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Recent News

• An international research team shed light on the ribosomal protein [pdf, 136kb] S17E from the archaeal thermophilic anaerobe Methanobacterium thermoautotrophicum by determining the protein's structure. The team conducted this research using data acquired on EMSL's nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometers.
• The creation of climate-changing organic aerosols [pdf, 136kb] is not accelerated over megacities, states a recent study aided by instruments from the Department of Energy's Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory.
• Diverse bacteria [pdf, 119kb] have much in common, right down to the core. Using a peptide database collected at the Department of Energy's Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory—six years in the making, comprising approximately 967,000 peptides, and linked to protein and gene data—researchers from the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory discovered a group of proteins that are shared and commonly expressed by a wide variety of different bacteria. Called the "core proteome," the ubiquitous nature of this group of proteins suggests that they are fundamental to bacterial life.
• Single-celled bacterium works 24-7. Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis have gained the first detailed insight into the way circadian rhythms govern global gene expression in Cyanothece (Washington University in St. Louis - press release), a type of cyanobacterium (blue-green algae) known to cycle between photosynthesis during the day and nitrogen fixation at night. The study was published in the April online issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science. The research was funded by the U.S. Department of Energy in the context of a Biology Grand Challenge project administered by the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.
• On April 28, 2008, 25,000 square feet of new office space at the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory was dedicated to the memory of Professor J. Mike White [pdf, 137kb], a Robert A. Welch Chair of Materials Chemistry at the University of Texas at Austin, founding Director of the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory's Institute for Interfacial Catalysis, and distinguished EMSL user.
• On April 28, 2008, 25,000 square feet of new office space at the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory was dedicated to the memory of Professor J. Mike White [pdf, 137kb], a Robert A. Welch Chair of Materials Chemistry at the University of Texas at Austin, founding Director of the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory's Institute for Interfacial Catalysis, and distinguished EMSL user.
• SPLAT Makes its mark in flying research laboratory. Experts and state-of-the-art instrumentation from the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory are part of an 80-person team of U.S. and Canadian scientists flying over the North Slope of Alaska (PNNL research highlight) in an intensive month-long field study in April. The group's mission: to measure, with great precision and detail, key elements of the atmosphere to help reveal how the Earth's climate is changing. The Arctic region is an ideal study location because it displays dramatic evidence of global changes such as melting sea ice.
• Code Improvements Enhance Analysis of Global Cloud Resolving Model Data. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory researchers with the developers of the open-source NetCDF Operators (NCO) recently added capabilities for processing geodesic grid data and optimized performance to support efficient manipulation of data sets consisting of many files of tens to hundreds of gigabytes in size. The improved and optimized tools enhance the ability to analyze data generated by the Global Cloud Resolving Model (PNNL research highlight). Some of this work was conducted in the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, a Department of Energy national scientific user facility located at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.
• Developing a transformational next-generation proteomics measurement platform. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory started work in January 2008 on the Next-Generation Proteomics Measurement Platform (PNNL research highlight). This platform combines new instrumentation and data analysis capabilities for significantly higher throughput proteomics than currently available, as well as informatics capabilities for managing the massive volumes of proteomics data that will be generated.
• If you've ever struggled to find a message in an overflowing email inbox, you can sympathize with biologists that must sift through volumes of data to unlock secrets to human health, bioenergy, and environmental remediation. The new Biological Mass Spectrometry Data and Software Distribution Center [pdf, 231KB] helps biologists by providing free software to make data sorting easier.
• Seeing clearly despite the clouds. Satellites taking atmospheric measurements (PNNL news release) might now be able to see blue skies as clearly as optimists do. Researchers, using EMSL resources, have found a way to reduce cloud-induced glare when satellites measure blue skies on cloudy days, by as much as ten-fold in some cases.
• Zachery Oestreicher, a user of the Department of Energy's Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, was awarded a National Science Foundation grant [pdf, 137kb] to study protein-mineral/bacterial-mineral interactions in Japan this summer.
