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Berkeley Lab Develops Nanoscope to Probe Chemistry on the Molecular Scale

By Guest PostJune 22, 2014Scienceatomic force microscopy, berkeley lab, bezahnten schildkroete, fourier transform, ftir, ganeshwaran mochida, gpt2, green party, hans bechtel, jill stein, lida xing, meteorites, michael martin, molecular scale, mouse neuron, new technique, oberen jura, ozan baytas neurological disease, proteins, qing ouyang, schildkroeten, sichuanchelys palatodentata, stardust, synchrotron infrared, university of colorado, walter joyce, wucaiwan, wuestenregion chinas

For years, scientists have had an itch they couldn’t scratch. Even with the best microscopes and spectrometers, it’s been difficult to study and identify molecules at the so-called mesoscale, a region of matter that ranges from 10 to 1000 nanometers in size. Now, with the help of broadband infrared light from the Advanced Light Source (ALS) synchrotron at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), researchers have developed a broadband imaging technique that looks inside this realm with unprecedented sensitivity and range.

By combining atomic force microscopy with infrared synchrotron light, researchers from Berkeley Lab and the University of Colorado have improved the spatial resolution of infrared spectroscopy by orders of magnitude, while simultaneously covering its full spectroscopic range, enabling the investigation of variety of nanoscale, mesoscale, and surface phenomena that were previously difficult to study. (more…)

Edgy Look at 2D Molybdenum Disulfide

By Guest PostMay 23, 2014Science2d, african elephants, alan lightman, berkeley lab, boulder, catalyst, hidden valley, ivory experiment, kathryn zurek, molybdenum disulfide, mos2, nonlinear optics, pamela anomaly, photonic devices, sensitivity limits, university of colorado, xiang zhang, xiaobo yin, ziliang ye

Berkeley Lab Researchers Observe 1D Edge States Critical to Nanoelectronic and Photonic Applications

The drive to develop ultrasmall and ultrafast electronic devices using a single atomic layer of semiconductors, such as transition metal dichalcogenides, has received a significant boost. Researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have recorded the first observations of a strong nonlinear optical resonance along the edges of a single layer of molybdenum disulfide. The existence of these edge states is key to the use of molybdenum disulfide in nanoelectronics, as well as a catalyst for the hydrogen evolution reaction in fuel cells, desulfurization and other chemical reactions. (more…)

JILA strontium atomic clock sets new records in both precision and stability

By Guest PostJanuary 26, 2014Scienceatom collision, boulder, cesium clocks, environmental heating, jila, jun ye, microwave, nist, optical lattice, precision, quantum logic clock, stability, strontium atomic clock, strontium lattice clock, true resonant frequency, university of colorado, ytterbium atomic clock

Heralding a new age of terrific timekeeping, a research group at JILA—a joint institute of the University of Colorado Boulder and the National Institute of Standards and Technology—has unveiled an experimental strontium atomic clock that has set new world records for both precision and stability.

The clock is in a laboratory at JILA, located on the CU-Boulder campus. (more…)

Slippery bark protects trees from pine beetle attack, according to CU-Boulder study

By Guest PostDecember 27, 2013Naturebeetle infestation, boulder, boulder county parks, california, ecology, evolutionary biology, functional ecology, high elevation, humboldt state university, indian peaks, jeffrey kane, jeffry mitton, john marr fund, limber pines, mountain pine beetles, oecologia, open space, pine beetle attack, protect, scott ferrenberg, slippery bark, trees, university of colorado, wilderness alliance

Trees with smoother bark are better at repelling attacks by mountain pine beetles, which have difficulty gripping the slippery surface, according to a new study by the University of Colorado Boulder.

The findings, published online in the journal Functional Ecology, may help land managers make decisions about which trees to cull and which to keep in order to best protect forested properties against pine beetle infestation. (more…)

Smartphone users value their privacy and are willing to pay for it, CU-Boulder economists find

By Guest PostDecember 22, 2013Technologyandroid, app, apps for iphone, atlanta, boulder, Chicago, denver, digital anonymity, donald m waldman, engine research foundation, kinds of privacy, online privacy, personal information, philadelphia, privacy, public policy, scott j savage, smartphone users, takashi hososhima, typical application, university of colorado, value, windows smartphone

Average smartphone users are willing to pay up to $5 extra for a typical application—or “app”—that won’t monitor their locations, contact lists and other personal information, a study conducted by two economists at the University of Colorado Boulder has found.

The researchers believe theirs is the first economic study to gauge the monetary value smartphone users place on privacy. That value is measured in consumers’ “willingness to pay” for five different kinds of digital anonymity. (more…)

U.S. policy should encourage highly skilled, foreign Ph.D. students to stay, CU-led study finds

By Guest PostNovember 4, 2013Education, Politics, Scienceahmed mushfiq mobarak, boulder, congress, economic growth, eric t stuen, foreign phd students, green card, highly skilled, investment visa, journal science, keith maskus, permanent residence, scientific discovery, senate bill, university of colorado, us policy, us residency, us university

Attracting more talented foreign students to study at U.S. universities and encouraging them to launch entrepreneurial ventures here could help “revitalize innovation and economic growth” in this country, a trio of economists led by University of Colorado Boulder Professor Keith Maskus concludes.

Maskus and co-authors Ahmed Mushfiq Mobarak, associate professor at the Yale School of Management, and Eric T. Stuen, assistant professor at the University of Idaho College of Business and Economics, make this case in the Policy Forum of the Nov. 1 edition of the journal Science. (more…)

New CU-Boulder-led study finds ‘microbial clock’ may help determine time of death

By Guest PostOctober 6, 2013Scienceaaron linne, active decay, bacterial change, biochemical change, body farm, boulder, chaminade university, crime scene investigation, david carter, determine, elife, eukaryotic expert, forensic scientist, forensic tool, grave soil, human decomposition facility, human microbiome, jessica metcalf, laura parfrey, max planck society, microbial clock, noah fierer, postmortem, rob knight, sibyl bucheli, time of death, university of colorado, wellcome trust fund

An intriguing study led by the University of Colorado Boulder may provide a powerful new tool in the quiver of forensic scientists attempting to determine the time of death in cases involving human corpses: a microbial clock.

The clock is essentially the lock-step succession of bacterial changes that occur postmortem as bodies move through the decay process. And while the researchers used mice for the new study, previous studies on the human microbiome – the estimated 100 trillion or so microbes that live on and in each of us – indicate there is good reason to believe similar microbial clocks are ticking away on human corpses, said Jessica Metcalf, a CU-Boulder postdoctoral researcher and first author on the study. (more…)

Today’s worst watershed stresses may become the new normal, study finds

By Guest PostSeptember 23, 2013Environmentboulder, cires, climate projection, demand for freshwater, ge sun, james meldrum, kristen averyt, noaa, peter caldwell, power plants, steve mcnulty, united states, university of colorado, us watersheds, watershed stresses, western water assessment

Nearly one in 10 U.S. watersheds is “stressed,” with demand for water exceeding natural supply, according to a new analysis of surface water in the United States. What’s more, the lowest water flow seasons of recent years—times of great stress on rivers, streams, and sectors that use their waters—are likely to become typical as climates continue to warm.

“By midcentury, we expect to see less reliable surface water supplies in several regions of the United States,” said the study’s lead author, Kristen Averyt, associate director for science at the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) at the University of Colorado Boulder. “This is likely to create growing challenges for agriculture, electrical suppliers and municipalities, as there may be more demand for water and less to go around.” (more…)

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