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Argonne researchers have new insight into producing pure hydrogen -- a currently expensive, but energetic, fuel source.

This past weekend, the Mars Science Laboratory rover Curiosity launched from Cape Canaveral with the most advanced payload of scientific gear ever used on the red planet -- made possible by nuclear space power systems developed by the Energy Department.

Tapping the entrepreneurial spirit of its Silicon Valley surroundings, Lawrence Livermore National Lab has a legacy that includes the launch of hundreds of successful companies. During just the past 20 years, five entrepreneurs from the Lab have founded four companies with a current market capitalization of $8.4 billion.

A new prototype network transmits at about 100 Gigabits per second (Gbps), which is about 10 times faster than most commercial Internet providers, and approximately 50,000 times faster than scientists (or anyone else) can send information via their iPhones. Learn how it will provide the opportunity for greater insight into scientific and societal challenges.
 


A new kind of thyristor – an electronic switch – has the potential to change the landscape for power control and conversion.
 And it's thanks to a partnership between the Energy Department’s Sandia National Laboratory (SNL) and GeneSiC Semiconductor that this technology is now on the market. Learn more.

Plant fatty acids are used in a vast range of products, from polymers to plastics and soaps to industrial feed stocks -- making up an estimated $150 billion market annually. A new discovery of inserting double bonds in the fatty acids could show the way to the designer production of plant fatty acids, and, in turn, to new industrial applications and new products.

A revolutionary new turbine technology for hydropower plants is one step closer to its first commercial deployment. The Alden Fish-Friendly Turbine could change the game for hydropower generation in the United States, and it is likely to have significant export potential.

A software system designed by the Energy Department’s Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory originally to help decommission a nuclear reactor is now on its way to helping federal authorities detect hidden nuclear materials, including “dirty bombs,” in airports and shipping terminals around the world. 


Thirteen winners were recently announced — 11 supported by the Energy Department’s Office of Science and two supported by the Department’s National Nuclear Security Administration.

The unique internal construction of the gas-filled panels developed at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California are as effective barriers to heat as its pink fibrous counterparts with less material in less space. To improve the panel’s thermal performance the panels can be inflated with compressed inert gas, like argon, xenon or krypton, which doesn’t heat as easily as air.

China has become the world’s largest producer of solar modules. But did you know that these Chinese manufacturers are using technology breakthroughs developed in the United States? What’s the disconnect in the US's ability to deploy it?

A highly efficient catalyst to convert renewable crops into the product propylene glycol was discovered by scientists at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and commercialized by the Archer Daniels Midland Company.