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

A proton’s valence quarks (blue, red, and green), quark-antiquark pairs, and gluons (springs). Scalar gluon activity (pink) extends beyond the electric charge radius (orange) that surrounds the gluonic energy core (yellow).

Scientists Locate the Missing Mass Inside the Proton

Nuclear physicists have found the location of matter inside the proton that comes from the strong force - a fundamental force that holds protons together.

Measuring the Thickness of the Neutron Skin with Ultra-Relativistic Heavy Ion Collisions

Researchers determined the neutron skin of lead-208 from experimental data collected in lead-lead collisions at the CERN Large Hadron Collider.

Electrons emitted in radioactive beta decay in a magnetic field create radio waves or microwaves, which are then picked up by antennas to learn about the decay process and the particles they produce.

Physicists Remotely Sense Radioactive Decay to Probe Fundamental Forces and Particles

The Project 8 and He6-CRES collaborations use a new technique to set an upper limit on neutrino mass and prepare to test the nature of the weak force.

A novel method improves the accuracy of the CRISPR Cas9 gene editing tool scientists use to modify microbes for renewable fuels and chemicals production. It draws on quantum chemistry, artificial intelligence, and synthetic biology.

How the Quantum World Can Help Scientists Engineer Biology

Improving genome engineering with quantum biology and artificial intelligence.

High-Throughput Chromosome Conformation Capture technology allowed scientists to detect bacteriophage-host infection networks and how they varied between dry and wet soil.

Researchers Directly Detect Interactions Between Viruses and their Bacterial Hosts in Soils

The first application of High-Throughput Chromosome Conformation Capture (Hi-C) Metagenome Sequencing to soil captures phage-host interactions at the time of sampling.

Surprising Strategies: Scientists Quantify the Activity of Algal-Associated Bacteria at the Microscale

High resolution isotope analysis of the algal microbiome identifies ecological strategies not predicted by genome content.

A bacterial virus inserting genetic material inside a bacterial cell during infection.

Creating a Virus-Resistant Bacterium Using a Synthetic Engineered Genome

Scientists engineered a model bacterium's genetic code to make it virus-resistant and unable to exchange genetic material or grow without special media.

A representation of the machine learning approach used to classify sulfur-38 nuclei (38S) from all other nuclei created in a complex nuclear reaction (left) and the resulting ability to gain knowledge of the unique sulfur-38 quantum “fingerprint” (right).

Machine Learning Techniques Enhance the Discovery of Excited Nuclear Levels in Sulfur-38

Forefront nuclear physics capabilities and machine-learning data analyses combine to generate new information on quantum energy levels in sulfur-38.

A cartoon of free-streaming hadrons emerging from quark-gluon plasma.

How Do Quark-Gluon-Plasma Fireballs Explode into Hadrons?

Scientists translate predictions of hydrodynamics into experimentally observable particle patterns.

A pictorial rendition of the proton-proton fusion chain in the Sun. The fusion of a proton with beryllium-7 produces a boron-8 nucleus that later decays emitting neutrinos that can be detected on Earth.

Novel Theory-Based Evaluation Gives a Clearer Picture of Fusion in the Sun

Theoretical calculations and experimental data combine to reduce uncertainty in a key reaction rate in modelling high-energy solar neutrinos.

Using light from the edge of a plasma in a tokamak (interior view at left), a Physics Informed Neural Network reconstructs the turbulent fluctuations in plasma density and temperature and the distribution of a probing helium gas puff (right).

Bridging Theory and Fusion Experiments through Physics-Informed Deep Learning

Neural networks guided by physics are creating new ways to observe the complexities of plasmas.

Opening the Magnetic Bottle of a Tokamak Causes Particles to Rush Inward

Perturbing the edge magnetic field of a tokamak produces a counterintuitive response: particles entering the confined region rather than escaping it.