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

This is an example of a “hypersurface” fit to many experiments with slightly different noise parameters, ɣ1 and ɣ2. Black points are measurements of an observable with different noise rates. The red “X” is the noise-free result. Blue, orange and green surfaces are first, third and fourth order fits. (Image by Argonne National Laboratory.)

Argonne Researchers Develop New Method to Reduce Quantum Noise

In a recent issue of Physical Review A, Argonne researchers reported a new method for alleviating the effects of “noise” in quantum information systems, a challenge scientists around the globe are working to meet in the race toward a new era of quantum technologies. The new method has implications for the future of quantum information science, including quantum computing and quantum sensing.

A research team led by Jonathan Ajo-Franklin of Berkeley Lab’s Earth and Environmental Sciences Area (EESA) is turning parts of a 13,000-mile-long “dark fiber” testbed owned by DOE’s ESnet into a highly sensitive seismic activity sensor. L-R: Inder Monga (ESnet), Verónica Rodríguez Tribaldos (EESA), Jonathan Ajo-Franklin, and Nate Lindsey (EESA). (Credit: Paul Mueller/Berkeley Lab)

Dark Fiber Lays Groundwork for Long-Distance Earthquake Detection and Groundwater Mapping

Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) are turning parts of a 13,000-mile-long testbed of “dark fiber,” unused fiber-optic cable, owned by the DOE Energy Sciences Network (ESnet), into a highly sensitive seismic activity sensor that could potentially augment the performance of earthquake early warning systems currently being developed in the western United States.

This image shows a 3D superinsulator, in which vortex condensate (green lines) squeezes the electric field lines connecting charge-anticharge pairs (red and blue balls) into the electric strings (orange strips). These strings tightly bind these charge-anticharge pairs, completely immobilizing them, so electric current cannot be produced. (Image by Argonne National Laboratory.)

Superinsulators to Become Scientists' Quark Playgrounds

An international group of scientists that includes materials scientist Valerii Vinokur from the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory have devised a theory around a new state of matter called a superinsulator, in which electrons display some of the same properties as quarks.

PNNL researchers have been able to observe in unprecedented detail how rust happens. Credit: Zsolt Palantinus on Unsplash

Rust Never Sleeps

Scientists at the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory report in the journal PNAS a breakthrough in visualizing the reactivity of rust minerals when deprived of oxygen, such as those below the soil surface. Using iron isotopes and atom probe tomography, or APT, they traced these so-called redox reactions to create the first 3D “atomic maps” of the re-arrangement of different iron atoms in a small iron oxide crystal.

ArgoNeuT Hits a Home Run With Measurements of Neutrinos in Liquid Argon

Scientists on the ArgoNeuT experiment have developed a method that enables them to better distinguish the tracks that particles leave behind in liquid argon, as well as a way to better differentiate between signals and background. And thanks to the software’s great performance, ArgoNeuT will aid larger neutrino experiments in their quest to understand the nature of the subtle neutrino.

Electrifying Neutrons: Monochromated electron energy loss spectroscopy in the scanning transmission electron microscope is used to distinguish between molecules that differ only by a single neutron on a single atom. The electron beam can capture changes to the minute molecular vibrations of an amino acid caused by the extra neutron without damaging the sample and with unprecedented spatial resolution. Credit: Andy Sproles/Oak Ridge National Laboratory, U.S. Dept. of Energy

Novel Electron Microscopy Offers Nanoscale, Damage-free Tracking of Isotopes in Amino Acids

A new electron microscopy technique that detects the subtle changes in the weight of proteins at the nanoscale—while keeping the sample intact—could open a new pathway for deeper, more comprehensive studies of the basic building blocks of life.

Louisiana State University researchers used RF fields to heat iron oxide nanoparticles attached to petroleum molecules to achieve more energy efficient catalytic reactions. Image Credit: ORNL/Genevieve Martin

Radio Frequency Energy Heats Up Interest in Low-temperature Nanocatalysts

Scientists from Louisiana State University (LSU) are using neutrons at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) to study the effects of employing an alternating electromagnetic field to produce low-temperature catalytic reactions by heating iron oxide nanoparticles with hydrocarbon molecules attached to the nanoparticle surface.

(From left to right) Cole Freniere and Michael Reynolds of Microway, Alex Volkov of NVIDIA, and Chris Layton and Brian Zachary of ORNL pose with a newly arrived DGX-2. The NVIDIA appliances connect ORNL researchers with a platform that excels at machine learning, a type of artificial intelligent that could automate some of the time-intensive analysis inherent in scientific research.

ORNL Adds Powerful AI Appliances to Computing Portfolio

As home to three top-ranked supercomputers of the last decade, the US Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) has become synonymous with scientific computing at the largest scales. Getting the most out of these science machines, however, requires a willingness to experiment with problems and systems of every size and scale. This is especially important as technology vendors introduce new system architectures and as scientists’ problem-solving toolkit expands to include artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced data analysis.

The empty interior of ProtoDUNE takes on a golden hue. Photo: CERN

Success After a Three-year Sprint

When scientists plan to build a new particle detector, they run simulations to get a picture of what the particle interactions will look like. After constructing and starting up the real thing, they expect a period of tuning, adjusting, fiddling and fixing to get things running smoothly. They normally don’t expect to turn the detector on and see particle tracks of a quality that exceeds their idealized simulations, especially when it is a prototype detector. And then there is ProtoDUNE.

A team from Brookhaven Lab has deployed a sensor-equipped truck that will drive around urban and coastal areas in the Northeastern United States over the next few years to collect atmospheric data. These data will advance our understanding of the hard-to-predict microclimates—local climates that differ from the climate of the surrounding area—affecting such areas.

Predicting Urban and Coastal Microclimates

A mobile laboratory containing sensors that measure wind speed and direction, air quality, precipitation, and other atmospheric variables is being deployed in urban and coastal areas as part of a larger effort to improve local forecasting capabilities in complex environments

Catching Atoms in Action: Watching Next-gen Materials Crystallize

One of the many possible routes to next-gen materials-- ones that enable new advances in data storage, electronic devices, and lighter and stronger structural building materials-- is through supercooling of metals into a category of alloys called ‘metallic glass,’ with no regular or crystalline pattern of atomic structure (scientists call it “amorphous”). Unlike common or window glass, however, these metallic glasses are excellent electrical conductors, making them promising for all sorts of tech applications.

Jon Poplawsky of Oak Ridge National Laboratory combines atom probe tomography (revealed by this LEAP 4000XHR instrument) with electron microscopy to characterize the compositions, structures, and functions of materials for energy and information technologies. Credit: Carlos Jones/Oak Ridge National Laboratory, U.S. Dept. of Energy

Jon Poplawsky—Probing Materials to Improve Energy and Information Technologies

Jon Poplawsky, a materials scientist at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, develops and links advanced characterization techniques that improve our ability to see and understand atomic-scale features of diverse materials for energy and information technologies.