Page 114 - Berkeley Lab News Today

SLAC With a new suite of tools, scientists discovered exactly how tiny plate-like catalyst particles carry out a key step in that conversion – the evolution of oxygen in an electrocatalytic cell – in unprecedented detail. Transitioning from fossil fuels to a clean hydrogen economy will require cheaper and more efficient ways to use renewable sources of electricity to break water into hydrogen and oxygen. But a key step in that process, known as the oxygen evolution reaction or OER, has pro...

Comments Off on U.S. Power Sector Halfway to Zero CO2 Emissions BERKELEY, California, April 20, 2021 (ENS) – Climate change concerns are driving a growing number of states, utilities, and corporations to set the goal of zeroing out heat-trapping carbon emissions from the power sector. To date, 17 states plus Washington, DC and Puerto Rico have adopted laws or executive orders to achieve 100 percent carbon-free electricity in the next two to three decades. Additionally, 46 U.S. utilities have ...

Infant-Warming Device Proven Effective and Safe in Reducing Neonatal Mortality Newborn babies, particularly those born under-weight or preterm, are susceptible to hypothermia, since newborns are not yet able to maintain their own body heat. Hypothermia is recognized to be a significant contributor to newborn disease and death, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. The World Health Organization and public health leaders have recommended best practices to prevent hypothermia in newbor...

If you stumble upon an unusual rock that could be a meteorite, do not place a magnet on it to see if it’s magnetic – you’d end up erasing 4.5 billion

Going Beyond Qubits: New Study Demonstrates Key Components for a Qutrit-Based Quantum Computer A team led by physicists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and UC Berkeley has successfully observed the scrambling of quantum information, which is thought to underlie the behavior of black holes, using qutrits: information-storing quantum units that can represent three separate states at the same time. Their ef...

Infinitely Recyclable Plastic on the Horizon with Next-Gen Polymers Apr 30, 2021 We humans are addicted to an almost indestructible substance that is all around us. Globally, humans create 380 million tons of plastic annually. Despite the recycling symbol on the bottom of any such package, the vast majority of plastics end up in landfills, waste incineration plants or our oceans. Numerous problems have long plagued what manufactures call recyclable plastic - but there is hope on the horizon. A ...

Geothermal technology has enormous potential to power the planet and Fervo wants to tap it Tapping the geothermal energy stored beneath the Earth’s surface as a way to generate renewable power is one of the new visions for the future that’s captured the attention of environmentalists and oil and gas engineers alike. That’s because it’s not only a way to generate power that doesn’t rely on greenhouse gas emitting hydrocarbons, but because it uses the same skillsets and expertise that t...

Ion Beams Mean a Quantum Leap for Color-Center Qubits Achieving the immense promise of quantum computing requires new developments at every level, including the computing hardware itself. A Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab)-led international team of researchers has discovered a way to use ion beams to create long strings of “color center” qubits in diamond. Their work is detailed in the journal Applied P...

1 Shares A young mother in Rwanda cuddles her newborn with skin-to-skin contact, wrapped with the Infant Warmer mat. (Credit: Anne Hansen, Department of Pediatrics, Boston Children’s Hospital. Photo taken July, 2019 in Butaro Hospital, Rwanda, with informed consent.) Newborn babies, particularly those born under-weight or preterm, are susceptible to hypothermia, since newborns are not yet able to maintain their own body heat. Hypothermia is recognized to be a significant contributor to newbor...

Date Time Improved Desalination Process Also Removes Toxic Metals to Produce Clean Water UC Berkeley chemists synthesized a flexible polymer membrane incorporating nanoparticles called “porous aromatic frameworks.” The membrane selectively absorbs nearly 100% of metals such as mercury, copper, or iron during desalination, more efficiently producing clean, safe water. The membrane can incorporate a single type of tuned nanoparticle if the metal is to be recovered – or several different typ...