http://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org provides the latest news from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (Phys.org) —Just a few drops of liquid or a bit more is run past specialized sensors in microfluidic devices to detect chemicals of concern to doctors and security personnel. However, these devices are now being reinvented for use in scientific instruments to answer fundamental questions, according to a review written by scientists at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and published in Microfluidics and Nanofluidics. http://phys.org/news287827012.html Chemistry Wed, 15 May 2013 09:10:01 EST news287827012 (Phys.org) —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. http://phys.org/news287650387.html Biology Mon, 13 May 2013 08:40:03 EST news287650387 (Phys.org) —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 level. http://phys.org/news287650346.html Nanotechnology Mon, 13 May 2013 07:52:35 EST news287650346 (Phys.org) —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. http://phys.org/news287389788.html Space & Earth Fri, 10 May 2013 07:50:07 EST news287389788 (Phys.org) —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. http://phys.org/news287301556.html Space & Earth Thu, 09 May 2013 07:20:01 EST news287301556 (Phys.org) —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. http://phys.org/news287301368.html Chemistry Thu, 09 May 2013 06:57:22 EST news287301368 (Phys.org) —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, they found that the atmospheric phenomenon known as the Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO for short) does not directly influence the timing of specific rainfall events. Tall turbulent clouds drive rain in the region to change from drizzle to downpour at a faster pace. http://phys.org/news287134284.html Space & Earth Tue, 07 May 2013 08:32:06 EST news287134284 (Phys.org) —Capturing carbon dioxide and storing it in underground rock formations is one proposed solution to mitigate climate change. New knowledge about the chemical reactions between stored carbon dioxide and forsterite (Mg2SiO4) is helping determine how much confidence can be placed in using igneous rocks with magnesium-rich olivines for long-term carbon sequestration. Scientists at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory determined that the carbon dioxide and forsterite react to form hydrated dypingite [(Mg5(CO3)4•5H2O)], which precipitates from solution. http://phys.org/news287047307.html Space & Earth Mon, 06 May 2013 08:21:55 EST news287047307 (Phys.org) —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. http://phys.org/news287047262.html Space & Earth Mon, 06 May 2013 08:21:13 EST news287047262 (Phys.org) —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. http://phys.org/news286182323.html Space & Earth Fri, 26 Apr 2013 08:40:01 EST news286182323 (Phys.org) —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. http://phys.org/news286182284.html Chemistry Fri, 26 Apr 2013 08:05:00 EST news286182284 (Phys.org) —In extreme cold, carbon dioxide huddles near charged oxygen atom outcroppings on the surface of oft-studied titanium dioxide; the carbon dioxide lacks the energy to reach a more protected spot, according to scientists at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. When heated, the carbon dioxide slides into a more substantial, reactive oxygen vacancy, holes left by missing oxygen atoms. The team tracked the carbon dioxide with a scanning tunneling microscope tip that provided atomic-resolution images. http://phys.org/news285320719.html Chemistry Tue, 16 Apr 2013 08:45:26 EST news285320719 Natural gas power plants can use about 20 percent less fuel when the sun is shining by injecting solar energy into natural gas with a new system being developed by the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. The system converts natural gas and sunlight into a more energy-rich fuel called syngas, which power plants can burn to make electricity. http://phys.org/news284973876.html Technology Fri, 12 Apr 2013 09:10:01 EST news284973876 To further the quest to harness microbes for beneficial uses, scientists from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and Purdue University developed a promising computational tool for analyzing microbial flux distribution and metabolic engineering. They used the Lumped Hybrid Cybernetic Model (L-HCM), developed by Purdue researchers Dr. Hyun-Seob Song and Dr. Doraiswami Ramkrishna, to predict and simulate the metabolic dynamics of Shewanella oneidensis MR-1 during aerobic growth in a bioreactor. http://phys.org/news284882636.html Biology Thu, 11 Apr 2013 07:30:01 EST news284882636 (Phys.org) —While it is important to understand how the Earth system works from a process-level basis, it is clear that human activities are increasingly challenging assumptions about how that system works. Factor in climate change, and it is quickly apparent: one size certainly does not fit all. In their paper, "The Regional Nature of Global Challenges: A Need and Strategy for Integrated Regional Modeling," authors Dr. Kathy Hibbard and Dr. Anthony Janetos of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory make the case for integrated regional-scale analyses, where they discuss how regional dynamic interactions between human and natural systems provide insight into mitigation and adaptation strategies, their tradeoffs and consequences, and how these influence the global Earth system. http://phys.org/news284625612.html Space & Earth Mon, 08 Apr 2013 08:20:02 EST news284625612