- Number 302 |
- December 21, 2009
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The Neutron Express
A ride around toy train tracks inside an experimental fusion machine can reveal much about a hot gas called plasma. Research staff at DOE's Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory recently mounted a neutron source on a toy train inside the National Spherical Torus Experiment (NSTX), placed it on hobby train tracks that had been installed and sent it on a three-day continuous zip around the rails.
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LANL fires a DAHRT
After decades of work, scientists and engineers at DOE's Los Alamos National Laboratory have fired the first-ever double-viewpoint hydrodynamic test of a nuclear weapon mockup. The test took place on December 3, 2009 at the Dual Axis Radiographic Hydrodynamic Test (DARHT) facility at Los Alamos.
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NETL Researchers Develop Promising New Photocatalyst for CO2 Reuse
Researchers at the National Energy Technology Laboratory have developed a new, heterostructured photocatalyst capable of using the low-energy, visible-light portion of the electromagnetic spectrum for converting CO2 and H2O into methane, methanol, and other value-added chemicals. In this system, CdSe nanocrystals absorb visible light photons, creating excited electrons which are injected into TiO2 to reduce CO2.
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A speedy CAT scan for cells
A team from DOE’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Stanford University, and the University of California at Berkeley have used the National Center for X-ray Tomography at Berkeley Lab’s Advanced Light Source (ALS) to make 3-D movies of the internal structure of Candida albicans, a microbe that can cause yeast infections, capturing the changes that occur when the organism is exposed to a new and promising antifungal therapy.
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Ge Mini: Portable gamma spectrometer
A team of scientists and engineers from DOE's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has developed GeMini--a portable gamma-ray spectrometer based on germanium technology. The instrument is so small that it fits in the palm of a hand, and this spectrometer is outfitted with an innovative low-powered, miniature cooling mechanism.