http://www.pnnl.gov/science/ Fundamental and Computational Sciences Directorate en-us http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss suraiya.farukhi@pnnl.gov christine.sharp@pnnl.gov http://www.pnnl.gov/science/highlights/highlight.asp?id=1393Journal of Parallel and Distributed Computing, focusing on "Domain-Specific Languages and High-Level Frameworks for High-Performance Computing." ]]>Fri, 24 May 2013 00:00:00 PSThttp://www.pnnl.gov/science/highlights/highlight.asp?id=1392Results: Ammonia must overcome an energy barrier to join sulfuric acid and water to create clusters that can lead to cloud formation, according to scientists at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and the University of Delaware. The team used surface-induced dissociation, which breaks apart molecules under controlled conditions. They found that when the clusters fragmented, they either lost an ammonia molecule followed by a sulfuric acid molecule, or lost the two molecules simultaneously. The energy required to dissociate a cluster is higher than the energy of the final products. This energy requirement implies that there is an energy or activation barrier that must be overcome for an ammonia molecule to join the cluster and help it grow. The research also suggests that the more conventional and simple-to-calculate diffusion rate should not be assumed to be the growth rate. ]]>Thu, 23 May 2013 00:00:00 PSThttp://www.pnnl.gov/science/highlights/highlight.asp?id=1391Wed, 22 May 2013 00:00:00 PSThttp://www.pnnl.gov/science/highlights/highlight.asp?id=1390Tue, 21 May 2013 00:00:00 PSThttp://www.pnnl.gov/science/highlights/highlight.asp?id=1389Microfluidics and Nanofluidics. ]]>Tue, 14 May 2013 00:00:00 PSThttp://www.pnnl.gov/science/highlights/highlight.asp?id=1387Mon, 13 May 2013 00:00:00 PSThttp://www.pnnl.gov/science/highlights/highlight.asp?id=1388Radiation Research. The review, by Laboratory Fellow Dr. William F. Morgan and retired PNNL scientist Dr. William J. Bair, highlights critical areas of controversy in low-dose radiation biology, and suggests areas of future research to address these issues. ]]>Mon, 13 May 2013 00:00:00 PSThttp://www.pnnl.gov/science/highlights/highlight.asp?id=1386Results: Researchers at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have uncovered the characteristics of a low-resistance electrical contact to strontium titanate, SrTiO₃, an important prototypical oxide semiconductor.  Oxides are likely to be important materials in next-generation electronic devices, and they need to be extremely small. Getting electrical signals into and out of oxide semiconductors is hard because a large energy barrier typically develops at the junction with metal contacts.  Metal contacts are required to get electricity into and out of a semiconductor device in much the same way that jumper cables are needed to transfer power from a healthy car battery to a dead battery. This work shows how to eliminate this barrier while keeping the contact area extremely small, at the nanometer (one billionth of a meter) level. ]]>Fri, 10 May 2013 00:00:00 PSThttp://www.pnnl.gov/science/highlights/highlight.asp?id=1383Results: What climate component can be as thick and sticky as honey, peanut butter or even asphalt? It is tiny particles forming in the atmosphere. An international team of scientists used two new techniques to find the viscosity of organic particles produced when α-pinene, one gas given off by pine trees, meets ozone, a gas produced from pollution. The researchers, from the University of British Columbia, Harvard University, University of Canterbury in New Zealand, University of Leeds in England, and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory found that the resulting carbon-containing particles behave like liquids, semi-solids or solids across a range of atmospheric relative humidity conditions. Their research was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. ]]>Thu, 09 May 2013 00:00:00 PSThttp://www.pnnl.gov/science/highlights/highlight.asp?id=1384Results: Given two catalysts for the job of turning intermittent wind or solar energy into chemical fuels, scientists chose the material that gets the job done quickly and uses the least energy. A catalyst that quickly produces fuel but uses far more energy than it stores won't get the job. Scientists could measure the wasted energy, also known as overpotential, in water but not in other liquids, until researchers at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory devised a quick, elegant technique. ]]>Wed, 08 May 2013 00:00:00 PST