Each year, scientists with the Office of Science, at our national laboratories, and supported by the Office of Science at the nation’s colleges and universities, publish thousands of research findings in the scientific literature. About 200 of these are selected annually by their respective program areas in the Office of Science as publication highlights of special note.

For the archive of past publication highlights, click here.

August 16, 2023

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Quantifying Qudits: New Measurements Provide a Glimpse of the Quantum Future

Scientists successfully measure high-dimensional qudits, cousins to quantum computing qubits.

August 14, 2023

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Researchers Improve Production for Short-Lived Scandium Radioisotopes

Hard to produce in quantities and purities appropriate for human use, scandium radioisotopes have potential for imaging cancer.

August 11, 2023

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Theoretical and Experimental Physics Team Up in the Search for Particle Flavor Change

Nuclear “filters” will aid in searches for new-physics events occurring with odds of one in 100 quadrillion.

August 9, 2023

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A Single Gene and a Unique Layer of Regulation Opens the Door for Novel Plant-Fungi Interactions

Scientists find the key to engineering plant signaling to allow colonization by beneficial fungi.

August 7, 2023

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With a Lithium-6 Test Case, Quantum Computing Comes to a Historic Nuclear Physics Problem

Researchers worked out how to efficiently prepare wave functions for the lithium-6 nuclear ground state and implemented those on quantum hardware.

August 3, 2023

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Scientists Identify an Alternative System for Producing the Medical Isotope Scandium-44

An easy-to-use system can increase the availability of PET imaging agents to more patients.

August 2, 2023

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Scientists View the “Transition State” of a Photochemical Reaction in Real-Time

Researchers used ultrafast electron diffraction to image the structure of the pericyclic minimum, the “transition state” of electrocyclic reactions.

July 31, 2023

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The MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR Gives Its Final Answer about a Rare Nuclear Decay

If observed, neutrinoless double-β decay would have changed our view of the Universe.

July 28, 2023

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Novel Metric Examines the Role of Organic Matter and Microbes in Ecological Communities

Scientists find interactions between organic matter in river corridors and microbial communities, highlighting potentially important microbes and chemicals

July 26, 2023

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A Nickle-Platinum Nanoscale Core with a Platinum Shell Cracks Oxygen Molecules into Useful Ions

X-ray imaging shows that selectively etching surface nickel from a nickel-platinum alloy leaves a chemically active platinum coating.