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US energy use drops in 2008

DOE/Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Americans used more solar, nuclear, biomass and wind energy in 2008 than they did in 2007, according to the most recent energy flow charts released by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

New study sheds light on the growing US wind power market

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

For the fourth consecutive year, the US was home to the fastest-growing wind power market in the world in 2008, according to a report released by the US Department of Energy and prepared by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Specifically, US wind power capacity additions increased by 60 percent in 2008, representing a $16 billion investment in new wind projects.

Funder: DOE/US Department of Energy

Research sheds light on cause of Down syndrome and other genetic disorders

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Scientists have a better understanding of what causes an abnormal number of chromosomes in offspring, a condition called aneuploidy that encompasses the most common genetic disorders in humans, such as Down syndrome, and is a leading cause of pregnancy loss.

Journal: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

New technique can fast-track better ionic liquids for biomass pre-treatments

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Researchers at the Joint BioEnergy Institute are using the natural auto-fluorescence of plant cell walls to dynamically track how ionic liquids are able to dissolve lignocellulose into fermentable sugars for the production of advanced biofuels.

Journal: Biotechnology and Bioengineering
Funder: DOE/US Department of Energy

Nanopillars promise cheap, efficient, flexible solar cells

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of California at Berkeley grow dense arrays of single-crystal semiconductors arranged as nanoscale pillars on low-cost, aluminum foil substrates. When the nanopillars are combined with a transparent, positively charged semiconductor that serves as a window, the resulting 3-D photovoltaic promises efficient, cheap, flexible solar cells.

Journal: Nature Materials
Funder: DOE/US Department of Energy

Simulations illuminate universe's first twin stars

DOE/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

The earliest stars in the universe formed not only as individuals, but sometimes also as twins, according to a paper published today in Science Express. By creating simulations of the early universe, astrophysicists Matthew Turk and Tom Abel of the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology, located at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, and Brian O'Shea of Michigan State University have gained the most detailed understanding to date of the formation of the first stars.

Funder: DOE/US Department of Energy, NASA, National Science Foundation

Exploring standards to advance microbial genomics

DOE/Joint Genome Institute
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Nikos Kyrpides, head of the DOE Joint Genome Institute's Genome Biology program, presents a perspective on microbial genomics in the journal Nature Biotechnology.

Journal: Nature Biotechnology

Spontaneous assembly

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Self-assembling and self-organizing systems are the Holy Grails of nanotechnology, but nature has been producing such systems for millions of years. A team of scientists has taken a unique look at how thousands of bacterial membrane proteins are able to assemble into clusters that direct cell movement to select chemicals in their environment. Their results provide valuable insight into how complex periodic patterns in biological systems can be generated and repaired.

Journal: PLOS Biology
Funder: DOE/US Department of Energy, National Institutes of Health

Scientists track chemical changes in cells as they endure extreme conditions

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

How do some bacteria survive conditions that should kill them? In groundbreaking research, Berkeley Lab scientists used the Advanced Light Source to track chemical changes in individual cells as they adapt to extreme environments.

Journal: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Funder: DOE/US Department of Energy

71 projects fill DOE Joint Genome Institute 2010 pipeline

DOE/Joint Genome Institute
Grant and Award Announcement

Seventy-one projects have been approved for the DOE Joint Genome Institute's 2010 Community Sequencing Program portfolio.

Funder: DOE/US Department of Energy