Securing the Supply of Rare Earths

In the cover story from the Aug. 30 issue of Chemical and Engineering News, reporter Mitch Jacoby writes about how green-energy and high-tech industries are growing anxious over China's monopoly on these valuable resources. Jacoby talks with Ames Laboratory senior metallurgist Karl Gschneidner, metallurgist Iver Anderson and Ames Lab Director Alex King as well as experts from industry and other research institutions. (go to article)

Figuring Out Water

Innovation picked up an article from the 2010, Issue 1 of Inquiry, Ames Laboratory's semi-annual science magazine. The article details research to be undertaken by Theresa Windus, Mark Gordon, and Monica Lamm to study fundamental questions about the nature and behavior of water. The work is made possible by a Department of Energy’s prestigious award known as the Innovative and Novel Computational Impact on Theory and Experiment, or INCITE.

Four Rare Earth Elements That Will Only Get More Important

Popular Mechanics writer Maggie Koerth-Baker provides a great explanation of the most common rare earth elements and what they're used for. Her story quotes Ames Laboratory senior metallurgist Karl Gschneidner, noted rare earth metal expert. (Go to article)

Spin Doctors: Opening the door to studying new, very fast quantum processes

Nanotechnology Now carried a story on Ames Lab theoretical physicist Viatcheslav Dobrovitski, who recently was part of a team that produced and controlled rotations of a single quantum spin at rates less than one trillionth of a second. (Go to story)

World's Most Powerful Supercomputer Coming to Iowa

Iowa State University and Ames Laboratory researchers are working to scale up their computational chemistry tools for the Blue Waters supercomputer being developed at the University of Illinois and its National Center for Supercomputing Applications. (Go to story)

Engineering the Perfect Algae Strain

An article in the May 2010 issue by Nicholas Zeman details research by a group of Iowa State University researchers working to develop hybrid strains of algae with desirable characteristics for use in bio-fuels production. Ames Laboratory associate scientist Basil Nikolau is a member of the research team. (Go to article)

Restarting U.S. rare-earth production

EARTH writer Harvey Liefert writes about recent testimony before a House subcommittee on the need to reinvest in rare-earth research and development, quoting Ames Laboratory senior metallurgist Karl Gschneidner who was one of several rare earth experts to testify (Go to story)