Composting of TNT-contaminated soil is a well-known method that uses indigenous microbes to degrade the carcinogenic explosive, but it leaves behind TNT particles larger than two millimeters. Researchers at DOE's Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory, which was built on a World War II Naval gunnery range, found that acetone mixed in with compost melts the larger chunks of TNT and gives the microbes access to their dynamite food. In a paper appearing in an upcoming issue of Bioremediation Journal, the researchers show that the microbial community present in compost lives and eats in the presence of acetone, making it unnecessary to evaporate the solvent from the TNT-contaminated soil before composting.

Researchers use a suite of analytical chemistry equipment to optimize the performance of an award-winning exhaust after-treatment prototype device that greatly reduces emissions from diesel and other lean-burn engines.

NREL solar cell design achieves record efficiency

Solar cell efficiency took another step forward when scientists from DOE's National Renewable Energy Laboratory and Spectrolab constructed a photovoltaic cell that converts 32.3 percent of the sun's energy into electricity. Invented by NREL, the solar cell design was patented and transferred to Spectrolab and TECSTAR under licensing agreements last year. The record setting efficiency was achieved using a triple-junction gallium-indium-phosphide on gallium arsenide on germanium concentrator solar cell, which was grown at Spectrolab using production equipment and processed at NREL. The cells are well suited for concentrator systems that use relatively inexpensive lenses or mirrors to focus sunlight on the photovoltaics.
 

[George Douglas, 303/275-4096, george_douglas@nrel.gov]

Progress in gene therapy research

DOE's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory reported an advance having the potential to improve gene therapy. Gene therapy is the introduction of new genes into the body to replace defective genes that may be causing disease. The advance involves design of a molecule that protects new genes while they are being inserted. The molecule helps conceal the genes from enzymes that otherwise would attack and destroy foreign agents in the body. The work, suggested by studies of sperm proteins that package DNA, was reported by Livermore researchers Rod Balhorn, Laurence Brewer and Michele Corzett in Science magazine.
 

[Steve Wampler, 925/423-3107, wampler1@llnl.gov]

Weaving through the Web

While most Internet search engines return just a list of links, a new interactive computer tool developed at DOE's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory can search thousands of Web pages and provide a visual display of how those pages relate to each other. Called WebTheme, the analysis program can explore and understand large amounts of data from a collection of Web documents. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center is testing WebTheme on Web-based climate change documents and information. The program also could be used by companies seeking competitive intelligence, by researchers for literature review, or by businesses for managing web sites.

[Staci Maloof, 509/372-6313, staci.maloof@pnl.gov]

Alyssa Prinze seeks the elusive "millicharge"

"Experimentalists want to do things that haven't been done before," says Stanford graduate student Alyssa Prinz. That's why Prinz has been doing research at DOE's Stanford Linear Accelerator Center on a project called the millicharge experiment.

Working with thesis advisor John Jaros, Prinz has been looking for subatomic particles with less than 1/1000th of an electron charge. If such particles exist, and have mass, then they may be a candidate for dark matter. Experimentalists like Prinz want to test some potentially interesting theories that allow for millicharges and are compatible with the ongoing attempt to construct a grand unified theory, the holy grail of physicists.

To search for these particles, Prinz help ed design and build a millicharge detector that was then placed in a pit 20 feet below ground, about 100 yards behind the target used by SLAC's two-mile linear accelerator to make and collect positrons for other experiments. Computerized counting machines were set up in a nearby trailer to collect data, which were then analyzed.

Prinz presented her results in a talk at the American Physical Society and she published a paper in Physical Review Letters. A millicharged particle was not found in these experiments. "I'll write up the findings for my dissertation anyhow. Even a null response is important since it helps other scientists determine where not to go," says Prinz, who hopes to finish her doctorate in early 2000. The traditional path after graduation is to take on a post-doctoral assignment at another lab. She expresses some concern about funding in high-energy physics and the availability for jobs for soon-to-be post docs like herself. "While I would love to stay in particle physics, the Bay Area is a great place for other things like bio-tech and computing. I feel like I have lots of choices."

Submitted by DOE's Stanford Linear Accelerator Center