University Science Highlights | U.S. DOE Office of Science (SC)

The chart of nuclides sorts isotopes by their proton vs. neutron numbers. This region shows newly discovered isotopes (yellow) that were produced at the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams by fragmenting a stable platinum-198 beam (orange outline).

The Facility for Rare Isotope Beams Observes Five Never-Before-Seen Isotopes

The discovery of new isotopes demonstrates the user facility’s discovery potential.

The Potassium Decay (KDK) Collaboration used the KDK array to detect a previously unmeasured process in the radioactive decay of potassium-40 to argon-40 involving a rare type of electron capture.

The KDK Collaboration Identifies Rare Nuclear Decay in Long-Lived Potassium Isotope

The observation of a rare potassium-40 decay aids in estimating neutrinoless double-beta decay half-life and dating geological features.

Left: partitions where the set of blue points occupy one region and the set of black points another region, similar to how many systems work. Right: the partitions that occur in nuclei, where the partitions of blue and black points occupy the same regions.

Entanglement Entropies of Nuclear Systems Grow as the Volume of those Systems

Quantum entanglement changes in atomic nuclei in ways that differ from other systems.

Like desert wildflowers that bloom after rain, soil bacteria have evolved life strategies that determine when and where they grow. Having a small, streamlined genome may help some bacteria survive in dry soils.

Soil Bacteria Link their Life Strategies to Soil Conditions

Assessing the genomes of soil bacteria around the globe, researchers identified three dominant life strategies linked to different types of soil.

This image shows Bisophere 2 (a), which houses a tropical rainforest (b) where researchers performed an ecosystem-scale drought experiment. Researchers labeled the soil (c) to track the release of carbon dioxide and volatile organic compounds.

During Droughts, Soil Microbes Produce Volatile Carbon Metabolites

In a warmer world, microbes in drought-stricken soils convert less carbon to carbon dioxide and more to volatile intermediates.

This image shows the variation in permeability in a network of fractures due to quartz dissolving in the fractures. Each plane represents an individual fracture in the network.

Filling in the Cracks: Scientists Improve Predictions for the Dissolution of Minerals in Rock Fractures

A new correction factor for predicting dissolution rates uses measurable geological properties in fractured media.

Technical illustration of a high-performance quantum processor architecture based on fluxonium qubits.

Artificial Atoms Power a Novel Quantum Processor Architecture

Fluxonium qubits can build cutting-edge quantum devices that will harness the potential of quantum computing.

Images of Yarrowia lipolytica surrounding and growing on polyolefin oil droplets (large red circles). Cells were stained blue to show the chitin cell walls and red to show the lipid bodies inside the cells and the oil droplets outside the cells.

Yeast Uses Plastic Waste Oils to Make High-Value Chemicals

Yarrowia lipolytica reallocates its production of protein toward energy and lipid metabolism to grow on hydrocarbons and produce high-value chemicals.

Left: Scanning electron microscope and X-ray (EDX) images of microbe consortia (yellow) and silica (blue). Right: transmission electron microscope image of microbe consortia with silica spheres of silica.

Scientists Confirm that Methane-Processing Microbes Produce a Fossil Record

Microorganisms and their metabolisms help silica to mineralize near deep ocean methane seeps.

Theoretical calculations predict a complex excited state (0+) for helium-4 (4He) at the 20.21 MeV energy level. This state involves a coupling of three cluster configurations: helium-3 and a proton, helium-3 and a neutron, and two helium-2 nuclei.

New Calculations Solve an Alpha Particle Physics Puzzle

A new experimental measure of Helium-4’s transition from its ground energy state to an excited state closes an apparent gap with theoretical predictions.

Data on Lambda particle formation came from experiments in Experimental Hall B, shown here, part of the Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility.

Teasing Strange Matter from Ordinary

New insights reveal details of how strange matter forms.

Understanding Charged-Particle Bound States in Periodic Boxes

Finite geometry reveals fundamental properties of charged quantum systems.