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=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 PSThttp://www.pnnl.gov/science/highlights/highlight.asp?id=1385Results: A multi-institutional team from the Department of Energy's Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (GLBRC) used metagenomic and metaproteomic approaches to provide insight into the symbiotic relationship between leaf-cutter ants, fungi, and bacteria. In doing so, they have mapped the first draft genome of the predominant fungus and clarified its role in lignocellulose degradation in underground fungal gardens tended by the ants. Ultimately, scientists hope that this understanding will help the development of cellulosic biofuels. ]]>Wed, 08 May 2013 00:00:00 PSThttp://www.pnnl.gov/science/highlights/highlight.asp?id=1379Results: Tropical cloudiness has its own timeline. That’s what researchers at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory found when they compared development of turbulent clouds to the timing of the atmospheric perturbation that rolls over the region every 60 to 90 days. Contrary to past assumptions, rather than a smooth transition, they found two peaks in cloudiness and rainfall during the active phase of the atmospheric phenomenon known as the Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO for short). ]]>Mon, 06 May 2013 00:00:00 PSThttp://www.pnnl.gov/science/highlights/highlight.asp?id=1382Results: Fires and hurricanes are only two examples of natural disturbances that drastically affect millions of people worldwide. Now, scientists are considering how these events might limit opportunities for climate mitigation as well. A team of scientists from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, working at the Joint Global Change Research Institute at Maryland, found that strategies to alleviate the impacts of climate change will need to account for future land and atmospheric disturbances that impact forests. This study is the first to quantify the effect of future natural disturbances on climate mitigation strategies. ]]>Mon, 06 May 2013 00:00:00 PSThttp://www.pnnl.gov/science/highlights/highlight.asp?id=1380Results: Scientists at China's Lanzhou University and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory found that dust lifted from the Taklimakan Desert during a dust storm had a significant effect on the regional climate. The 2006 storm was aggravated by a cold front that pushed the dust to the highest level of the atmosphere over the northern Tibetan Plateau in China, affecting the balance of heat in the region's atmosphere. The ability to accurately model such storms will help in understanding the climatic impact of dust. ]]>Fri, 03 May 2013 00:00:00 PST