Science Highlights
Predictive model a step toward using bacteria as a renewable fuel source
Green isoprene
Released: September 17, 2013
A new transcriptomics-based model predicts how much isoprene B. subtilis will produce when stressed or nourished—this insight into isoprene regulation is helping advance synthetic biology approaches to engineer microbes to produce isoprene and other high-value metabolites.
Examining the core components of Arctic clouds to clear up their influence on climate
Forecast calls for better models
Released: September 10, 2013
To better understand how atmospheric aerosols influence cloud formation and climate, scientists characterized cloud droplets and ice crystals collected at the North Slope of Alaska as part of the ISDAC field study sponsored by DOE-BER.
Termite digestive-tract microorganisms: a resource to fuel the future
Gut reaction
Released: August 27, 2013
Determining how microbial symbionts within a termite’s intestinal tract transform its lignocellulosic diet into useable energy—or its very own biofuel—may provide a new pathway for generating cost-effective biochemical conversion methods.
Predictive models of environmental reaction kinetics made more accurate, scalable
Scaled up
Released: August 08, 2013
Integrated computational and experimental studies show that predictive models of biogeochemical interactions in soils are more accurate and scalable if they consider the reaction chemistry in distinct soil pore structures.
Sulfide and iron work together to reveal a new path for radionuclide sequestration
Sulfur cleans up
Released: July 31, 2013
By employing nano zerovalent iron to promote sulfide generation in technetium (Tc)-contaminated groundwater, scientists offer a fundamental geochemical understanding of Tc sequestration and a potential new remediation strategy.
Scientists gain first quantitative insights into electron transfer from minerals to microbes
Tunable transfer
Released: July 30, 2013
Scientists have gained the first quantitative insights into electron transfer from minerals to microbes by studying that transfer in a nature-inspired, protein and iron-based 'tunable' nanoparticle system.
New insight into Salmonella infection revealed by top-down proteomics strategies at EMSL
The switch
Released: June 26, 2013
A first-of-its-kind molecular switch has been discovered in the food-poisoning bacterium Salmonella Typhimurium. Reported in PNAS, this discovery was made possible with the help of top-down proteomics strategies at EMSL.
New study reveals chemical transformations of ambient organic aerosols
Agents of change
Released: June 14, 2013
Scientists used EMSL’s nano-DESI and mass spectrometry capabilities to analyze the molecular composition of atmospheric organic aerosols, or OA, and uncovered a new method for investigating OA that may lead to more precise climate models.
