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

Solving the Mystery of the Tully Monster

With the help of Argonne scientists and the immense power of the Advanced Photon Source, a team of Yale University researchers have solved the mystery of the Tully Monster, an oddly configured sea creature with teeth at the end of a narrow, trunk-like extension of its head and eyes that perch on either side of a long rigid bar.

Dusting for the Fingerprint of Inflation with BICEP3

The BICEP3 project and the Keck Array assembly has just begun collecting data, covering a wider spectrum of light and measuring the properties of light left over from the first 380,000 years of history after the big bang.

Compressing Turbulence to Improve Inertial Confinement Fusion Experiments

Findings by researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory and Princeton University’s Department of Astrophysical Sciences indicate that fluid turbulence could have a surprisingly positive impact on inertial confinement fusion experiments.

Advanced Energy Storage Material Gets Unprecedented Nanoscale Analysis

Researchers at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory have combined advanced in-situ microscopy and theoretical calculations to uncover important clues to the properties of a promising next-generation energy storage material for supercapacitors and batteries.

New Microwave Imaging Approach Opens a Nanoscale View on Processes in Liquids

U.S. government nanotechnology researchers have demonstrated a new window to view what are now mostly clandestine operations occurring in soggy, inhospitable realms of the nanoworld—technologically and medically important processes that occur at boundaries between liquids and solids, such as in batteries or along cell membranes.

New ORNL Method Could Unleash Solar Power Potential

Measurement and data analysis techniques developed at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory could provide new insight into performance-robbing flaws in crystalline structures, ultimately improving the performance of solar cells.

Microbes May Not Be So Adaptable to Climate Change

Microbes in soil — organisms that exert enormous influence over our planet's carbon cycle — may not be as adaptable to climate change as most scientists have presumed, according to a study done at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

Brookhaven Lab Facilities Team Up to Offer Beamline for Cutting-Edge Science

The Coherent Soft X-ray Scattering and Spectroscopy (CSX-2) beamline at the National Synchrotron Light Source II, which hosted its first users in February, was built in partnership with the Center for Functional Nanomaterials.

Hunting For Big Bang Neutrinos That Could Provide Fresh Insight on the Origin of the Universe

Researchers at Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory are readying a facility to detect Big Bang neutrinos by capturing them on a postage stamp-sized sheet of graphene holding a 1/100th of a milligram of tritium.

New Fuel Cell Design Powered by Graphene-Wrapped Nanocrystals

Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have developed a new materials recipe for a battery-like hydrogen fuel cell—which surrounds hydrogen-absorbing magnesium nanocrystals with atomically thin graphene sheets—to push its performance forward in key areas.

Chromium Breaks the Toughest of Bonds, with the Right Support

At the Center for Molecular Electrocatalysis, scientists showed what it takes to make long-overlooked chromium help form ammonia; this work is a critical step in controlling a reaction that could store electrons from intermittent wind and solar stations in use-any-time fuels.

Boeing Catches Caution from the Wind

Through the US Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) ASCR Leadership Computing Challenge, via the OLCF’s HPC Industrial Partnerships Program, Boeing used the Jaguar supercomputer, aiming to establish more reliable computational methods for estimating high-lift (takeoff/landing) characteristics for its commercial transport aircraft.