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

Unusual Rare Earth Compound Opens Doorway to New Class of Functional Materials

Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory have discovered an earlier unknown discontinuous magnetoelastic transition in a rare-earth intermetallic. The mechanism of the material’s changing magnetic state is so unusual, it provides new possibilities for discovery of similar materials.

‘Dramatic Clearing Events’ in Marine Cloud Cover

A new paper in the July 19 issue of Science reports novel findings with implications for the Earth’s radiation budget. It documents abrupt erosion of the low marine cloud cover that cools and blankets the subtropical southeast Atlantic Ocean.

A Catalytic Support Material Takes a Leading Role

Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory, in collaboration with DOE’s Ames Laboratory, have reported an important and unexpected reaction mechanism — called “redox behavior” — on the surface of catalyst support materials that have application in the chemical industry.

Gaining New Insights Into Proton Structure

Anselm Vossen, a Jefferson Lab jointly appointed assistant professor at Duke University, has been awarded a DOE Early Career Award to develop experimental and analysis techniques that make full use of the new generation of high-precision experiments made possible by the upgrade of CEBAF.

Gold Ore's Chemical Cousin Helps Reveal Family Secrets

Iron tellurides are gold-free minerals that are chemical cousins to rich gold-bearing tellurides—high-grade ores long prized by gold miners. Today, the poorer cousin, iron telluride, is also proving its value, by helping researchers better understand the physics of magnetism and superconductivity, which could lead to faster and more efficient electrical systems and electronic devices.

Fermilab Gets Ready to Upgrade Accelerator Complex for More Powerful Particle Beams

Fermilab’s accelerator complex has achieved a major milestone: The U.S. Department of Energy formally approved Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory to proceed with its design of PIP-II, an accelerator upgrade project that will provide increased beam power to generate an unprecedented stream of neutrinos — subatomic particles that could unlock our understanding of the universe — and enable a broad program of physics research for many years to come.

Department of Energy Announces $30 Million for “Ultrafast” Science

The research efforts span both materials science and chemistry, and will take advantage of new and emerging capabilities to probe materials and chemical processes at time scales of a quadrillionth of a second or less. The goal is to help speed discovery of new materials and chemical processes through better step-by-step observation and control of matter’s behavior at atomic and molecular scales.

ECP Announces New Co-Design Center to Focus on Exascale Machine Learning Technologies

The Exascale Computing Project has initiated its sixth Co-Design Center, ExaLearn, to be led by Principal Investigator Francis J. Alexander, Deputy Director of the Computational Science Initiative at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory.

A Domestic Electron Ion Collider Would Unlock Scientific Mysteries of Atomic Nuclei, New Report Says

A report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine states that construction and operation of an electron ion collider (EIC) as proposed by DOE could have far-reaching benefits to the nation's science- and technology-driven economy.

Relax, Just Break It

Using state-of-the art neutron and synchrotron X-ray scattering, Argonne scientists and their collaborators are helping to answer long-held questions about a technologically important class of materials called relaxor ferroelectrics, which are often lead-based. These materials have mechanical and electrical properties that are useful in applications such as sonar and ultrasound.

Two Faces Offer Limitless Possibilities

Janus membranes — double-sided membranes that serve as gatekeepers between two substances — have emerged as a material with potential industrial uses. Creating two distinct "faces" on these delicate surfaces, however, is a process fraught with challenges. By applying a common high-tech manufacturing technique in an uncommon way, researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory have discovered a new way to chemically deposit a second face, resulting in Janus membranes that are more robust and precisely structured than previous incarnations.

Revealing the Details of Subatomic Particle Interactions

Raul Briceño, a Jefferson Lab jointly appointed assistant professor at Old Dominion University, has been awarded a DOE Early Career Award. Briceño will engage the incredible computational power of supercomputers to unravel the secrets of subatomic particles and how they interact.