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

The Journal of Visualized Experiments recently published a video providing step-by-step instructions for a high-resolution nanopatterning technique developed by scientists at Brookhaven Lab's Center for Functional Nanomaterials.

Creating Nanoscale Patterns at Record Resolution: An Instructional Video

The Journal of Visualized Experiments recently published a video showing how an electron microscope-based lithography technique developed at Brookhaven Lab's Center for Functional Nanomaterials can be used to define single-digit nanometer patterns in conventional electron-beam resists.

Scientists analyzed the gamma rays emitted during the NPDGamma Experiment and found parity-violating asymmetry, which is a specific change in behavior in the force between a neutron and a proton. They measured a 30 parts per billion preference for gamma rays to be emitted antiparallel to the neutron spin when neutrons are captured by protons in liquid hydrogen. After observing that more gammas go down than up, the experiment resolved for the first time a mirror-asymmetric component or handedness of the weak force. Credit: Andy Sproles/Oak Ridge National Laboratory, U.S. Dept. of Energy

Precision Experiment First to Isolate, Measure Weak Force Between Protons, Neutrons

A team of scientists has for the first time measured the elusive weak interaction between protons and neutrons in the nucleus of an atom. They had chosen the simplest nucleus consisting of one neutron and one proton for the study.

Raju Venugopalan and Mark Mace, two members of a collaboration that maintains quantum mechanical interactions among gluons are the dominant factor creating particle flow patterns observed in collisions of small projectiles with gold nuclei at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC).

Theory Paper Offers Alternate Explanation for Particle Patterns

A group of physicists analyzing the patterns of particles emerging from collisions of small projectiles with large nuclei at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) say these patterns are triggered by quantum mechanical interactions among gluons, the glue-like particles that hold together the building blocks of the projectiles and nuclei.

The Gluonic Excitations Experiment, or GlueX, aims to gain new insight into the force that binds all matter together. The GlueX collaboration of scientists are now working on analyzing the full set of data collected in the first phase of the experiment.

Gluex Completes First Phase

An experiment that aims to gain new insight into the force that binds all matter together has recently completed its first phase of data collection at the U.S. Department of Energy's Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility.

Read more about Gluex Completes First Phase

Tyler Cooksey, a graduate researcher at the University of Houston, uses ORNL’s Bio-SANS instrument at the High Flux Isotope Reactor to understand how micelles can be improved to create more effective drugs. (Image credit: ORNL/Genevieve Martin)

Neutron Micelle Measurements Lend Insights Into Improved Drug Delivery

To learn more about interactions between drug molecules and micelles, Associate Professor Megan Robertson and graduate students Tyler Cooksey and Tzu-Han Li from the University of Houston (UH) are using neutrons at the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL).

APS employees work to adjust a magnet that will be used in the APS Upgrade. (Image by Argonne National Laboratory.)

DOE Approves Technical Plan and Cost Estimate to Upgrade Argonne facility; Project will Create X-rays that Illuminate the Atomic Scale, in 3D

The resulting facility will allow researchers to view matter at the atomic scale, in three dimensions, opening new frontiers in discovery science, from advances in pharmaceuticals to new materials for better rechargeable batteries.

Berkeley Lab and Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis researchers Yanwei Lum (left) and Joel Ager have discovered that copper has potential as a catalyst for turning carbon dioxide into sustainable chemicals and fuels without any wasteful byproducts, creating a green alternative to present-day chemical manufacturing. (Credit: Marilyn Chung/Berkeley Lab)

Greener Days Ahead for Carbon Fuels

Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis (JCAP) discover copper has potential as a catalyst for turning carbon dioxide into sustainable chemicals and fuels without any wasteful byproducts, creating a green alternative to present-day chemical manufacturing

SBND collaborators Rhiannon Jones (left), Tom Brooks and Nicola McConkey discuss installation of one of the APAs. Photo: Reidar Hahn

International Collaborators Deliver First Critical Components for Upcoming Neutrino Detector

Major components for a new neutrino experiment at the Department of Energy’s Fermilab are arriving at the lab from around the world. The components will be used in the upcoming Short-Baseline Near Detector (SBND), an important piece of the laboratory’s rich neutrino program. The first of four anode plane assemblies, highly sensitive electronic components, came to Fermilab in October.

Artist rendering of genome standards being applied to deciphering the extensive diversity of viruses. (Illustration by Leah Pantéa)

Defining Quality Virus Data(sets)

In a report published December 17, 2018, in Nature Biotechnology, JGI partnered with a number of virus experts; as well as representatives from the Genomic Standards Consortium (GSC), an open-membership working body that engages the research community in the standards development process; and the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses, the premier authority on the official taxonomy of viruses which is currently re-evaluating virus classification based on sequence-based information.

Argonne scientists Maria Chan, Jianguo Wen, Di-Jia Liu and Lina Chong have discovered a way to reduce the amount of platinum needed in catalysts for hydrogen fuel cells. (Image by Argonne National Laboratory.)

Argonne Scientists Maximize the Effectiveness of Platinum in Fuel Cells

In new research from the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory, published in Science, scientists have identified a new catalyst that uses only about a quarter as much platinum as current technology by maximizing the effectiveness of the available platinum.

Matthew Shupe stands on sea ice in the central Arctic Ocean in 2008 during the Sweden-led Arctic Summer Cloud Ocean Study (ASCOS), designed to study the formation and life cycle of low-level arctic clouds. Photo is courtesy of Shupe.

UEC Profile: Arctic Messenger

Buoyed by a sense of adventure and a passion for clouds, Matthew Shupe, a senior research scientist at the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) in Boulder, Colorado, studies the fragile Arctic and plans a shipborne field campaign adrift for a year in sea ice.

Berkeley Lab researcher Alan Rhoades, lead author of a new study on the Sierra snowpack. (Courtesy Alan Rhoades)

Sierra Snowpack Could Drop Significantly By End of Century

a new study by the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) that analyzed the headwater regions of California’s 10 major reservoirs, representing nearly half of the state’s surface storage, found they could see on average a 79 percent drop in peak snowpack water volume by 2100.