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

Messina Discusses Rewards and Challenges for New Exascale Project

Argonne Distinguished Fellow Paul Messina has been tapped to lead the DOE and NNSA’s Exascale Computing Project with the goal of paving the way toward exascale supercomputing.

Provisional Names Announced for Superheavy Elements 113, 115, 117, and 118

The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) Inorganic Chemistry Division has published a Provisional Recommendation for the names and symbols of the recently discovered superheavy elements 113, 115, 117, and 118.

ORNL Research Finds Magnetic Material Could Host Wily Weyl Fermions

An elusive massless particle could exist in a magnetic crystal structure, revealed by neutron and X-ray research from a team of scientists led by the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the University of Tennessee.

New Chemical ‘Sponges’ Designed to Soak Up Toxic Cancer-Fighting Drugs After Targeting Tumors

Researchers at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) are using materials developed for fuel cells in a new device that can be inserted via a tiny tube into a vein and capture chemotherapy drugs before they circulate throughout the body.

NSLS-II User Profiles: Wilson Chiu

Wilson K. S. Chiu, a professor in the Mechanical Engineering Department at the University of Connecticut, recently conducted an experiment as one of the first general users at the National Synchrotron Light Source II (NSLS-II) Hard X-Ray Nanoprobe (HXN).

Scientists Find Surprising Magnetic Excitations in a Metallic Compound

An experimental team of researchers originally from Brookhaven Lab and Stony Brook University and from the University of Amsterdam have developed a model to describe the behavior of the metallic compound made of ytterbium, platinum, and lead (Yb2Pt2Pb), leading to a new understanding of how spinions contribute to – but orbital motion is the dominant mechanism for – magnetism.

How to Heal Broken Bonds, Catalyst Style

Scientists at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory demonstrated how defects deep inside a zeolite catalyst could be healed, allowing the catalyst to drive reactions in hot water, a common environment for materials involved in converting paper industry waste and other biomass into fuels.

3D Simulations Illuminate Supernova Explosions

Researchers from Michigan State University are using Argonne Leadership Computing Facility’s Mira supercomputer to perform large-scale 3D simulations of the final moments of a supernova’s life cycle. While the 3D simulation approach is still in its infancy, early results indicate that the models are providing a clearer picture of the mechanisms that drive supernova explosions than ever before.

Fertilizer Use Could Reduce Climate Benefit of Cellulosic Biofuels

According to a new, three-year study from the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center and Michigan State University (MSU), the use of nitrogen fertilizer on switchgrass crops can produce a sharp increase in emissions of nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas up to 300 times more harmful than carbon dioxide and a significant driver of global climate change.

PNNL Helps Lead National Microbiome Initiative

Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory are playing a central role as the nation devotes more than $500 million to understand communities of microorganisms and their role in climate science, food production and human health.

Spinning Electrons Yield Positrons for Research

Using the Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility (CEBAF) at the Department of Energy's Jefferson Lab, a team of researchers has, for the first time, demonstrated a new technique for producing polarized positrons.

Physicist Fatima Ebrahimi Conducts Computer Simulations That Indicate the Efficiency of an Innovative Fusion Start-Up Technique

Physicist Fatima Ebrahimi at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) and Princeton University has for the first time performed computer simulations indicating the efficiency of a start-up technique for doughnut-shaped fusion machines known as tokamaks.