March 30, 1998 -- Some of this week's stories
Four Argonne projects receive $8.2 million
Four Argonne research projects, ranging from developing
near-frictionless carbon coatings for auto engines to finding more
efficient ways to make hydrogen peroxide, will receive grants totaling
$8.2 million.
The awards cover multi-year, joint research projects in
partnership with industry. DOE will provide $3 million in funding for
Argonne, and the industrial partners will provide nearly $5.2 million to fund
their own participation.
"This research is of value both to industry for its eventual
commercial applications and to the Department of Energy with its broad
range of mission needs," said Energy Secretary Federico Peña. "By
working together, we will all be able to benefit from the sharing of both
our unique and complementary research facilities and expertise."
* In a $2.63 million project with UOP of Des Plaines, Ill.,
and Unitel Technologies of Mt. Prospect, Ill., Argonne will help
develop efficient and economical separations processes to make
the production of hydrogen peroxide cheaper and safer. The
industrial partners will provide a total of $1.88 million for the
three-year project, and DOE will provide $750,000.
* In a $2.14 million project, Argonne will work with three
private firms to develop near-frictionless carbon coatings to
increase engine efficiency, extend wear life and reduce maintenance costs
for motor vehicles. Argonne's partners in the project are Front Edge
Technology, Inc., of Baldwin Park, Calif.; Stirling Thermal Motors,
Inc., of Ann Arbor, Mich.; and Diesel Technology Co. of Wyoming,
Mich. The industrial partners will provide a total of $1.39
million for the three-year project, and DOE will
provide $750,000. (See related story on this page.)
* Argonne will work with General Motors Corp. of Warren,
Mich., Chrysler Corp. of Auburn Hills, Mich., Ford Motor Co. of Dearborn,
Mich., Analysis and Design Applications Co. of Melville, N.Y., and Oak Ridge
National Laboratory of Oak Ridge, Tenn., to develop high-performance
computing software to describe the heat transfer and fluid flow under
the hood of an operating vehicle. This work will help ensure the proper
performance of heat-sensitive electronic components used in modern
automobile engines. DOE will provide $750,000 to support the three-year project, and
the industrial partners will provide $1.2 million.
* Argonne and Dow Chemical of Freeport, Tex., will work
together to develop improved electrode materials for cleaner, less
expensive production of magnesium. DOE and Dow will each provide $750,000
to support this three-year research project.
Peña's announcement of funding for programs at Argonne was part
of a larger announcement of 16 joint-research projects involving five
DOE laboratories. Total DOE funding for the 16 projects was nearly $12
million. Industry will provide $17.5 million in private funding for
the projects, all of which are scheduled to last three years. More
detailed information about all 16 projects is available at
http://www.er.doe.gov/production/octr/aeptr/newstarts/
on the World Wide Web.
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Idaho site's office pros
invited to conference
In honor of Professional Secretaries Week,
Argonne-West managers and office professionals are invited to
an all-day educational conference on Tuesday, April
21, from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at Cavanaugh's on the Falls
(formerly the Westbank) in Idaho Falls.
Sponsored by the Eagle Rock Chapter of
Professional Secretaries International, the conference will feature
Tom Ryan, a motivational speaker and author from
Dallas, Texas.
Workshops will include "Anatomy of Success," "Can
I Communicate," "How to Network in the 90s" and
"Trusting Your Gut: Instinct vs. Information."
For more information, contact Connie Hutchens (RPS) at ext. 3-7109 or
Marie Sovereign (RPS) at ext. 3-7205. Registration deadline is
Tuesday, April 14, and attendance must be approved through
the appropriate division office.
Application has been made for Continuing
Education Units and Certified Professional Secretary
recertification points.
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Fremd High School wins Rube Goldberg contest
William Fremd High School of Palatine won Argonne's third
annual Rube Goldberg machine contest, held at the Chicago
Children's Museum at Navy Pier March 20.
