Latest Ames Laboratory Stories

Recycling keeps paper, plastics, and even jeans out of landfills. Could recycling rare-earth magnets do the same? Perhaps, if the recycling process can be improved. Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Ames Laboratory are working to more effectively remove the neodymium, a rare earth element, from the mix of other materials in a magnet. Initial results show recycled materials maintain the properties that make rare-earth magnets useful. The current rare earth recycling...

Findings could have applications in high-speed communications fields. Graphene has caused a lot of excitement among scientists since the extremely strong and thin carbon material was discovered in 2004. Just one atom thick, the honeycomb-shaped material has several remarkable properties combining mechanical toughness with superior electrical and thermal conductivity. Now a group of scientists at Iowa State University and the Department of Energy's Ames Laboratory, led by physicist...

Genetic mutations to cellulose in plants could improve the conversion of cellulosic biomass into biofuels, according to a research team that included two Iowa State University chemists. Mei Hong, an Iowa State professor of chemistry and an associate of the U.S. Department of Energy's Ames Laboratory, and Tuo Wang, an Iowa State graduate student in chemistry, contributed their expertise in solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy to the study. The study was led by Seth DeBolt,...

  Bob Lipert held up a syringe, attached a plastic cartridge and demonstrated how chemistry developed at Iowa State University is helping astronauts and cosmonauts make sure they have safe drinking water at the International Space Station. Each cartridge contains a thin, one-centimeter disk that's loaded with chemistry, said Lipert, an associate scientist with Iowa State's Institute for Physical Research and Technology and an associate of the U.S. Department of Energy's Ames...

Iowa State part of materials science collaboration highlighted during meetingAn Iowa State theoretical physicist will describe the latest ideas in high-temperature superconductivity during the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science Feb. 17-21 in Washington, D.C.Jörg Schmalian, an Iowa State professor of physics and astronomy and an associate of the U.S. Department of Energy's Ames Laboratory, will be part of a symposium addressing the 100-year history of...

The breakthrough reveals another example of the strategic importance of rare-earth elementsAutomobiles, military vehicles, even large-scale power generating facilities may someday operate far more efficiently thanks to a new alloy developed at the U.S. Department of Energy's Ames Laboratory. A team of researchers at the Lab that is jointly funded by the DOE Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Division of Materials Sciences and Engineering and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency,...

The work could lead to improved methodologies for creating materials by designScientists have given us a plethora of new materials "“ all created by combining individual elements under varying temperatures and other conditions. But to tweak an intermetallic compound even more, in order to give it the attributes you desire, you have to go deeper and re-arrange individual atoms.It's a process similar to what bioengineers employ when they add and delete genes to create synthetic organisms, and...

Advancements in understanding rotational motion in living cells may help researchers shed light on the causes of deadly diseases, such as Alzheimer's, according to Ning Fang, an associate scientist at the U.S. Department of Energy's Ames Laboratory and faculty member at Iowa State University.    In an article entitled "Resolving Rotational Motions of Nano-objects in Engineered Environments and Live Cells with Gold Nanorods and Differential Interference Contrast Microscopy" published...

Michael Kessler has worked with polymers that repair themselves when they crack. And he's worked with polymers made from vegetable oils. Now he's working to combine the two technologies.Kessler, an Iowa State University associate professor of materials science and engineering and an associate of the U.S. Department of Energy's Ames Laboratory, is researching and developing biorenewable polymers capable of healing themselves as they degrade and crack."If successful, the results of this...

Advancements in fabrication technologies may lead to superlenses and other designer optical materials, according to an Iowa State University and Ames Laboratory physicist.In an article titled "Improving Metamaterials" published in the Perspectives section of the Dec. 17 issue of the journal Science, Costas Soukoulis and Martin Wegener write about the man-made materials designed to deliver certain properties not found in nature.Soukoulis is an Iowa State University Distinguished...