• Metal-reducing bacteria [pdf, 321kb] grown in the presence of sulfur and arsenic proved the right combination to produce nanotubes with the chemical properties of metals and semiconductors, giving promise for their application as novel nano- and opto-electronic devices.
• If the Flintstones had electricity, their wires might have been made of rock. Results in Science Express [March 6, 2008] show that hematite can conduct electrons under certain chemical conditions [pdf, 198kb].
• EMSL user Bill Weber was selected as an inaugural Materials Research Society Fellow [pdf, 115kb]. He was honored for his "seminal contributions, leadership, mentoring and innovative research on defects, defect properties, ion-solid interactions, radiation effects and models of radiation damage processes in glasses and ceramics."
• Julia Laskin, Omar Hadjar, and Peng Wang, users of EMSL, show that the science of softly depositing small proteins on a surface is both beautiful and informative [pdf, 114kb]. The images they provided for an invited review article grace a cover of the February 28, 2008, issue of Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics.
• Using EMSL, scientists determine the crystal structure of a protein [pdf, 163kb] from the blue-green bacteria, Cyanothece.
• Paul Tratnyek, a member of EMSL's User Advisory Committee and a professor in the department of environmental and biomolecular systems at Oregon Health and Science University's OGI School of Science and Engineering, has received a 2007 OHSU Faculty Senate Award [pdf, 93kb].
• EMSL researcher Yanwen Zhang has been invited by the National Academy of Engineering to attend the 2008 German-American Frontiers of Engineering Symposium [pdf, 111kb].
• A new technology, discovered by EMSL users, may halt water treatment filter plugs [pdf, 168kb] by preventing a bacterial slime that fouls the filter.
• Electrons spur the chemical reaction between hydrochloric acid and ammonia, users from the Department of Energy's EMSL announced in a February 2008 cover article in Science [pdf, 109kb]. The findings may help scientists precisely control the chemistry in systems contained in hydrogen-powered cars.
• Screening for people that might have type 1 diabetes could eventually be more reliable thanks to five proteins [pdf, 154kb] discovered by users at EMSL. The proteins could help predict type 1, or insulin-dependent, diabetes with higher sensitivity and specificity than current methods, which can vary considerably among testing laboratories.
• Like waltzing dancers, the two atoms of an oxygen molecule usually behave identically when they separate on the surface of a catalyst [pdf, 128kb]. However, new research from EMSL reveals that on titanium dioxide, the oxygen atoms act like a couple dancing the tango: one oxygen atom plants itself while the other move away, probably with energy partially stolen from the stationary one.
• Markus Raschke, an Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory user from the University of Washington, has received a prestigious Career Award from the National Science Foundation [pdf, 106kb].
• Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory researcher Theva Thevuthasan was appointed Chair of the Short Course Executive Committee [pdf, 106kb] for AVS: Science and Technology of Materials, Interfaces, and Processing.
• Don Baer, Laboratory Fellow and EMSL Lead Scientist for Interfacial Chemistry, was elected to a third term as Chair of the ASTM International Committee [pdf, 116kb] E42 on Surface Analysis.
• EMSL user Bruce D. Kay was appointed to the Basic Energy Sciences Advisory Committee [pdf, 96kb]
• EMSL user Professor Gerard F. R. Parkin received the 2008 American Chemical Society Award in Organometallic Chemistry [pdf, 113kb] in recognition of his recent achievements in developing models for the active sites of zinc enzymes.
• Written by EMSL users, an article on a new nanotechnology-based method for measuring blood glucose [pdf, 126kb] was selected as a highly cited paper by Thomson ISI's Essential Science Indicators.
• EMSL's Steve Wiley has been invited to write a monthly column [pdf, 127kb] for The Scientist. The column will consist of Wiley's thoughts and opinions about life sciences.
• Both EMSL computational and experimental resources were employed by researchers from the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory to develop a method to understand the structure-function relationships in proteins. [pdf, 143kb]
• EMSL researcher Mark Engelhard was appointed Publications Committee Chair for AVS [pdf, 149kb]: Science and Technology of Materials, Interfaces, and Processing.