The five-member team, calling themselves "Duct Tape and
a Prayer," defeated 10 other Chicago-area high schools by building
the wackiest machine to turn off an alarm clock in 20 or more steps.
Rube Goldberg machine contests are inspired by Reuben
Lucius Goldberg, whose cartoons combined simple household items into
complex devices to perform trivial tasks. The machines combine the
principles of physics and engineering, using common objects such
as marbles, mousetraps, stuffed animals, electric mixers,
vacuum cleaners, rubber tubes, bicycle parts and anything else that happens
to be on hand.
Teams ranged from three members to 15. The setup period
was marked by the sound of balloons popping, alarm clocks ringing
and urgent instructions as final adjustments were made. At 10 a.m.,
judges and timekeepers began their judging; students applauded, groaned
or hugged, depending on how well their complex mechanisms performed.
The Fremd High School machine scored well when it worked
flawlessly on its first attempt.
The team was surprised by the win, said Fremd student Nick
Ling. "We were having trouble with the machine," he said, "but somehow
it pulled through." The machine took about three weeks to build and test.
Each member of the winning team received an Argonne
National Laboratory 50th anniversary commemorative silver coin, and an
Argonne T-shirt. Later, they will tour Argonne, see the lab's virtual
reality CAVE and the Advanced Photon Source, and have lunch with
Argonne scientists.
The winning team will also demonstrate its machine at
Purdue University's national Rube Goldberg machine contest, Saturday, April
4, and at Argonne the day of their tour.
Second place in the competition went to last year's winner,
Marist High School, Chicago. The Marist machine was a five-foot-tall
series of ramps and towers, meticulously constructed of basswood.
Judges said Marist might have won had the machine not failed on its first run.
Third place went to Lyons Township High School, La Grange.
The judges cited its well-thought-out construction-site theme.
Argonne sponsors the event in collaboration with
Chicago Children's Museum, where the contest is held, Rube Goldberg,
Inc., and the national Rube Goldberg machine contest, held annually
at Purdue University.
More information about the Argonne Rube Goldberg Machine
Contest for High Schools is available on the World Wide Web at
http://www.anl.gov/OPA/rube/rubeteams.html.
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Web site lists contributions
of women scientists
In celebration of Women's History Month, the
Argonne Library System has expanded the "History and People of
Science" offerings on its General Reference World Wide
Web site to include information highlighting the
scientific achievements of women.
History and People of Science is at:
http://www.library.anl.gov/library/internet/path.html#histhttp.
Links from the History and People of Science lead to
several pages about women in science and engineering. One
page is devoted to Maria Goeppert- Mayer, Argonne's only
Nobel Prize winner, including an annotated list of Mayer's
publications, a brief bibliography and links to other sites
featuring this famous scientist.
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Society cites paper that led to slick coating
Argonne's Ali Erdemir and George Fenske (both ET) have been
honored for a paper on hard diamond-like coatings, research that led to
the development of the now world-famous "slicker than Teflon" coating.
The Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers (STLE)
bestowed its Edmond E. Bisson Award to "Tribological Properties of
Hard Carbon Films on Zirconia Ceramics," a paper written by
Erdemir, Fenske, Paul Wilbur of Colorado State University and Cuma
Bindal, a visiting scientist from Turkey. The award is given to the
most outstanding written contribution to the society's journals.
The paper discussed preliminary work that ultimately led to the
development of the new coating, which is 40 times slicker than Teflon
when measured in a dry nitrogen atmosphere and may have the
lowest coefficient of friction ever measured. The discovery has received wide
attention in the press and by engineers
STLE was founded in 1944 to advance the science and
technology of lubrication. The society has more than 4,400 members
representing technical professions from industry, academic institutions
and government throughout the United States, Canada and Australia.
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Dunford, Kanter honored by physical society
Physicists Robert W. Dunford and Elliot P. Kanter (both
PHY) have been elected fellows of the American Physical Society.
