2017 | U.S. DOE Office of Science (SC)

DOE User Facilities Join Forces to Tackle Biology’s Big Data

Six proposals have been selected to participate in a new partnership between two U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) user facilities through the “Facilities Integrating Collaborations for User Science” (FICUS) initiative.

'Hindcasting' Study Investigates the Extreme 2013 Colorado Flood

Scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and University of California, Berkeley who specialize in studying extreme weather used supercomputers at the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center to “hindcast” the conditions that led to the 2013 flooding around Boulder, Colorado.

PPPL Researchers Perform First Basic-Physics Simulation of the Impact of Recycled Atoms on Plasma Turbulence

In the first basic-physics attempt to study the atoms’ impact, physicists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) have modeled how the recycled neutrals, which arise when hot plasma strikes a tokamak’s walls, increase turbulence driven by what is called the “ion temperature gradient” (ITG).

Making Polymer Chemistry ‘Click’

Scientists using Berkeley Lab’s Molecular Foundry have developed a faster and easier way to make sulfur-containing polymers that will lower the cost of large-scale production.

Construction Begins on International Mega-Science Experiment to Understand Neutrinos

Groundbreaking held today in South Dakota marks the start of excavation for the Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility, future home to the international Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment. With the turning of a shovelful of earth a mile underground, a new era in international particle physics research officially began today.

Scientists Design Promising New Cathode for Sodium-based Batteries

In a collaborative effort between researchers at the Institute of Chemistry (IOC) of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory scientists have designed a new type of cathode that could make the mass production of sodium batteries more feasible.

3-D Models Help Scientists Gauge Flood Impact

Using Titan at the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility, a team from University of Iowa performed one of the first highly resolved, 3-D, volume-of-fluid simulations of a dam break in a natural environment. The simulation allowed the team to map precise water levels for actual flood events over time and account for the interaction between the flood wave and large obstacles such as dams or floodplain walls.

Leading the way: ORNL builds more reliable, longer-lasting targets for high-powered neutron scattering

Since the Spallation Neutron Source began operation in 2006, engineers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory have continued to develop new approaches to target design, seeking unprecedented levels of power for reliable neutron production. As a result, powerful new techniques are expected to emerge for materials research.

Bio-inspired Materials: Borrowing from Nature’s Playbook

Nature provides myriad examples of unique materials and structures developed for specialized applications or adaptations. An interdisciplinary group of researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory is trying to unlock the secrets that organisms use to build such complex structures so that power can be used to create materials not found in nature and not capable of being synthesized by conventional means.

New Milestone Reached: 1000th Lifetime User at NSLS-II

On June 28, Joanna Krueger, a professor of chemistry at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte (UNC Charlotte), came to Brookhaven National Laboratory to use the ultra-bright light of the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Synchrotron Light Source (NSLS-II) for her x-ray scattering studies on “Sleeping Beauty” transposases and became the light source’s 1000th lifetime user

Scientists Create First Laboratory Generation of High-Energy Shock Waves that Accelerate Astrophysical Particles

A team of scientists led by Derek Schaeffer, a physicist at Princeton University, have for the first time developed a platform for studying highly energetic shocks with greater flexibility and control than is possible with spacecraft.

Studying Argon Gas Trapped in Two-Dimensional Array of Tiny "Cages"

Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory had just finished an experiment with a two-dimensional (2D) structure they synthesized for catalysis research when, to their surprise, they discovered that atoms of argon gas had gotten trapped inside the structure’s nanosized pores.