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October 17, 2019
An illustration imagining the molecular machinery inside microbes as technology.
Unlocking the Biochemical Treasure Chest Within Microbes
A new genetic engineering tool will help open the floodgates of microbial metabolite applications.
October 15, 2019
The Nobel Prize Logo
Charging Up the Development of Lithium-Ion Batteries
The Office of Science is proud to have supported work by two of the latest Nobel laureates in chemistry.
October 9, 2019
Working together, the NEES team has made notable discoveries about nanoscale electrochemistry and architectural design of energy storage materials.
The Hidden Architecture of Energy Storage
Working together, the NEES team has made notable discoveries about nanoscale electrochemistry and architectural design of energy storage materials.
October 9, 2019
Adding water to a sample of inactive lithium.
Study Identifies Main Culprit Behind Lithium Metal Battery Failure
A research team led by the University of California San Diego has discovered the root cause of why lithium metal batteries fail.
October 9, 2019
Comparison of the visible manuscript page (top) and the X-ray fluorescence image (bottom) of the Syriac Galen Palimpsest. The horizontal text in pale red (bottom image) is the original Galen text.
Fossils and Folios
How the same technique helped reveal both a 6th century medical text and an ancient bird feather’s pigment.
October 9, 2019
Argonne physicist Mahalingam Balasubramanian loads an in situ lithium-ion battery into the low-energy resolution inelastic X-ray (LERIX) system at the Advanced Photon Source.
Peering Into Batteries: X-Rays Reveal Lithium-Ion’s Mysteries
Researchers are using the Office of Science’s advanced light sources to study batteries in real-time.
October 8, 2019
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Registration Now Open for Energy Department’s National Science Bowl®
High school & middle school teams nationwide can now sign up to compete in one of the nation’s most prestigious & largest academic science competition
October 4, 2019
Early Career Award Winner Pavel Nadolsky Profile Picture
Pavel Nadolsky: Then and Now / 2010 Early Career Award Winner
Nadolsky is creating state-of-the-art methods in order to learn about elementary particles’ properties.
October 3, 2019
Bacteria help drive the natural decay of plant material using small sulfur compounds called thiols.
Scientists Mimic Natural Decay to Break Down Plant Material for Biofuel Production
Researchers have mimicked a bacterial pathway to break down the toughest parts of a plant in preparation for biofuel processing.
October 1, 2019
A new study proposes a new biochemical pathway by which the microorganism Methanosarcina acetivorans uses iron to more efficiently conserve energy when producing the greenhouse gasses methane and carbon dioxide.
Methane-Producing Microorganism Makes a Meal of Iron
Manipulating iron could alter production of this greenhouse gas.
September 27, 2019
Xiaochao Zheng Profile Picture
Xiaochao Zheng: Then and Now / 2010 Early Career Award Winner
Her Early Career Award funding supported Zheng and her team in parity measurement research.
September 23, 2019
In the Arctic, sea ice extent today is less than half of what it was in 1984. Photo is courtesy of the Alfred Wegener Institute.
For the Arctic, an Epic Investigation
Embedded in sea ice for a year, a shipborne observatory will take a rare look at conditions in the rapidly evolving central Arctic.
September 20, 2019
Michelle Strout Profile Picture
Michelle Strout: Then and Now / 2010 Early Career Award Winner
Strout’s ECA supports the SAIMI project, creating small programming models to increase performance.
September 18, 2019
Through a $2.7 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy, a University of Nebraska–Lincoln research team is developing ways to maximize sorghum potentials across the United States.
Nebraska Team Merges Machine Learning, Plant Genetics to Maximize Sorghum Potential
Project is among the first to unite artificial intelligence and plant science.
September 13, 2019
Vlad Soukhanovskii Profile Picture
Vlad Soukhanovskii: Then and Now / 2010 Early Career Award Winner
Soukhanovskii’s 2010 ECA supports his work on edge plasma transport and plasma-surface interactions in spherical tokamaks.
September 11, 2019
A new experiment designed by MIT physicists may help to pin down the rate at which huge, massive stars produce oxygen in the universe.
Physicists Design an Experiment to Pin Down the Origin of the Elements
With help from next-generation particle accelerators, the approach may nail down the rate of oxygen production in the universe.
September 10, 2019
ESnet connects researchers across the United States to each other and international collaborators. Junko Yano and Vittal Yachandra's group and collaborators are using X-rays at LCLS and supercomputers at NERSC to study photosystem II.
The Technological Heavyweight You’ve Probably Never Heard Of: ESnet
The Department of Energy’s superhighway for scientific information has been crucial to furthering research in the past, present, and future.
September 6, 2019
Matthew Schwartz Profile Picture
Matthew Schwartz: Then and Now / 2010 Early Career Award Winner
Schwartz is developing theoretical tools to understand beams of particles that exploit the improved measurement capabilities of the LHC detectors.
September 5, 2019
A Desmoceras fossil. A cephalopod that thrived in the early Cretaceous, 146 to 100 million years ago.
Making Biominerals: Nature’s Recipe is Old, Evolved More Than Once
Researchers discover the recipe for making shells, spines, and coral skeletons is not only the same across many modern animal lineages, but is ancient
September 4, 2019
Image of liquid crystals courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
In Living Liquid Crystals Pattern, a Vision of New Technology
Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering researchers have shown how living liquid crystals, materials that can act on their own, create patterns.
September 3, 2019
Wei-Jun Qian Profile Picture
Wei-Jun Qian: Then and Now / 2010 Early Career Award Winner
Qian’s 2010 Early Career Award has supported his work to develop new detection technologies for microbial and plant organisms regulation.
August 28, 2019
Mike Dunne, the director of the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS), works to ensure that about 1,000 researchers each year can use the LCLS to study some of the world’s most essential chemical, biological, and physical processes.
Meet the Director: Mike Dunne
As director of the Linac Coherent Light Source, Mike Dunne helps make it possible for scientists to use one of the world’s most powerful x-ray systems
August 22, 2019
Wendy Shaw Profile Picture
Wendy Shaw: Then and Now / 2010 Early Career Award Winner
Shaw’s 2010 Early Career Award has supported her work to improve fuel cell catalyst efficiency by mimicking biological features of enzymes.
August 15, 2019
Image of an optical micrograph of self-assembled metal/dielectric nanoparticles. These tiny particles control the reflection, absorption and transmission of light.
No Limits for Light or Science
At the PTL Energy Frontier Research Center, scientists push to make light more efficient, which is key to re-imaging solar panels & other technologies
August 13, 2019
A laser beam (red, at left) strips electrons (blue dots) off of helium atoms. Some of the freed electrons (red dots) get accelerated inside a plasma bubble (white elliptical shape) created by an electron beam (green).
Atomic ‘Trojan horse’ Could Inspire New Generation of X-ray Lasers and Particle Colliders
At SLAC’s FACET facility, researchers have produced an intense electron beam by 'sneaking’ electrons into plasma.