Science in Action

Microplastics, microscopic bits of manufactured or decayed plastics, are invading our surroundings. Researchers found it in our seas, drinking water, rainwater - and even table salt.

Mourou’s goal was to develop an ultra-short, high-intensity laser pulse without destroying the equipment used to produce it.

Scientists use nanoparticles in a variety of applications, including medicine, pharmaceuticals, electronics, biomaterials, energy production and consumer products.

Miller focused his research on drinking water quality monitoring and management, along with treatment optimization.

Vargas, a Ph.D., is the Lead Scientist for the Analytical and Materials Analysis Laboratories at Birla Carbon. And the Marietta, Georgia-based company’s world revolves around carbon black.

Nuclear fusion is viewed by many as the holy grail of clean, renewable energy.

To most scientists, climate change is real. The challenge is to find more and better energy sources to generate electricity that do not emit greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

Satellite communications, military radar systems and those 5-G networks you will soon depend on have something in common. Scientists base these systems on microelectronics – the design, manufacture, and use of integrated circuits.

Large vaulted ceilings, old woodwork and stained glass dating back to the early 1900s overpowers you as you walk into the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.

The United States Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) faced a challenge. It wanted to conduct photoemission spectroscopy in the extreme low UV range using a tunable light source. It’s a difficult application. No off-the-shelf instruments existed to achieve its goals.

Back at the St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Department, crime scene investigators processed the tickets with chemicals to make any fingerprints on them visible. 

Nanomaterials have been at the forefront of scientific research for more than a decade. These tiny materials are defined as microscopic substances measuring 1 nm to 100 nm in size. 

Taylor Harvey, Ph.D., of Texas A&M University-Central Texas, is deep into photovoltaic research.

Inside a small, neat lab, tucked away inside the engineering building at Rutgers University in New Jersey, a researcher is trying to use cheap and renewable sources in order to upgrade them to new useful products and fuels.

The result of Martin’s research could help create abundant, low-cost, clean energy on a global scale.

Professor Justin Sambur, from Colorado State, talks about his group's working looking into how to best use nano materials for better...

Richard Loomis is trying to make a better solar cell. And he’s taken a road off the beaten path to achieve that goal.

Visualize slicing a rock so thin it’s transparent to the eye. That’s what Eric Ellison must do to study which minerals host life.

Imagine killing cancer cells with oxygen compounds. Then tracking the cancer’s metabolism with near ultraviolet light sources. That’s the potential result of the pioneering work by a team at the University of Nevada-Reno.

The primary role of a drinking water treatment plant is to provide clean drinking (disinfected) water.

Andrew Whitley is an enigma. The classically trained Ph.D. just won the prestigious Charles Mann Award from the Federation of Analytical Chemistry and Spectroscopy Societies (FACSS) for his body of work. 

There are a lot of quality characteristics that the winemakers are interested in that relate to the color of the wine and the phenolic content – compounds that affect the wine’s taste, color and mouthfeel.

Alternative light sources used by crime scene investigators help them identify evidence left by suspects at a crime scene.

The University of Cincinnati geology professor studies paleobiology – the study of ancient life. But what he’s also doing is uncovering evidence of the possibility of life beyond this planet.

In one case, using an innovation created by SPEX Forensics, a division of HORIBA Instruments, a suspect was subsequently linked by fingerprints to 32 different outstanding felony cases.

This winter, John Priscu plans to drill thousands of feet below the frozen ice of Antarctica and expects to find living creatures. If he’s successful, it could help change the way we see our planet.