• EMSL's Ken Beck received the U.S. Coast Guard Achievement Award [pdf, 118kb] for enabling maritime patrols to reliably communicate in the gullies and gorges of the Columbia and Snake rivers.
• An article written by EMSL users and collaborators that describes how many common microorganisms create nanowires to transfer electrons was named a hot paper [pdf, 122kb] by ISI's Essential Science Indicators in January 2008. Hot papers are selected because they are cited numerous times within just 2 years of publication.
• Integration of computational and experimental photoelectron resources has enabled aromaticity research [pdf, 135kb] by EMSL users, leading to a cover in a January 2008 issue of PCCP.
• A feature article [pdf, 137kb] authored by EMSL users and staff members was published in the The Journal of Physical Chemistry A. The article, "Kinetic Study of Heterogeneous Reaction of Deliquesced NaCl Particles with Gaseous HNO₃ Using Particle-on-Substrate Stagnation Flow Reactor Approach," was written by Yong Liu and Alexander Laskin of EMSL, and Jeremy Cain and Hai Wang of the University of Southern California.
• Scientists from the University of California at Irvine, EMSL and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory are shining a spotlight on previously unrecognized processes that produce secondary organic aerosols [pdf, 134kb], which are a significant fraction of the atmospheric aerosol mass. Because little is known about the formation of SOAs, the measured and predicted levels differ by an order of magnitude, stymieing research on how to control these aerosols to mitigate their environmental impact.
• NWChem Version 5.1 [pdf, 130kb] is now available to users.
• EMSL user Michel Dupuis was elected Fellow in the American Physical Society [pdf, 116kb].
• EMSL users Desmond Smith and Dick Smith shared the honor of being named to the 2007 Scientific American 50 list [pdf, 120kb] in January 2008. Assembled by Scientific American's Board of Editors, the list honors 50 outstanding people or teams for their achievements and leadership in shaping established and emerging technologies.
• Scientists need to rethink the way they model atmospheric organic aerosols [pdf, 129kb] and their impact on global and regional climate change, given the recent findings of EMSL users from the National Center for Atmospheric Research, University of Washington, and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. This team, led by Rahul Zaveri of PNNL's Atmospheric Science and Global Change Division, found a discrepancy in the semi-empirical approach commonly used in global models to simulate organic aerosols.
• Longtime EMSL user Dick Smith was elected to a 3-year term on the Council of the Human Proteome Organisation [pdf, 104kb]. Smith was elected to the Council, the organization's governing body, at the HUPO World Congress in Seoul, South Korea, in October 2007.
• Greg Exarhos, a frequent user of EMSL, was elected President of AVS [pdf, 112kb]: Science and Technology of Materials, Interfaces, and Processing.
• Long-time EMSL user Lai-Sheng Wang, a professor from Washington State University, was appointed to the 2008 Editorial Advisory Board [pdf, 114kb] of The Journal of Physical Chemistry.
• EMSL users from the Institute for Interfacial Catalysis at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have used the 900-MHz NMR [pdf, 126kb] to generate the highest resolution spectra ever obtained of a common catalyst support and observed, for the first time, how the support interacts with a catalyst at the atomic scale.
• Fung Suong Ou, a graduate student who investigated a new method of building nanowires at Rice University, received a prestigious nanotechnology award from the Foresight Nanotech Institute [pdf, 96kb] in October at the Productive Nanosystems Conference in Arlington, Virginia. Ou conducted nanotechnology research at EMSL as part of the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory's Summer Research Institute, where he was mentored by EMSL's Don Baer and Lax Saraf.
• Satyanarayana Kuchibhatla, a graduate student from Professor Sudipta Seal's group at University of Central Florida who is conducting research at EMSL, received an AVS Graduate Research Award for 2007 [pdf, 81kb].
