Measuring Planck's constant, watt balance brings world closer to new kilogram

22-Jun-2016 - A high-tech version of an old-fashioned balance scale at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has just brought scientists a critical step closer toward a new and improved definition of the kilogram. The scale, called the NIST-4 watt balance, has conducted its first ...

Scientists gain new insights into atomic disordering of complex metal oxides

09-Mar-2016 - A study led by the University of Tennessee and the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory could soon pay dividends in the development of materials with energy-related applications. Three UT researchers—Maik Lang, assistant professor of nuclear engineering ; Haidong Zhou, assistant ...

Fuel cells in operation: A closer look

11-Oct-2010 - Measuring a fuel cell's overall performance is relatively easy, but measuring its components individually as they work together is a challenge. That's because one of the best experimental techniques for investigating the details of an electrochemical device while it's operating is x-ray ...

Nano antenna concentrates light

Intensity increases 1,000-fold in Rice lab's experiment

23-Sep-2010 - Everybody who's ever used a TV, radio or cell phone knows what an antenna does: It captures the aerial signals that make those devices practical. A lab at Rice University has built an antenna that captures light in the same way, at a small scale that has big potential. Condensed matter physicist ...

Highest X-ray energy used to probe materials

27-Jul-2010 - Scientists for the first time have dived into the effect that an intense X-ray free electron laser (XFEL) has on materials. Using the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) facility at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore scientists probed nitrogen gas at X-ray energies of up ...

Nanotechnologists from Penn collaborate to form near-frictionless diamond material

03-Mar-2010 - Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Wisconsin-Madison and IBM Research-Zürich have fabricated an ultra sharp, diamond-like carbon tip possessing such high strength that it is 3,000 times more wear-resistant at the nanoscale than silicon. The end result is a ...

Within a cell, actin keeps things moving

University of Oregon-made technique is putting new light on machinery driving intracellular transport

21-Dec-2009 - Using new technology developed in his University of Oregon lab, chemist Andrew H. Marcus and his doctoral student Eric N. Senning have captured what they describe as well-orchestrated, actin-driven, mitochondrial movement within a single cell. That movement - documented in Proceedings of the ...

Models present new view of nanoscale friction

02-Mar-2009 - To understand friction on a very small scale, a team of University of Wisconsin-Madison engineers had to think big. Friction is a force that affects any application where moving parts come into contact; the more surface contact there is, the stronger the force. At the nanoscale friction can ...

NSF and EPA establish 2 centers for environmental implications of nanotechnology

Centers will focus on environmental effects of nanotechnology and its applications

19-Sep-2008 - The National Science Foundation (NSF) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have made awards to establish two Centers for the Environmental Implications of Nanotechnology (CEIN). The centers, led by UCLA and Duke University, will study how nanomaterials interact with the environment ...

LLNL researchers create tool to monitor nuclear reactors

14-Mar-2008 - International inspectors may have a new tool in the form of an antineutrino detector, that could help them peer inside a working nuclear reactor. A Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory-Sandia National Laboratories' team recently demonstrated that the operational status and thermal power of ...