NEWS RELEASES

 The aviation industry accounts for a large portion of global greenhouse gas emissions. Biobased, sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) can mitigate climate impacts, but transitioning to SAF faces critical supply chain constraints. A research team at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign has developed a method to produce jet-grade fuel from food waste, contributing to a circular bioeconomy. In a new paper, published in Nature Sustainability, they focus on technical and economic considerations.

This system is crucial for enabling next-generation particle accelerators to better reveal fundamental biological and chemical processes, as well as advance materials science and energy research. The compact detector is a technological breakthrough, combining artificial diamonds, custom microchips, and cutting-edge assembly techniques into one unit.

A simple surface coating could make it easier to reliably make parts of next-generation computer chips using silicon and a promising new class of materials called transition metal dichalcogenides (TMD). By coating the surface of TMD with oxygen or fluorine before bombarding it with plasma ions, the team determined that the top layer of atoms could be removed from the material while lower layers were less likely to be damaged. The approach could help manufacturers build better computer chips and processors in the future.

A project led by University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture researchers will help reduce the use of synthetic nitrogen fertilizer by designing corn plants that better use nitrogen already in the soil.

Scott Lenaghan, associate professor of food science, and Neal Stewart, professor of plant sciences, secured $2.5 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Energy Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E). Their project, “SyN-Fix: Synthetic Biology to Improve Nitrogen Cycling in the Maize Rhizosphere,” is one of nine awarded to develop technologies that reduce synthetic nitrogen fertilizer use in corn and sorghum farming, which are key crops for U.S. ethanol production.

Wetlands are the world's largest natural source of methane, a potent greenhouse gas. In a new study from The University of Texas at Austin, researchers have newly identified 160 million small wetlands across the globe and found that they have a substantial collective impact, accounting for 24% of the world’s total non-forested wetland emissions of methane.

In a study published in Science, researchers used silver nanoparticles to assemble a theorized, but never-before observed crystal metallic structure.

PPPL’s Quantum Diamond Laboratory is using plasma to grow lab-made diamonds that are studded with atomic-scale defects, which serve as the building blocks of ultrasensitive quantum sensors.