Highlights
Latest Highlights
Fair-Weather Clouds Hold Dirty Secret
New study reveals particles that seed small-scale clouds over OklahomaApril 2013
Results: Their fluffy appearance is deceiving. Fair-weather clouds have a darker side, according to scientists at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. Fair-weather cumulus clouds contain an increasing amount of droplets formed around pollution particles. The new simulations, using data collected over Oklahoma, show how pollution from Oklahoma City increased the number of cloud droplets and reduced their size, affecting their sunlight absorbing, light scattering and cloud-seeding performance.
Controlling Proton Source Speeds Catalyst in Turning Electricity to Fuel
Nickel-based catalyst three times faster with adjustments to key acidApril 2013
Results: A new
catalyst is faster when it and its surrounding acid have the same proton
affinity or pKa, according to scientists at the Center
for Molecular Electrocatalysis, an Energy Frontier Research Center, at
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. The catalyst drives turning electrons
and protons into a bond between two hydrogen atoms, storing the energy. Making
the catalyst faster is vital to designing technologies that can store electrons
created by wind turbines. The team's experimental and computational studies
focused on the acid that supplies the reaction's protons. When the acid and the
catalyst had the same pKa, the speed jumped from 2,400 and 27,000 hydrogen
molecules a second to 4,100 to 96,000.
- Keqi Tang Named Battelle Distinguished Inventor
April 2013 - Jun Liu Honored by National Lab for Outstanding Materials Innovations
April 2013 - Atmospheric Bit Players Take Stage
Influence of particles on regional water cycle and climate over CaliforniaApril 2013 - When Pollution Gets a Whiff of Trees
City and tree emissions mix it up causing poor air qualityApril 2013 - Dick Smith to Receive Award for Distinguished Contribution in Mass Spectrometry
April 2013 - Motivating Carbon Dioxide
Scientists show what it takes to get the potential fuel feedstock to a reactive spot on a model catalystApril 2013 - Smashing Glass at the Molecular Level
Scientists show how cracks propagate through thick and thin layers of frozen liquid waterApril 2013 - PNNL Researchers Discuss Increasing Interest in Scientific Fields via Women @ Energy
April 2013 - Cybernetic Model Developed to Predict Shewanella Metabolic Behavior
Detailed network-based dynamics address metabolic pathways, dynamic regulationApril 2013 - Making the Case for Regional Modeling
Tackling global environmental issues means adopting smaller, regional approachApril 2013 - Reining in Rain's Reign
A unique calibration technique uncovers the details of precipitation in a climate modelApril 2013 - Transformations Newsletter Presents Catalysis and Sustainable Energy
April 2013 - Clouds Pull Rank in the Tropical Atmosphere
A decade of data discloses the influence of clouds on the tropical energy balanceMarch 2013 - Striking While the Iron Is Hot
Chromatography combined with database search strategy identifies hard-to-find heme proteinsMarch 2013 - A New Method for Measuring the Viscosity of Nanoparticles
First direct determination of the chemical diffusivity and viscosity of secondary organic aerosolsMarch 2013 - Water for Power
Reducing power plant greenhouse gas emissions and the effect on water useMarch 2013 - Nigel Browning Elected Microscopy Society of America Fellow
March 2013 - Unlocking the Parkinson's Puzzle
Developing an assay to identify components in protein structures to aid diagnosis, treatmentMarch 2013 - Chemical Society Symposium to Honor Catalysis Research of Dan DuBois
March 2013 - Catalysts' Outer Coordination Spheres Take Their Place in the Spotlight
Invited review shows influence and gives state of the science on exterior structuresMarch 2013 - Yong Wang Elected Fellow at Royal Society of Chemistry
March 2013 - One Year into Three-Year Bio-Based Jet Fuel Project
March 2013 - Rivers Run Right Through It...The Model
New river-routing model improves simulations of water movement within the Earth's systemMarch 2013 - Reaching Ambitious Greenhouse Gas Concentration Goals
Technology improvements reduce cost of reaching goals, but not essential to meet themMarch 2013 - Jim Dooley to Serve on the Technical Program Committee for GHGT12
March 2013 - Water Supply and Demand
Scenarios to project global demand water use over the 21st centuryMarch 2013 - Seeing the Messages Microbes Send
Novel chemical imaging instrument shows how bacteria support diverse, nearby colonies March 2013 - Photobioreactor Enables Systems Biology Studies of Cyanobacteria
Feedback-controlled LEDs provide repeatability, larger samplesFebruary 2013