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

Speedy Ion Conduction in Solid electrolytes Clears Road for Advanced Energy Devices

A team led by the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory has used state-of-the-art microscopy to identify a previously undetected feature, about 5 billionths of a meter (nanometers) wide, in a solid electrolyte.

How Ameriflux Helped Determine the Impact of the 2012 U.S. Drought on the Carbon Cycle

To map the carbon flux across the nation during the 2012 drought, an international team of scientists used a network of 22 “carbon-sensing” towers in the continental United States - part of the Ameriflux network, a community of scientists and sites that measure ecosystem carbon, water, and energy fluxes in North and South America.

SLAC’s Historic Linac Turns 50 and Gets a Makeover

SLAC’s 2-mile-long linac, the longest linear accelerator ever built, produced its first particle beams 50 years ago and has been the lab’s backbone for accelerator-driven science ever since.

Scientists Challenge Conventional Wisdom to Improve Predictions of the Bootstrap Current at the Edge of Fusion Plasmas

PPPL researchers used the Mira supercomputer at the Argonne Leadership Computing Facility to challenge conventional understanding of the bootstrap current in a tokamak, modeling the self-generating electric current in a steep gradient region where the temperature and density drop off sharply.

Could Aluminum Nitride Produce Quantum Bits?

Using NERSC’s Edison supercomputer, researchers found that by applying strain to aluminum nitride, one could create structural defects that may be harnessed as qubits similar to the one seen in diamond.

Making Waves on Mira

Researchers used the Mira supercomputer at the Argonne Leadership Computing Facility to validate a new “wave-like” theoretical model for the van der Waals force, demonstrating that this long-range interaction can be significantly enhanced at the nanoscale.

DOE’s Office of Science Selects 49 Scientists to Receive Early Career Research Program Funding

Program provides support to exceptional researchers.

Supercooled Cavities for Particle Acceleration

Researchers at the National Synchrotron Light Source II are accelerating electrons at nearly the speed of light, using liquid helium and liquid nitrogen to create the extremely low temperatures needed for the electrons to flow with less resistance.

Dual Collaborations Using EMSL and DOE JGI to Speed and Amplify Research Impact

An innovative program with EMSL and the Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute, or DOE JGI, in California, gives scientists a chance to combine the expertise and capabilities from both user facilities.

NSLS Re-Use & Recycling Effort Saves Funding and Gives New Life to Key Components

When the National Synchrotron Light Source (NSLS) at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory shut down permanently in 2014, hundreds of pieces of equipment remained in the building, much of it still scientifically useful and valuable. Since then, many of these items have been re-purposed at its successor, NSLS-II — a DOE Office of Science User Facility — and at other facilities across the Lab site, saving millions of dollars for DOE and the Lab.

ORNL Researchers Discover New State of Water Molecule

The discovery, made possible with experiments at ORNL’s Spallation Neutron Source and the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in the United Kingdom, demonstrates features of water under ultra confinement in rocks, soil and cell walls, which scientists predict will be of interest across many disciplines.

Giving Back to National Science Bowl

In the 1990s, Dean Jens and Doug Fuller were high school students playing on teams from Ankeny High School that were competing to secure coveted spots in the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Science Bowl (NSB) ® competition. Today, they’re professionals, fathers, and devoted alumni whose annual volunteer commitment to the NSB allows them to give back to a competition that helped shape their lives.