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

Berkeley Lab scientists tell the story of these incredible scientific discoveries.

16 Elements: Berkeley Lab’s Contributions to the Periodic Table

A century ago, the periodic table looked much different than it does today. It had empty spots for elements that had not yet been found, and ended at uranium (element 92), the heaviest known element until 1940. But scientists were dreaming about artificially creating even heavier elements.

Deep convective clouds will be the focus of an upcoming ARM field campaign in Texas. Photo is courtesy of the National Weather Service.

New Campaign Will Track Deep Convective Clouds Over Houston

Deep convective clouds—the kind that often pack lightning and pour rain—occur nearly everywhere in the world. They are an important feature of the atmosphere, especially in storm systems that dominate the tropics and midlatitudes.

Prototype of EPI at center-left of image. (Photo courtesy of Roger Raman.)

Fast Action: A Novel Device May Provide Rapid Control of Plasma Disruptions in a Fusion Facility

Scientists seeking to capture and control on Earth fusion energy, the process that powers the sun and stars, face the risk of disruptions — sudden events that can halt fusion reactions and damage facilities called tokamaks that house them. Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), and the University of Washington have developed a novel prototype for rapidly controlling disruptions before they can take full effect.

This visualization of a general-relativistic collisionless plasma simulation shows the density of positrons near the event horizon of a rotating black hole. Plasma instabilities produce island-like structures in the region of intense electric current. (Credit: Kyle Parfrey et al./Berkeley Lab)

How to Escape a Black Hole: Simulations Provide New Clues to What’s Driving Powerful Plasma Jets

Black holes are known for their voracious appetites, binging on matter with such ferocity that not even light can escape once it’s swallowed up. Less understood, though, is how black holes purge energy locked up in their rotation, jetting near-light-speed plasmas into space to opposite sides in one of the most powerful displays in the universe. These jets can extend outward for millions of light years.

Clifford Gerlak, an intern in the chemistry division, is researching fundamental reactions of methane (CH4) and carbon dioxide (CO2) and the behavior of catalysts that can produce useful chemicals.

Cliff Gerlak: From U.S. Marine Veteran to Chemical Engineer

At very different ends of the career spectrum, it may seem difficult to transition from a United States Marine to a chemical engineer, but that’s exactly Cliff Gerlak’s plan.

Due to the local terbium environment in TblnO3, a honeycomb lattice of terbium spins emerges in the crystal structure upon cooling. Credit: University of Liverpool

Scientists Discover New Quantum Spin Liquid

An international research team led by the University of Liverpool and McMaster University has made a significant breakthrough in the search for new states of matter. In a study published in the journal Nature Physics, researchers show that the perovskite-related metal oxide, TbInO3, exhibits a quantum spin liquid state, a long-sought-afterandunusual state of matter.

DOE Undersecretary for Science Paul Dabbar is greeted by Caltech scientist Maria Spiropulu, who leads the Fermiab Quantum NETwork. Photo: Reidar Hahn

DOE Under Secretary for Science Paul Dabbar Visits Fermilab to Discuss Quantum Program

On Dec. 18, 2018, DOE Under Secretary for Science Paul Dabbar visited Fermilab. The main focus of the visit was Fermilab’s rapidly advancing quantum science and technology program.

Skyrmions are nanoscale whirls or vortices of magnetic poles that form lattices within a magnetic material, a type of quasiparticle that can zip across the material, pushed by electrical current.

Taking Magnetism for a Spin: Exploring the Mysteries of Skyrmions

Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory have discovered the relaxation dynamics of a zero-field state in skyrmions, a spinning magnetic phenomenon that has potential applications in data storage and spintronic devices.

EMSL scientist Scott Lea leads a multi-institutional team developing a BioImager, a novel spectral imaging platform, funded through BER’s Bioimaging Technology Program.

EMSL Scientist Awarded $3.75M to Develop a Novel Imaging Platform

EMSL scientist Scott Lea will receive $3.75M over three years from the DOE Office of Biological and Environmental Research’s Bioimaging Technology Program to develop a “BioImager,” a novel spectral imaging platform.

Allison C. Aiken brings her innovative aerosol chemistry background and eight years of ARM data experience to the User Executive Committee. Photos are from ARM and Aiken.

User Executive Committee Profile: Aerosols Advocate

While still a graduate student, Allison C. Aiken—now an aerosol scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico—developed a new analysis technique for organic species found in the atmospheric particles she studies. In 2014, she was named one of the world’s most influential scientific minds by Thomson Reuters.

The most direct — and thus most solid — prediction of Big Bang nucleosynthesis concerns helium-4, each nucleus of which consists of two protons and two neutrons. However, helium-4 is also a standard product of stellar nuclear fusion. In order to infer the primordial helium-4 abundance, astronomers turn to certain dwarf galaxies. This image shows an important example, the galaxy "I Zwicky 18," a dwarf galaxy rather close to us by intergalactic standards, a mere 45 million light years away. Image courtesy of NASA (Download Image)

Scientists Predict Reaction Data for Fusion Research, Insight Into Universe's Origins

Using simulations and calculations, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) nuclear scientists for the first time have accurately predicted the properties of polarized thermonuclear fusion. Analogous calculations could be used to answer some of the most fundamental questions about the origins of the universe and the evolution of stars.

Argonne Intern Expands His Universe by Working with Data from the Dark Energy Survey

Alec Lancaster thought he was bound for a career as a university physicist. But a 10-week internship at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory gave him a different vision of the road ahead.