2014 Press Release Archive

November 12, 2014
Press Release
Study at SLAC Explains Atomic Action in High-Temperature Superconductors
A study at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory suggests for the first time how scientists might deliberately engineer superconductors that work at higher temperatures.
November 5, 2014
Press Release
Researchers Hit Milestone in Accelerating Particles with Plasma
Scientists have demonstrated that a promising technique for accelerating electrons on waves of hot plasma is efficient enough to power a new generation of shorter, more economical accelerators.
September 14, 2014
Press Release
Study Sheds New Light on Why Batteries Go Bad
A comprehensive look at how tiny particles in a lithium ion battery electrode behave shows that rapid-charging the battery and using it to do high-power, rapidly draining work may not be as damaging as researchers had thought – and that the benefits of slow draining and charging may have been overestimated.
Photo - battery cycler
September 9, 2014
Press Release
Buckyballs and Diamondoids Join Forces in Tiny Electronic Gadget
Scientists have married two unconventional forms of carbon – one shaped like a soccer ball, the other a tiny diamond – to make a hybrid that could channel electron flow in molecular electronic devices.
August 21, 2014
Press Release
X-ray Laser Probes Tiny Quantum Tornadoes in Superfluid Droplets
An experiment revealed a well-organized 3-D grid of quantum "tornadoes" inside microscopic droplets of supercooled liquid helium – the first time this formation has been seen at such a tiny scale.
July 10, 2014
Press Release
Uncertainty Gives Scientists New Confidence in Search for Novel Materials
Scientists have found a way to estimate uncertainties in computer calculations that are widely used to speed the search for new materials for industry, electronics, energy, drug design and a host of other applications.
July 9, 2014
Press Release
Researchers Led by Stanford Engineer Figure Out How to Make More Efficient Fuel Cells
Using high-brilliance X-rays, researchers track the process that fuel cells use to produce electricity, knowledge that will help make large-scale
June 23, 2014
Press Release
Scientists Use X-rays to Look at How DNA Protects Itself from UV Light
DNA’s molecular building blocks absorb ultraviolet light so strongly that sunlight should deactivate them – yet it doesn’t. A new SLAC study reveals details of a “relaxation response” that protects these molecules and the genetic information they encode.
Illustration showing a thymine molecule, DNA helix and the sun.
June 18, 2014
Press Release
Scientists Take First Dip into Water’s Mysterious ‘No Man’s Land’
Scientists at the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory have made the first structural observations of liquid water at temperatures down to minus 51 degrees Fahrenheit, within an elusive “no man’s land” where water’s strange properties are super-amplified.
Artist's concept - see caption
May 22, 2014
Press Release
Stanford Researchers Discover Immune System’s Rules of Engagement
By finding surprising similarities in the way immune system defenders bind to disease-causing invaders, a new study may help scientists develop new treatments.
Conceptual art - see caption
March 20, 2014
Press Release
Scientists Discover Potential Way to Make Graphene Superconducting
Scientists have discovered a potential way to make graphene – a single layer of carbon atoms with great promise for future electronics – superconducting, a state in which it would carry electricity with 100 percent efficiency.
Superconducting Graphene Layers
March 17, 2014
Press Release
Physicists Find Evidence of Cosmic Inflation
Researchers from the BICEP2 collaboration have announced the first direct evidence supporting the theory of cosmic inflation. Their data also represent the first images of gravitational waves, or ripples in space-time. These waves have been described as the "first tremors of the Big Bang."
The Dark Sector Lab (DSL)
February 16, 2014
Press Release
New ‘Pomegranate-inspired’ Design Solves Problems for Lithium-Ion Batteries
An electrode designed like a pomegranate – with silicon nanoparticles clustered like seeds in a tough carbon rind – overcomes several remaining obstacles to using silicon for a new generation of lithium-ion batteries, say its inventors at Stanford University and the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory.
A fanciful illustration of pomegranate seeds inside a conventional battery

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