News Archive | U.S. DOE Office of Science (SC)

Courtney Schumacher lectures in a Texas A&M University classroom. Photo is courtesy of Schumacher.

UEC Profile: Postcards from the Clouds

One scientist, inspired early by world travel and the power of tropical storms, uses radar to investigate how large convective systems organize.

At the Heradura Playa in Atacama Desert of Chile. Alessandro Airo's team is interested in the Atacama's microbial communities. (Courtesy of A. Airo)

Preparing for a Sequence Data Deluge

Accepted 2019 JGI Community Science Program proposals requested terabases of sequence data. Over the summer, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Joint Genome Institute (JGI), a DOE Office of Science User Facility, set an “institutional best” record by sequencing 20.4 trillion bases (Terabases or Tb) in a single month in Walnut Creek, California.

Redesigning Poplar Trees to Take the Drought ... and the Salt and the Heat

A multi-institutional team is working on a multi-million-dollar, multi-year project funded by DOE's Office of Science to improve poplar trees to produce more biomass for biofuel applications.

A schematic of the arrangement of the Se and Fe atoms is shown on the left

"Choosy" Electronic Correlations Dominate Metallic State of Iron Superconductor

Two families of high-temperature superconductors (HTS)—materials that can conduct electricity without energy loss at unusually high (but still quite cold) temperatures—may be more closely related than scientists originally thought.

Alex Romanenko prepares to cool superconducting accelerator cavities, the silver-colored objects, to convert it into a quantum device. Photo: Reidar Hahn

Quantum Leap

As part of the DOE Office of Science Quantum Information Science-Enabled Discovery (QuantISED) program, a consortium of three institutions under the leadership of Fermilab scientist Alexander Romanenko has been awarded $3.9 million over two years to further SRF technology for quantum science, potentially boosting the processing speed and storage capacity of quantum devices, including quantum computers and sensors.

Peering Into 36-Million-Degree Plasma with SLAC’s X-ray Laser

In a first, researchers measure extremely small and fast changes that occur in plasma when it’s zapped with a laser. Their technique will have applications in astrophysics, medicine and fusion energy.

Coming Soon to Exascale Computing: Software for Chemistry of Catalysis

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory is launching a four-year, $3.2 million project to develop software that will bring the power of exascale computers to the computational study and design of catalytic materials.

Silicon wafers, ranging in size from 4” to 12” diameter, which have been treated using Argonne’s sequential infiltration synthesis method.

The Promise of Deep Grooves

A manufacturing technique that could help the semiconductor industry make more powerful computer chips began in the humblest of places — at a lunch table at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory.

Read more about The Promise of Deep Grooves

Modern Modulators for Fermilab Accelerators

New, flexible power modulators give Fermilab’s linear accelerator operators more precise control over particle beams.

Solving a Plasma Physics Mystery: Magnetic Reconnection

Magnetic reconnection causes storms in space and can damage fusion research devices on earth. Researchers are investigating why and how it happens so fast.

turbulent structures resulting from convection around the iron opacity peak region. Density is highest near the star’s core (yellow). The other colors represent low-density winds launched near the surface.

Superstars' Secrets

Supercomputing power and algorithms are helping astrophysicists untangle giant stars’ brightness, temperature and chemical variations.

Single Atoms Break Carbon's Strongest Bond

An international team of scientists including researchers at Yale University and the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory have developed a new catalyst for breaking carbon-fluorine bonds, one of the strongest chemical bonds known.