Number 233

Combination Lyme disease vaccine proteins

Scientists at DOE's Brookhaven Lab and Stony Brook University have genetically engineered “chimeric” proteins that combine pieces of two proteins normally present on the surface of the bacterium that causes Lyme disease, but at different parts of the organism's life cycle. Combining pieces of these two proteins into a single protein could advance the development of a more effective vaccine against Lyme disease, the most common vector-borne disease in the U.S. The chimeric proteins could also be used as diagnostic reagents that distinguish disease-causing strains of bacteria from relatively harmless ones, as well as in assays that help assess the severity of an infection.

[Karen McNulty Walsh, 631/344-8350,
kmcnulty@bnl.gov]

MiniBooNE results resolve long-standing neutrino question

Columbia University's Janet Conrad holds one of the 1520 light sensors installed inside the MiniBooNE detector.

Scientists of the MiniBooNE neutrino experiment at DOE's Fermilab have resolved a key question raised by observations from the Liquid Scintillator Neutrino Detector at DOE's Los Alamos Lab in the 1990s, which appeared to contradict findings of other neutrino experiments worldwide. MiniBooNE researchers showed conclusively that the LSND results could not be due to simple neutrino oscillation, a phenomenon in which one type of neutrino transforms into another type and back again. The announcement of MiniBooNE's first result, from data collected from 2002 through December 2005, significantly clarifies the overall picture of how neutrinos behave.

[Mike Perricone, 630/840-5678,
mikep@fnal.gov]

Flexible electronics

Semiconductor ribbons with buckled profiles on polydimethylsiloxane surfaces that are functionalized for surface chemical bonding exhibit mechanical stretchability.

Flexible electronic structures with the potential to bend, expand and manipulate electronic devices are being developed by researchers at Argonne National Laboratory and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. These flexible structures could find useful applications as electronic devices that can be integrated into artificial muscles or biological tissues. The flexible electronics are also important for energy technology as flexible and accurate sensors for hydrogen. The concept focuses on forming single-crystalline semiconductor nanoribbons in stretchable geometrical configurations with emphasis on the materials and surface chemistries used in their fabrication and the mechanics of their response to applied strains.

[Sylvia Carson, 630/252-5510,
scarson@anl.gov]

International collaboration enhances INL's concealed weapons detector

Sixteen magnetometer sensors, developed by scientists in the former Soviet Union, are used in INL's concealed weapons detector to located potential contraband items.

An international collaboration between DOE's Idaho National Laboratory, Russia and General Electric has led to the development of powerful sensors that will enhance the capabilities of the INL-developed concealed weapons detector. The detector uses 16 passive magnetic sensors to replicate the Earth's ambient magnetic field. As contraband items pass through the field, they are rapidly detected and their location is pinpointed on a computer monitor. The concealed weapons detector has been installed nationwide in courthouses, federal buildings and high schools. The sensors were developed through the DOE's Global Initiatives for Proliferation Prevention program which provides the opportunity for foreign Cold War-era weapons scientists to use their science background and knowledge to work on important peaceful, nonmilitary projects.

[Ethan Huffman, 208/526-0660,
Ethan.Huffman@inl.gov]

More hints on Higgs from Fermilab CDF scientists

CDF Higgs search—Top from left: Mark Neubauer, Shih-Chieh Hsu, with screens of Elliot Lipeles, Frank Wurthwein, Rami Vanguri (all from UC San Diego). Middle : Toby Davies, Rick St. Denis, Stan Thompson, Aidan Robson, (Glasgow). Bottom: Valentin Necula (Duke), Peter Bussey (Glasgow), and Mark Kruse, Dean Hidas, Doug Benjamin (Duke).

Using two innovative approaches in their search, scientists of the CDF experiment at the Department of Energy's Fermilab believe they have results showing that the Standard Model Higgs boson could be within reach of the Tevatron proton-antiproton collider at a mass close to 160 GeV/C(2). One approach is an "artificial neural network" trained to distinguish Higgs events from background; the other is a "matrix element" analysis formed from theoretical probabilities combined with detector modeling. Adding the many other Higgs searches at both the CDF and DZero detectors, and factoring in significant luminosity increases at the Tevatron, the CDF researchers believe Fermilab has a chance to discover the long-sought Higgs particle.

[Mike Perricone, 630/840-5678,
mikep@fnal.gov]

Adventurous NETL researcher
likes exploring science

David Tucker

David Tucker's life plays like an Indiana Jones movie: world travel, adventures, narrow escapes. Toss in quiet, multilingual chemistry professor turned researcher at DOE's National Energy Technology Laboratory, and the “Indy” Jones picture is complete.

Tucker's circuitous path winds through his California birthplace and growing-up years in Washington and Alaska, meanders through Alabama long enough to complete a doctorate in physical chemistry at the University of Alabama and teach a while at the University of West Alabama, and eventually arrives at NETL in 2001. Tucker is heavily involved in the Hybrid Performance Project, an Office of Research and Development effort to study fuel cell turbine hybrids.

The soft-spoken scientist has traveled to Africa 15 or 16 times, as well as through Europe, learning Swahili, Lingala, French, and Arabic along the way. He has studied Spanish, too, but confessed he's not fluent.

Tucker earned his pilot's license at age 20 and then flew some friends to Africa, where they planned to open a gold and diamond mining business. War broke out and the friends took commercial flights home, leaving Tucker to recover from malaria, regain his strength, and fly the plane out of Africa.

“I like exploring,” Tucker explained. “I like using the scientific method to study the world.” His adventuresome spirit and deep interest in his work animated Tucker as he described the apparatus he and his colleagues have built. “I am discovering things nobody else knows,” Tucker said. “That's what keeps me interested in my work.”

An educator at heart—years earlier he had considered joining the Jesuits, the Catholic Church's teaching order—he prefers hands-on work and mentoring graduate students at NETL as they pursue their careers.

Tucker and his wife, Helen, are the parents of a six-year-old daughter and a two-year-old son. They are expecting their third child in August.

Submitted by DOE's National Energy
Technology Laboratory

DOE Pulse highlights work being done at the Department of Energy's national laboratories. DOE's laboratories house world-class facilities where more than 30,000 scientists and engineers perform cutting-edge research spanning DOE's science, energy, national security and environmental quality missions. DOE Pulse is distributed every two weeks. For more information, please contact Jeff Sherwood (jeff.sherwood
@hq.doe.gov, 202-586-5806)