• EMSL user Julia Laskin received the U.S. government's highest honor for researchers at the beginning of their careers when she accepted the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers [pdf, 120kb] at the White House on November 1. A senior research scientist at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Laskin was honored for her work in fundamental reaction kinetics and ion surface reactions conducted at EMSL.
• EMSL Chief Technology Officer Dave Koppenaal and five EMSL users were awarded the distinction of 2007 Fellows [pdf, 167kb] of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
• The lead investigator of EMSL's Membrane Biology Grand Challenge was installed in early October as a George William and Irene Koechig Freiberg Professor of Biology in Arts and Sciences [pdf, 124kb] at Washington University in St. Louis.
• Nearly 200 staff and users of the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory (EMSL) and their families helped the national scientific user facility commemorate 10 years [pdf, 123kb] of world-leading science. The celebration took place on September 28 and coincided with the announcement of contract award to HP for delivery of EMSL's next-generation supercomputer.
• HP has been selected to deliver to EMSL a new $24-million supercomputer [pdf, 153kb] that will help users of the national scientific user facility advance molecular science in areas such as aerosol formation, bioremediation, catalysis, climate change, hydrogen storage, and subsurface science.
• A research team composed of scientists from EMSL, Idaho National Laboratory, and Wichita State University is uniting theory, computation, and experiment to discover exactly how heavy elements, such as uranium and technetium [pdf, 830kb], interact in their environment.
• Alice Dohnalkova, an expert microscopist from EMSL, received the Diatome Award during the national meeting of the Microscopy Society of America on August 8 in Fort Lauderdale. The award recognizes distinguished scientists who present new and enlightening work in the field of microscopy.
• EMSL user Alex Punnoose, a physics professor at Boise State University (BSU), received the 2007 Boise State University College of Arts and Sciences Award for Distinguished Teaching and the Award for Distinguished Research—the first BSU professor to receive both awards in the same year. In addition, Punnoose was named winner of the university's 16^th Foundation Scholar Award for Research and Creativity.
• EMSL is playing an important role in understanding atmospheric processes in the Arctic. EMSL user Laura Alvarez-Aviles, from the University of Alaska Fairbanks, is using EMSL staff expertise and state-of-the-art instruments to determine the importance of aerosol surfaces in Arctic atmospheric chemistry.
• Representatives from the University of Manchester visited EMSL on July 23 and 24 to evaluate EMSL as a model for how the university will design and operate its new user facility.
• A research team from EMSL, PNNL, and the University of Idaho has used room-temperature methods, instead of traditional high temperature methods, to create metallic-iron nanoparticles with varying shapes. The research was featured on the cover of the June 25, 2007, issue of Nanotechnology.
• EMSL user Valérie Copié, a researcher at Montana State University, and her team have determined an unusual protein three-dimensional structure from nuclear magnetic resonance spectra generated in EMSL's High-Field Magnetic Resonance Facility.
• EMSL's nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometry capabilities have played a role in helping researchers study direct conversion of natural sugars to an alternative source for plastic, fuels, and other industrial and household chemicals. Results of the research were reported in Science (316:1597-1600).
• EMSL expertise and instrumentation are helping to support an atmospheric field campaign in Oklahoma that seeks a better understanding of how aerosols affect cloud properties, such as water concentration and droplet size distributions. The campaign is also studying how clouds affect properties of aerosols like chemical composition and location in the atmosphere.
• At the invitation of the National Academies, Roy Gephart, Scientific Facility Lead of the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory's Chemistry and Physics of Complex Systems Facility, will participate in a workshop on radiation contamination and remediation issues in the former Soviet Union.
• Resources at the Department of Energy's Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory will help support a $27.5-million dollar effort by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory to investigate the movement of contaminated groundwater at sites in Richland, Washington, and Rifle, Colorado.
• EMSL researcher Shuttha Shutthanandan was named recipient of the 2007 Fitzner/Eberhardt Award (pdf, 134kb) for Outstanding Contributions to Science and Engineering Education.

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