Election to the American Physical Society fellowship
represents peer recognition for outstanding contributions to physics and is
limited to no more than one-half of one percent of the membership.
Dunford was honored for his extensive experimental studies
in fundamental atomic physics, especially in characterizing the
properties of heavy atoms stripped of many of their electrons. His research
has added significantly to the understanding of relativistic quantum
mechanics and quantum electrodynamics, theories that
explain the behavior and properties of matter on atomic and
subatomic scales.
Dunford has played a leading role in the atomic physics program at
the Argonne Tandem Linear Accelerator System (ATLAS). ATLAS is one of
the world's leading centers for low- and medium-energy physics.
Kanter's fellowship recognizes his innovative studies of
molecular structure and dynamics, and contributions to the development
of Coulomb-explosion imaging.
Coulomb-explosion imaging takes advantage of the fact that
like electrical charges repel each other. The technique uses a particle
accelerator to slam molecular ions (molecules stripped of one or
more electrons) into a thin foil. The foil strips most or all of the rest of
the electrons away. The Coulomb force causes positively charged ions
to repel each other; they "explode," and land on a detector that
records their positions. These measurements have lead to greater understanding
of the positions and motions of atomic nuclei in the molecules under study.
The American Physical Society has more than 41,000 physicists
worldwide. Since 1899, it has worked to advance and disseminate
knowledge about physics.
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Retirement plan vendors plan additional visits
Argonne's retirement vendors will have representatives at Argonne-East to meet individually with
employees to answer questions about their retirement plans or retirement plan assets.
To schedule an appointment with these representatives, call the number listed. Appointments are
for one-half hour each.
| Vendor | Day | For Appointments, call: |
| TIAA/CREF | Monday, April 13 and
Tuesday, April 14 and 21 | (800) 842-2005 - Appointment Desk |
| Prudential | Wednesday, April,15,
Thursday, April 16
and Friday, April, 17 | (847) 619-3519 - Cheryl |
| Fidelity | Wednesday, April 22 | (800) 642-7131- Appointment Desk |
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Send all e-mail for News editor to info@anl.gov
The Argonne News office is switching from its
venerable Macintoshes to PCs, and some e-mail messages sent to editor
Dave Jacqué's prior address aren't getting through.
"david_jacque@qmgate.anl.gov" is no longer in service; all news
tips, stories and comments should be sent to info@anl.gov.
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FBI to train
at ANL-East
The FBI will conduct a large-scale exercise at Argonne-East
the week of April 6. Some activities will be apparent to employees, but
there will be little or no disruption of laboratory operations.
Employees are asked to stay clear of exercise areas, which will
be clearly marked.
For information, call Ed Mickulas (SEC) at ext. 2-5754.
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`Ferroplasm'
may grow on
auto industry
In an article to be published in the April 1 issue of
The Journal of Hypothetical Research,
Argonne genetometallurist Hans Offmaheine (EEK) will detail his research on
a breakthrough material that may revolutionize manufacturing
the way plastics did in the 1950s and '60s.
Called "ferroplasm," the new material is a hybrid compound
of living tissue and iron created by genetic engineering.
"We took cells from a rhinocerous and replaced the genes that
code for epithelium -- skin cells -- with genes from a bacterium that
uses tiny iron particles to sense magnetic fields," Offmaheine
said. "When grown in culture, the cells sheath themselves with an iron
compound." The resulting material is relatively light and
tremendously strong.
Offmaheine said the most obvious use for the new material is
in the auto industry.
"You could replace the outer shell of a car with ferroplasm," he
said, "and it would heal itself after a fender-bender." Tests on small
radio-controlled cars show just that ability. The cars also grow larger
if the ferroplasm is kept well-fed on a diet of grass clippings and
scrap metal.
"We've got a Radio-Shack RC car that's grown to the size of
a Volkswagen," Offmaheine said. "We fully expect to have a
sport-utility vehicle in a couple of months."
The ferroplasm study was funded by the U.S. Department of
Energy's Office of Refutable Research.