Feature Stories
Updates every hour. Last Updated: 1-Jul-2025 03:10 ET (1-Jul-2025 07:10 GMT/UTC)
26-Mar-2025
Maximizing hydropower efficiency with hydrogen production
DOE/Idaho National LaboratoryHydropower is a reliable source of energy. However, the inconsistent nature of water flows and electricity demand often challenges hydropower operators and reduces revenue.
26-Mar-2025
Idaho experts help startup harvest heat from server farms for greenhouses
DOE/Idaho National Laboratory
Data centers are one of the fastest growing areas of America’s technology sector. These massive warehouses of servers make some of today’s most important technical achievements possible, such as the expanding use of artificial intelligence applications and cryptocurrency mining. Because they use a great deal of energy, they emit a substantial amount of waste heat. But rather than let the heat – well, go to waste – what if we could use it to create new revenue streams for businesses?
26-Mar-2025
Engineering resilience: University of Pittsburgh sabbatical at national lab helps strengthen America’s critical infrastructure
DOE/Idaho National Laboratory
Everyday life depends on a robust infrastructure network that provides access to running water, communications technology and electricity, among other basic necessities. The experts who keep our national infrastructure secure and resilient also need a strong network to share their knowledge and train the next generation of professionals capable of solving complex infrastructure challenges. This means finding ways to bring government, academia and the private sector together. One way is through sabbaticals that temporarily place professors in our national labs.
25-Mar-2025
Argonne innovations squeeze more out of used nuclear fuel and rare earth materials
DOE/Argonne National LaboratoryNew technology could prove effective in nuclear fuel recycling and other metal recovery processes.
25-Mar-2025
Solving a molecular mystery for better bioproducts
DOE/Oak Ridge National LaboratoryScientists at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the University of Cincinnati achieved a breakthrough in understanding the vulnerability of microbes to the butanol they produce during fermentation of plant biomass. The discovery could pave the way for more efficient production of domestic fuels, chemicals and materials.
- Journal
- Langmuir
- Funder
- U.S. Department of Energy
24-Mar-2025
Building blocks of innovation: Light-induced symmetry changes in tiny crystals
DOE/Argonne National Laboratory
Argonne researchers have shown that they can use light to temporarily alter the crystal symmetry within lead sulfide quantum dots. This process reduces the off-centering of lead atoms and affects the electronic properties of the quantum dots.
- Journal
- Advanced Materials
18-Mar-2025
Argonne team uses Aurora supercomputer to investigate potential dark energy breakthrough
DOE/Argonne National Laboratory
Argonne researchers used the lab’s Aurora exascale supercomputer to perform large-scale simulations of the universe, providing a testing ground to investigate Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument’s potentially game-changing observations of dark energy.
17-Mar-2025
1,000 Scientist AI Jam kicks off at Argonne
DOE/Argonne National Laboratory
The 1,000 Scientist AI Jam brought together DOE researchers at Argonne and eight other labs to explore models from OpenAI and Anthropic and understand AI’s potential to accelerate discoveries in energy, materials science, medicine and more.
13-Mar-2025
Daniel Haskel of Photon Sciences selected for Oppenheimer fellowship program
DOE/Argonne National Laboratory
Daniel Haskel of the lab’s Photon Sciences directorate has been selected to represent Argonne in the 2025 cohort of DOE’s Oppenheimer Science and Energy Leadership Program (OSELP).