If scientists produced a list of what's hot and what's not, some projects that built Pacific Northwest National Laboratory's reputation would land in the "what's not" column.

Nationally, there's diminishing interest in research on nuclear energy or on the biological effects of radiation, for instance.

But take a look at the research areas that would make it into the "what's hot" column -- nanoscience, fuel cells, computational science -- and you'll find the Richland lab is developing new departments or shifting the focus of existing programs there.

"Over time, we think this will lead to real growth in the laboratory in both basic research and in technology that will have important implications," said Erik Pearson, director of strategic planning.

In the short term, that means the laboratory should be able to tap into rich pools of research money. And it could have longer-term economic benefits for the Tri-City economy.

New emphasis on "computing, life science and nanoscience in addition to great scientific potential have great commercial potential," Pearson said. "There are opportunities for spin-offs in the community."

The lab is building new focus areas, in part, by continuing a program of grooming staff researchers for advancement, then promoting from within.

But over the last year, the lab also has launched an aggressive recruitment program to attract scientists with national and international reputations to lead new or growing programs.

Those scientists have the knowledge to decide which research is most promising and to set the direction of the programs, Pearson said.

They also bring other benefits, such as attracting other top scientists, attracting research funding and having the clout to influence the national scientific agenda and build the influence of the Richland lab, he said.

"We need to bring in one or more first-rate people and then give them the resources to build a team around them," Pearson said.

For instance, the lab has recruited Subhash Singhal, an internationally known expert in fuel cell and power system technology, to be the director of PNNL's fuel cell program.

Fuel cells use a chemical reaction to produce an electric current, offering a potentially clean and efficient power supply.

Singhal came to the Richland lab after 29 years at Siemens-Westinghouse Power Co., where he oversaw a $200 million budget and led fuel cell technology from basic research to a 250-kilowatt demonstration system.

Now, he's charged with making PNNL a major player in the fuel cell field.

The lab also has recruited Prabhakar Singh from Visteon Corp., where he headed the fuel cell research and development group for one of the world's largest automotive suppliers.

At PNNL, he's the fuel cell technology director and manager for advanced power systems, responsible for helping commercialize fuel cells within three to five years.

Laboratory officials are expecting his industrial background to help build a stronger alliance with the auto manufacturing industry.

Pearson said the lab chose fuel cell technology as an area of emphasis because advances in the field look promising over the next five to 10 years, with fuel cells possibly becoming practical for uses from cell phones to remote radio towers.

The lab also found a funding network to tap into as co-leader of the Solid-State Energy Conversion Alliance, which could receive $350 million from Congress over the next decade in addition to industry contributions.

Nanoscience is another promising area for the Richland lab. It is a natural fit because of the lab's previous work in areas such as materials science and computation and modeling.

"Nanotechnology takes advantage of the ability to manipulate matter at the molecular level for technology and science purposes," Pearson said.

In many ways, it's the science of copying nature -- for instance, the way proteins in a cell function as small machines to carry out the functions of a larger machine, the body.

"It turns out that biology is remarkably efficient," Pearson said. "The idea is to bring the kinds of efficiencies in natural biology to industry."

In the national scientific community, small is big, with research institutes from Harvard to Northwestern University planning major investments in nanoscience centers.

Scientists see the potential for nanoscience as huge -- ranging from the ability to destroy cancer cells to the creation of lighter and stronger materials for space vehicles and cars.

It will "fundamentally change human life," predicted Bill Rogers, who has been recruited to the Richland laboratory as an associate director at the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory. Previously, he was chairman of the University of Washington's Department of Chemical Engineering.

He said he was attracted to the lab because of the strong multidisciplinary resources available, which he views as critical to tackling unexplored challenges found at the nanoscale.

"We've been involved in things that are now called nanoscience for a very long time," Pearson said.

For instance, PNNL researchers have developed a coating for artificial hips and knees that bonds to natural bone better because it forms a two-dimensional framework that mimics the three-dimensional framework used by natural bone. The coating is made by attaching chains of molecules to an implant until they cover the surface like a forest of trees.

Another example is the lab's work on self-assembled monolayers on mesoporous supports, or SAMMS, which attach single layers of densely packed molecules to pore surfaces throughout ceramic material. The molecules are custom designed to seek out mercury, lead, chromium and other toxic or precious metals.

Applications include cleaning sites polluted with mercury, for example, or retrieving precious metals lost in waste streams in industries such as mining. Other new areas of increased emphasis at the Richland lab are computational science and molecular biology that focuses on understanding and predicting the health effects of contaminants in the environment.

The laboratory already has a strong computational science and engineering program, but Pearson believes the potential uses will increase over the next five to 10 years.

For instance, instead of developing alloys by the slow and expensive process of trial and error, computers could be used to predict what materials and manufacturing methods might work best.

The challenge is in developing the scientific software to do the simulations.

PNNL already is a leader in such software design, having created the Molecular Science Software Suite, which provides chemists with access to high-performance, massively parallel computers to solve complex environmental problems and search for new pharmaceuticals.

The Richland lab's increased emphasis on molecular biology has led to the recruitment of Steve Wiley, an internationally recognized molecular biologist, to become the science director of the Environmental Health Initiative.

He was drawn to the lab by its exceptional capabilities in computer science and unique analytical instrumentation and imaging technologies.