Ames Tribune: The Ames Laboratory is getting just more than $10 million in federal funds to establish a new research center on topological semimetals and how they may drastically alter the electronics people use in the future. The U.S. Department of Energy is giving the lab, based on Iowa State University’s campus, $10.75 million over four years to establish the center, said Rob McQueeney, a scientist at the Ames Lab and director of the future center. Modern electronics use conductor materials such copper to send electricity from one place to another and semiconductor materials such as silicon to process data.