Geek Trivia: Energetic pursuits

by Jay Garmon | Aug 02, 2005 7:00:00 AM

Tags: Jay Garmon, DOE, Department of Energy, Geek Trivia Newsletter

Takeaway: What single field of technical research is the impetus behind five new U.S. Department of Energy laboratories?

This month marks the 28th anniversary of the establishment of the U.S. Department of Energy. On Aug. 4, 1977, President Jimmy Carter signed into law the Department of Energy Organization Act, which consolidated various research and administrative programs within the federal government�creating a single Cabinet-level division responsible for ensuring the maintenance and future development of reliable energy sources for the United States.

Thrilling, I realize. But for those of you unimpressed by this little anniversary, consider this: The DOE currently has oversight of some of the most advanced and renowned research laboratories in the world, including:

Argonne National Laboratory, home of the Advanced Photon Source synchrotron-radiation research facility
Brookhaven National Laboratory, home of the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider
Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, home of the Tevatron�the world's highest energy particle accelerator
Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory, home to Experimental Breeder Reactor Number 1 (EBR-1)�the world's first nuclear power plant
Los Alamos National Laboratory, home of the Manhattan Project and perhaps the premier multidisciplinary lab in the world
Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the world's first facility for the mass production of enriched nuclear fuel, including weapons materials for the Manhattan Project
Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, the leading institution in contemporary nuclear fusion energy research, including the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor and the National Spherical Torus Experiment
Sandia National Laboratories and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, which together are responsible for the development of the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile
Stanford Linear Accelerator Center , which is one of the most revered particle accelerator facilities on Earth
Yucca Mountain, an extinct volcano caldera now controversially under development as a repository for spent nuclear materials

So, to those of you who think the Department of Energy is merely an outdated relic created as a knee-jerk reaction to the 1973 energy crisis, think again. The DOE is one of the primary drivers of physics and applied sciences research in the world, employing thousands of the best scientists and engineers on Earth. Who could ask for more?

Apparently, the U.S. Department of Energy can. The DOE is currently undertaking the construction of not one, but five new laboratories all concerned with one particular field of technology�one that may provide the 21st century with the same quantum leap forward in technical innovation that nuclear power and computing technology offered to the scientists of the 20th century.

WHAT SINGLE FIELD OF TECHNICAL RESEARCH IS THE IMPETUS BEHIND FIVE NEW U.S. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY LABORATORIES?

What single field of technical research is the impetus behind the construction of not one, but five new U.S. Department of Energy Laboratories�a significant investment considering that the DOE already operates more than a dozen of the most advanced and prolific research labs in the world?

Apparently, size does matter: The pursuit of nanotechnology is the objective of the five new DOE labs, which operate under the umbrella designation of Nanoscale Science Research Centers (NSRCs).

The DOE's Office of Basic Energy Sciences describes the NSRCs as "research facilities for the synthesis, processing, and fabrication of nanoscale materials," meaning they'll concern themselves with the development of tools and substances at the molecular and sub-molecular levels. Put simply, the smaller, the better.

The DOE is building each of the five new NSRCs as adjuncts to existing DOE labs.

The Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences is an extension of Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
The Molecular Foundry is an extension of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
The Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies is an extension of Sandia National Laboratories and Los Alamos National Laboratory.
The Center for Functional Nanomaterials is an extension of Brookhaven National Laboratory.
The Center for Nanoscale Materials is an extension of Argonne National Laboratory.

Collectively, these facilities' main objective is converting nanotechnology from science fiction to science fact. To do that, they're starting with the basics�nanoscale building blocks.

Before you can assemble machines that can slip between molecules and into living cells, you have to know what you can build those machines out of, and you need to have a reliable, large-scale (no pun intended) process for synthesizing those materials. The NSRCs are learning to create those building blocks and researching how to put them together in meaningful, practical ways.

Appropriately, the DOE's Nanoscale Science Research Centers are but one part of a larger nanotechnology whole. The National Nanotechnology Initiative is a massive federal project that involves 23 government agencies, of which the DOE is merely one.

Everyone from NASA to the Environmental Protection Agency to the Department of Defense to the Department of Agriculture (to say nothing of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office) is getting in on the nanotech act, and institutions of higher learning are benefiting from a fair number of university research grants as well. That should make for some incredible technical innovations over the next few years, not to mention some high-tech Geek Trivia.

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The Quibble of the Week

If you uncover a questionable fact or debatable aspect of this week's Geek Trivia, just post it in the discussion area of the article. Every week, yours truly will choose the best post from the assembled masses and discuss it in the next edition of Geek Trivia.

This week's quibble comes from the July 20 edition of Geek Trivia, "(Nu)clear to the moon." TechRepublic member�and devoted quibbler�Bill Ward tried to catch me in a basic math error when it came to adding up the number of nuclear power sources that have operated on the moon.

"1 (ALRH) + 5 (Apollo [missions] 12, 14, 15, 16, 17) is six. I figured it up before looking at the answer and was astonished when you said five, looking to see if one of the later Apollo missions failed to have the instrument."

Your math isn't wrong, dear reader, just your definition of a power source. I didn't count the Apollo Lunar Radioisotopic Heater (ALRH), as it was a heat source�not a power source. Installed within the lunar seismograph, the ALRH did not power the device; it merely kept the mechanism's parts from freezing up. Thus, only Apollo missions 12, 14, 15, 16, and 17 left nuclear power sources on the moon, constituting a total of five. Sorry if I failed to making my reasoning clear in the article, so keep those quibbles coming!

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The Trivia Geek, also known as Jay Garmon, is a former advertising copywriter and Web developer who's duped TechRepublic into underwriting his affinity for movies, sci-fi, comic books, technology, and all things geekish or subcultural.

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