Research
Highlights...
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Number 263 |
June 16, 2008 |
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Explanation for relaxors’ sensitivity
A team including Brookhaven Lab researchers has found an explanation for the extreme sensitivity to voltage or mechanical pressure of a special class of materials called relaxors. Relaxors’ ultra-sensitive “piezoelectric” response — the ability to deform in response to an electric field, or to have an electric current induced by a deforming physical force — could be very useful in a wide range of devices that convert between mechanical and electrical energy (e.g., loudspeakers, sonar, and hard drives). Measurements of sound waves propagating through the material revealed that an intrinsic instability related to nanosized polarized regions apparently helps to facilitate the high response.
[Karen McNulty Walsh, 631 344-8350,
kmcnulty@bnl.gov] |
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Transmission line security reaches new level
DOE's Idaho National Laboratory researchers developed a multisensor monitor that mounts directly on high-voltage transmission lines to detect, characterize and communicate terrorist activity, human tampering and threatening conditions around electric transmission support towers.This type of on-scene, real-time information has the potential to thwart costly and disruptive terrorist, vandalism or weather events, and help utilities maximize power transmission efficiency and performance. Using wireless communications to monitor and relay real-time threat information from tower to tower, these advanced sensors can detect tampering from sources such as unbolt–ing tower support structures, the use of cutting torches and saws, shooting of conductors and insulators and explosive blast events.
[Ethan Huffman 208/526-0660,
Ethan.Huffman@inl.gov] |
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In a whirl over spin origins
A recent experiment at DOE's Jefferson Lab has found it's possible to measure a suspected contributor to the spins of both the proton and neutron. Measurements in the late 1980s revealed that the spins of the individual building blocks of the proton don't add up to its actual spin. Since then, scientists have learned that the spin of protons and neutrons come not only from their quarks, but also from how the quarks move, their so-called orbital angular momentum. The new result, which appeared in Physical Review Letters, reveals that experimental data can be detailed enough to begin the task of extracting the quarks' orbital angular momentum.
[Kandice Carter, 757/269-7263,
kcarter@jlab.org] |
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Heat pump water heater nears market
DOE's Oak Ridge National Laboratory and General Electric have collaborated to finalize, test and market the first product from a major brand to meet DOE's new Energy Star criteria for electric heat pump water heaters. The GE Hybrid Water Heater is affordable and designed to be 50 percent more energy efficient than a standard 50-gallon electric water heater, which should help reduce carbon emissions associated with standard electric storage water heaters in the average home. The new models can easily be installed by a plumber to replace an existing water heater. The installed cost will be about $400 more than a conventional 50-gallon water heater. Testing and analysis on the new heat pump water heaters will be conducted in ORNL's Building Technologies Research and Integration Center and at field sites.
[Mike Bradley, 865/576-9553,
bradleymk@ornl.gov] |
Roadrunner mimics brain mechanisms underlying sight
Less than a week after Los Alamos National Laboratory's Roadrunner supercomputer began operating at world-record petaflop/s data-processing speeds, researchers at the DOE lab are already using the computer to mimic extremely complex neurological processes. Los Alamos and IBM researchers used a computational code dubbed "PetaVision" to model the human visual system. Researchers used PetaVision to model more than a billion visual neurons surpassing the scale of 1 quadrillion computations a second (a petaflop/s). The achievement throws open the door to eventually achieving human-like cognitive performance in electronic computers. This in turn could lead to important insights and revolutionary technological applications such as "smart" cameras that can recognize danger or an autopilot system for automobiles that could take over for incapacitated drivers in complex situations.
[James Rickman, 505/665-9203,
elvis@lanl.gov]
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Observing the universe from earth and from space
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Lance Simms discusses telescopes at a SLAC lecture last autumn. |
On July 20, 1969, the world heard Neil Armstrong say, "That's one small step for man; one giant leap for mankind," as he and fellow astronaut Buzz Aldrin took the first human steps on the moon. Research Assistant Lance Simms at DOE's Stanford Linear Accelerator Center was not yet born at the time, but the words echoed just as clearly when he experienced this epic moment in human history at an IMAX theater as a youngster.
"When I saw him get out of the lunar module and speak his famous words, I got goose bumps all over," Simms said.
At the tender age of seven, then, Simms determined he would become an astronaut—a dream he is now one step closer to fulfilling. He recently submitted an application to NASA, seeking to become part of its next class of space explorers; he is now waiting to hear if he has made the administration's cut.
Permanently grounded until he hears back, Simms currently satisfies his explorer's spirit through the eyepiece of a telescope. A little over three years have passed since Simms first came to SLAC as a graduate student, and in that time Simms has begun to dream of helping to build a telescope on the moon. Such an instrument would give astronomers the best of both the ground and space observatories; being built on solid ground would support the large structure of the telescope, and, he explains, existing in a place without an atmosphere would eliminate the inconvenience astronomers face during poor weather as well as the image degradation caused by atmospheric turbulence.
"I'd really love to be a part of the team that raises the money to build this telescope," Simms says, "and to even help build it as an astronaut."
Submitted by DOE's Stanford Linear Accelerator Center
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