Physical Sciences
For more than three decades, ORNL's Shared Research Equipment (SHaRE) User Facility has provided researchers from universities, industry and other national laboratories with two unique commodities: access to an unmatched array of state-of-the-art electron microscopes and collaboration with a highly skilled staff of scientists.
| 5 min read
Four years after a keystroke produced the first neutrons, the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) has moved into a new phase, both as a neutron research facility and as one of the scientific community's foremost user centers for materials research. "We now have the world's most intense pulsed neutron source, a fact that by itself is very attractive to anybody who wants to use neutrons to investigate materials," says Stephen Nagler, chief scientist of ORNL's Neutron Scattering Science Division.
| 4 min read
Although they could revolutionize a wide range of high-tech products such as computer displays or solar cells, organic materials do not have the same ordered chemical composition as inorganic materials, preventing scientists from using them to their full potential. But an international team of researchers led by McGill's Dr. Dmitrii Perepichka and the Institut national de la recherche scientifique's Dr. Federico Rosei have published research that shows how to solve this decades-old conundrum.
| 2 min read
The National High Magnetic Field Laboratory at Florida State University is planning to build a state-of-the-art magnet system that will transform the study of complex environmental and biological samples. A better understanding of fossil and biological fuels, for example, could lead to applications for reducing carbon emissions and the development of new, sustainable fuels.
| 3 min read
Moore's law marches on: In the quest for faster and cheaper computers, scientists have imaged pore structures in insulation material at sub-nanometer scale for the first time. Understanding these structures could substantially enhance computer performance and power usage of integrated circuits, say Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC) and Cornell University scientists.
| 2 min read
An international collaboration of scientists has announced the first results of the ACT project, probing the early years of the Universe, at Canada's largest supercomputing conference in Toronto on June 9. The presentation was made by Jonathan Sievers, of the Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics.
| 1 min read
Demonstrating that chemistry sometimes can inform history, researchers from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Colorado College and Mount Saint Mary's University in Emmitsburg, Md., have shown that sensitive nondestructive evaluation (NDE) techniques can be used to determine the elemental composition of ancient coins, even coins that generally have been considered too corroded for such methods*.
| 2 min read
An intimate understanding of complex materials that lie at the heart of pharmaceuticals or even nuclear weapons can occur more quickly and efficiently thanks to an agreement between Los Alamos and Argonne national laboratories.
| 2 min read
Physicists at JILA have demonstrated a new tool for controlling ultracold gases and ultracold chemistry: electric fields. As described in the April 29 issue of Nature,* JILA scientists discovered that applying a small electric field spurs a dramatic increase in chemical reactions in their gas of ultracold molecules.
| 3 min read
Mimicking the human nervous system for bionic applications could become a reality with the help of a method developed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory to process carbon nanotubes.
| 3 min read
A new method of converting biomass feedstock into sustainable fuel developed by researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and University of Minnesota has the potential to have a profound effect on the chemical industry.
| 3 min read
A researcher at North Carolina State University has helped to develop a new method for describing the binding of protons and neutrons within nuclei. This method may improve scientists ability to predict and understand astrophysical reactions within stars.
| 2 min read
