2015 | U.S. DOE Office of Science (SC)

DESI, an Ambitious Probe of Dark Energy, Achieves its Next Major Milestone

The Department of Energy has announced its approval of Critical Decision 2 for the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument, authorizing the project’s scientific scope, schedule, and funding profile.

Sizing Up Cyclones

With a new formula developed by a team of researchers led by PNNL, scientists can now double the accuracy of forecasting the rate at which tropical cyclones intensify.

Nano-Trapped Molecules are Potential Path to Quantum Devices

A team composed of Ali Passian of the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Marouane Salhi and George Siopsis of the University of Tennessee describes conceptually how physicists may be able to exploit a molecule’s energy to advance a number of fields.

First Users Usher in Science at the National Synchrotron Light Source II

The first scientific and industrial researchers ran their experiments this summer, and the fall scientific slate is filling up at the new synchrotron.

Costly Crumbling

Scientists are using the Mira supercomputer at Argonne to simulate how silica bonds break, which may lead to the development of both safer and more environmentally-friendly mining techniques, and tough new configurations for dental implants, electronics and construction equipment.

Good Is Not Enough: Improving Measurements of Atmospheric Particles

A research team led by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory developed an approach that links the scattering coefficient, a measure of how much tiny particles suspended in the atmosphere scatter sunlight, with other particle properties.

Scientists Use Lasers to Simulate Shock Effects of Meteorite Impact on Silica

Scientists used high-power laser beams at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory to simulate the shock effects of a meteorite impact in silica, one of the most abundant materials in the Earth’s crust.

Team Announces Breakthrough Observation of Mott Transition in a Superconductor

An international team of researchers, including the MESA+ Institute for Nanotechnology at the University of Twente in the Netherlands and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory, announced today in Science the observation of a dynamic Mott transition in a superconductor.

Nocturnal Storm Chasers Collect “Fantastic” Data Set to Improve Forecasts

Through this past summer’s PECAN (Plains Elevated Convection at Night) campaign, a large collaboration of scientists spent their nights gathering data about unpredictable storms on the Great Plains, hoping to improve weather forecasts, keep people safer and allow everyone to get a better night’s sleep.

Extreme Pressure Causes Osmium to Change State of Matter

Using metallic osmium (Os) in experimentation, an international group of researchers have demonstrated that ultra-high pressures cause core electrons to interplay, which results in experimentally observed anomalies in the compression behavior of the material.

SLAC’s Ultrafast ‘Electron Camera’ Visualizes Ripples in 2-D Material

New research led by scientists from the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Stanford University shows how individual atoms move in trillionths of a second to form wrinkles on a three-atom-thick material.

Celeste: A New Model for Cataloging the Universe

A Berkeley Lab-based research collaboration of astrophysicists, statisticians and computer scientists is looking to shake things up with Celeste, a new statistical analysis model designed to enhance one of modern astronomy’s most time-tested tools: sky surveys.