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

PPPL Takes Detailed Look at 2-D Structure of Turbulence in Tokamaks

At the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), scientists have assembled a large database of detailed measurements of the two dimensional (2-D) structure of edge plasma turbulence made visible by a diagnostic technique known as gas puff imaging.

Neutrons Observe Vitamin B6-Dependent Enzyme Activity Useful for Drug Development

Scientists at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have performed neutron structural analysis of a vitamin B6-dependent protein, potentially opening avenues for new antibiotics and drugs to battle diseases such as drug-resistant tuberculosis, malaria and diabetes.

Injecting Electrons Jolts 2-D Structure Into New Atomic Pattern

The same electrostatic charge that can make hair stand on end and attach balloons to clothing could be an efficient way to drive atomically thin electronic memory devices of the future, according to a new study led by researchers at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab).

OLCF Helps GE Deliver Next-Generation Gas Turbines

In 2017, US-based General Electric (GE) delivered its newest heavy-duty gas turbine, the 7HA.02, to two power plants in Texas. The installations marked a milestone in natural gas–derived electricity generation, setting new marks in efficiency and emissions for utility-scale turbomachinery.

Purple Power: Synthetic ‘Purple Membranes’ Transform Sunlight to Hydrogen Fuel

Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory have found a new way to produce solar fuels by developing completely synthetic bionano machinery to harvest light without the need for a living cell.

Exploring the Exotic World of Quarks and Gluons at the Dawn of the Exascale

A new research effort led by theorists at DOE’s Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (Jefferson Lab) is now preparing for the next big leap forward in their studies thanks to funding under the 2017 SciDAC Awards for Computational Nuclear Physics.

Tracking the Viral Parasites of Giant Viruses over Time

Using metagenome data sets collected over several years in northern freshwater lakes, a team led by researchers at The Ohio State University and the U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute (DOE JGI), a DOE Office of Science User Facility, uncovered 25 novel sequences of virophages.

Leaning Into the Supercomputing Learning Curve

Recently, 70 scientists — graduate students, computational scientists, and postdoctoral and early-career researchers — attended the fifth annual Argonne Training Program on Extreme-Scale Computing (ATPESC) in St. Charles, Illinois.

Reimagining Hydrogen: A Small Molecule With Large-Scale Ideas

The Department of Energy (DOE) has launched “Hydrogen at Scale,” or H2@Scale, an initiative that explores the potential for wide-scale hydrogen production and utilization in the United States to benefit many sectors of the economy.

Dramatic Flares

Supercomputing aids experiments in sorting out the hidden mechanics of magnetic field reconnection, a key factor in solar storms and fusion energy reactors.

PPPL and General Atomics Team Up to Make TRANSP Code Widely Available

Plasma transport analysis, the study of how plasma particles, heat and momentum drift across magnetic field lines, is a necessary first step for understanding how well fusion reactors are performing. Teams of scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) and General Atomics (GA) have joined forces to bring PPPL’s premier transport code, TRANSP, to beginning users and experts alike.

Summer Intern Jaime Avilés Acosta Studies Materials for Ultra-Fast Particle Detector

Supported by DOE’s Minority Serving Institutions Partnership Program, which provides science and engineering experiences for minority students, the Indiana University graduate spent ten weeks collaborating with mentor Mickey Chiu, a physicist in the sPHENIX collaboration at Brookhaven’s Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC).