2018 | U.S. DOE Office of Science (SC)

Another First for Quantum

A multidivisional team consisting of members from ORNL’s Quantum Information Science Group, the Scientific Computing Group (SciComp) at the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF), the OLCF’s Computer Science Research Group, and ORNL’s Theoretical Physics Group has become the first group to successfully simulate an atomic nucleus using a quantum computer.

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Graphene Layered with Magnetic Materials Could Drive Ultrathin Spintronics

Researchers working at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) coupled graphene, a monolayer form of carbon, with thin layers of magnetic materials like cobalt and nickel to produce exotic behavior in electrons that could be useful for next-generation computing applications.

Neutrons Evaluate Connection Between Cellular Water Dynamics and Cancer Cell Behaviors

As scientists and physicians search for new ways to study and understand cancer cells, one approach suggests the movement of water molecules located in these cells could potentially predict the progression of cancerous tumors and measure the potency of anticancer medications in individual patients.

Faces of Summit: Putting the System to the Test

The Faces of Summit series shares stories of people working to stand up America’s next top supercomputer for open science, the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility’s Summit. The next-generation machine is scheduled to come online in 2018.

Understanding the Generation of Light-Induced Electrical Current in Atomically Thin Nanomaterials

Scientists demonstrated that scanning photocurrent microscopy—an imaging capability just added to Brookhaven Lab's Center for Functional Nanomaterials—could provide the optoelectronic information needed to improve the performance of devices for power generation, communications, data storage, and lighting.

Newly Discovered Copper and Graphite Combo Could Lead to More Efficient Lithium-ion Batteries

A first-of-its-kind copper and graphite combination discovered in basic energy research at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory could have implications for improving the energy efficiency of lithium-ion batteries, which include these components.

CFN Scientist Spotlight: Ashley Head Brings Surface Studies out of the Realm of Physics into Chemistry

Ashley Head, a chemist in the Interface Science and Catalysis Group at the Center for Functional Nanomaterials (CFN)—a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science User Facility at Brookhaven National Laboratory—studies the interesting chemical processes and phenomena that take place on surfaces. An understanding of surface chemistry is relevant to many applications, such as designing efficient catalysts for fuel cells and developing more sophisticated gas masks for soldiers.

A Great Plains Divide: Investigating Temperature Differences Between Models and Observations

Using data from the ARM Southern Great Plains atmospheric observatory, a new group of papers explores why earth system models simulate warmer surface temperatures than ground-based observations show in the central United States.

Five (More) Fascinating Facts About DUNE

The Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment, designed to solve mysteries about tiny particles called neutrinos, is growing by the day. More than 1000 scientists from over 30 countries are now collaborating on the project. Construction of prototype detectors is well underway.

U.S. Under Secretary of Energy Visits Jefferson Lab, Keynotes Biennial Open House Preview and Technology Event

In a visit to Jefferson Lab on Thursday, May 17, U.S. Department of Energy Under Secretary of Energy Mark Menezes met with laboratory representatives and researchers and got an exclusive preview to Saturday’s biennal open house event.

Diamond ‘Spin-Off’ Tech Could Lead to Low-Cost Medical Imaging and Drug Discovery Tools

An international team led by scientists at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and UC Berkeley discovered how to exploit defects in nanoscale and microscale diamonds to strongly enhance the sensitivity of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) systems while eliminating the need for their costly and bulky superconducting magnets.

The Incredible Shrinking Data

At Argonne National Laboratory’s Mathematics and Computer Science Division, Tom Peterka is developing a multivariate functional approximation tool that reduces a mass of data at the expense of just a bit of accuracy. He’s designing his new method with the flexibility to operate on a variety of supercomputer architectures, including DOE’s next-generation exascale machines.