boosting Value of Renewable Fuel Could Tip Market in Favor of Biomass

UW–Madison researchers and collaborators have developed a new “green” technology for converting non-edible biomass into three high-value chemicals that are the basis for products traditionally made from petroleum.

Discovery of an Alga’s ‘Dictionary of Genes’ Could Lead to Advances in Biofuels and Medicine

Plant biologists and biochemists from UCLA, UC Berkeley and UC San Francisco have produced a gold mine of data by sequencing the genome of a green alga called Chromochloris zofingiensis.

Stanford Scientists Use Nanotechnology to Boost the Performance of a Key Industrial Catalyst

The discovery focuses on an industrial catalyst known as cerium oxide, or ceria, a spongy material commonly used in catalytic converters, self-cleaning ovens and various green-energy applications, such as fuel cells and solar water splitters.

Ames Laboratory Celebrates 70 Years of Science and Discovery on Iowa State’s Campus

The U.S. Department of Energy's Ames Laboratory is celebrating 70 years on the Iowa State University campus. The close university-laboratory ties have helped recruit researchers, educate students, build research teams and make scientific discoveries possible.

Refining the Ocean’s Thermometer

Researchers from Oregon State University, the University of California, Davis, the University of Washington, and the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have found that the layers of magnesium in the shells of marine creatures known foraminifera are due to daily cycles of sunlight.

Growing Pains and How that Might Affect Seed Quality

A team of researchers at Michigan State University are showing how heat affects seed quality in plants targeted for producing biofuels.

Electroplating Delivers High-Energy, High-Power Batteries

Researchers at the University of Illinois, Xerion Advanced Battery Corporation and Nanjing University in China developed a method for electroplating lithium-ion battery cathodes, yielding high-quality, high-performance battery materials that could also open the door to flexible and solid-state batteries.

Physics Graduate Student Wins National Award, Fellowship

Bethany Matthews, an Oregon State University graduate student studying physics, has recently won a U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science Graduate Student Research Award. This prestigious award will see her continue her work on the physics of materials at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado, this summer and into the fall.

Hafnia Dons a New Face: Materials Research Creates Potential for Improved Computer Chips and Transistors

A collaborative University of Kentucky-Texas A&M University team has found a way to achieve this highly sought tetragonal phase at 1100 degrees Fahrenheit — think much closer to room temperature and potential holy grail for the computing industry, along with countless other sectors and applications.