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July 31, 2020
A microscope image showing a porous, crystalline material called a metal-organic framework, or MOF (the material in purple).
How a Crystalline Sponge Sheds Water Molecules
Scientists use advanced techniques to observe how a specific crystalline sponge changes shape as it loses water molecules.
July 28, 2020
To keep qubits used in quantum computers cold enough so scientists can study them, DOE’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory uses a sophisticated cooling system.
Calculating the Benefits of Exascale and Quantum Computers
Exascale and quantum computers both offer the potential to transform scientific research. But they’re also complementary technologies.
July 27, 2020
The Sloan Digital Sky Survey
No Need to Mind the Gap: Astrophysicists Fill in 11 Billion Years of Our Universe’s Expansion History
The Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) released a comprehensive analysis of the largest three-dimensional map of the Universe ever created.
July 24, 2020
PME scientists and engineers have developed a way to stretch and strain liquid crystals to generate different colors. This could be applied in smart coatings, sensors, and wearable electronics.
Liquid Crystals Create Easy-to-Read, Color-Changing Sensors
Scientists created a thin film of polymer filled with liquid crystal droplets, then stretched and strained it to generate different colors.
July 20, 2020
An image of the COVID-19 virus.
Clues to COVID-19 Treatments Could Be Hiding in Existing Data – These Scientists Want to Find Them
Applying machine learning to a unified library of biomedical information could help accelerate life-saving discoveries.
July 15, 2020
Members of the Pegasus team pictured in front of the fusion experiment in February 2020.
Lighting a Match for Fusion: Taking the Pegasus-III Experiment to New Heights
The DOE has awarded the Pegasus fusion research program a series of new grants and budget supplements totaling $7.9 million over three years.
July 10, 2020
Northwestern material bends with blue light exposure from the top.
Synthetic Materials Mimic Living Creatures
Northwestern University researchers have developed a family of soft materials that imitates living creatures.
July 8, 2020
Man in a face mask and goggles holding up a plastic apparatus for holding samples.
National Virtual Biotechnology Laboratory Unites DOE Labs Against COVID-19
The NVBL is bringing the national laboratories together to tackle the pandemic.
July 2, 2020
Overlapping X-ray data of the SARS-CoV-2 main protease shows structural differences between the protein at room temperature (orange) and the cryogenically frozen structure (white).
X-Rays Size Up Protein Structure at the 'Heart' of COVID-19 Virus
A team of researchers at Oak Ridge & Argonne laboratories has performed the first room-temperature X-ray measurements on the SARS-CoV-2 main protease.
June 30, 2020
Colleen Iversen from Oak Ridge National Laboratory holds a soil core in the Alaskan tundra.
First-Person Science: Colleen Iversen on Belowground Ecology
Plant roots are just as essential to ecological systems as the parts above ground. Colleen Iversen works to understand these dynamics.
June 26, 2020
An image of a supernova.
This Supernova in a Lab Mimics the Cosmic Blast's Splendid Aftermath
The machine makes concise miniature blasts, which send a clean wave through the interface between the heavier and lighter gases in the chamber.
June 24, 2020
A nanobrush made by pulsed laser deposition of CeO2 and Y2O3 with dim and bright bands, respectively, is seen in cross-section with scanning transmission electron microscopy.
Crystalline 'Nanobrush' Clears Way to Advanced Energy and Information Tech
A team led by the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory synthesized a tiny structure with high surface area.
June 22, 2020
Images of different bacteria.
Next Frontier in Bacterial Design
New technique overcomes major barrier in bacterial engineering, setting the stage for medical advances.
June 19, 2020
Athena Safa Sefat Profile Picture
Athena Safa Sefat: Then and Now / 2010 Early Career Award Winner
Athena Safa Sefat focuses on superconductors to understand the design of quantum materials, to predict the next generation of materials.
June 5, 2020
Evgenya Simakov Profile Picture
Evgenya Simakov: Then and Now / 2010 Early Career Award Winner
Her Early Career Award allowed Evgenya Simakov to focus on understanding how to reduce undesirable states that can disrupt accelerator beams.
June 3, 2020
An image of various trees.
Global Environmental Changes Leading to Shorter, Younger Trees
PNNL-led researchers: Conditions that started decades ago are changing forests and are likely to continue.
May 26, 2020
Through years of research, Esther Takeuchi and her team have discovered new ways to get the most out of magnetite, a potential material for batteries.
First-Person Science: Esther Takeuchi on Batteries
Magnetite is common, non-toxic, and could be very useful for batteries. Esther Takeuchi and her team are making that potential a reality.
May 22, 2020
Jean Paul Allain Profile Picture
Jean Paul Allain: Then and Now / 2010 Early Career Award Winner
Jean Paul Allain is integrating nanotechnology and materials science to help identify new designs for materials for use in fusion devices.
May 21, 2020
Astronomers have long known the Milky Way has satellite galaxies—including the Large Magellanic Cloud, above, which can be observed with the naked eye in the southern hemisphere.
‘Groupie’ Galaxies Orbiting Milky Way Tell Us About Dark Matter, How Galaxy Formed
Studies predict 100 more undiscovered galaxies are out there orbiting the Milky Way.
May 15, 2020
Jonathan Schilling Profile Picture
Jonathan Schilling: Then and Now / 2010 Early Career Award Winner
Jonathan Schilling is studying the enzymatic mechanisms used by Postia placenta, a brown rot fungus to degrade woody biomass.
May 12, 2020
While the wild-type plant of Arabidopsis is large and healthy, the one with a mutation that keeps it from making a specific lipid is small and sick. Christoph Benning and his team have spent more than a decade understanding how plants make this lipid.
First-Person Science: Christoph Benning on Plant Biochemistry
Through more than a decade of research, Christoph Benning’s team gained major insights into lipids essential for plants’ photosynthetic systems.
May 11, 2020
A new computer vision algorithm can better identify particles in an X-ray tomography image of a nickel-manganese-cobalt cathode.
Computer Vision Helps SLAC Scientists Study Lithium Ion Batteries
New machine learning methods bring insights into how lithium ion batteries degrade, and show it’s more complicated than many thought.
May 8, 2020
Delia Milliron Profile Picture
Delia Milliron: Then and Now / 2010 Early Career Award Winner
University of Texas professor Delia Milliron studies nanocomposite thin films with electrochromic properties, controlling light passage.
May 1, 2020
Rupak Mahapatra Profile Picture
Rupak Mahapatra: Then and Now / 2010 Early Career Award Winner
Dark matter research requires large, sensitive detectors; Rupak Mahapatra helps to develop Texas A&M’s ton-scale, cryogenic semiconductor detectors.
April 24, 2020
Eric Potma Profile Picture
Eric Potma: Then and Now / 2010 Early Career Award Winner
University of California, Irvine’s Eric Potma has developed a method and device for observing electrons on the femtosecond time scale.