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Newswise: Researchers Demonstrate First Precision Gene Editing in Miscanthus
Released: 12-Jun-2023 4:00 PM EDT
Researchers Demonstrate First Precision Gene Editing in Miscanthus
Department of Energy, Office of Science

Miscanthus thrives on marginal lands with limited fertilization and tolerates drought and cool temperatures, making it an ideal bioenergy candidate. Previous efforts to genetically improve miscanthus focused on introducing external genes at random places in the plant’s genomes. This research developed gene-editing procedures using CRISPR/Cas9 that will allow scientists to selectively target existing genes to knock out their function and introduce new genes into precise locations.

Newswise: Kevin Wilson: Then and Now / 2012 Early Career Award Winner
Released: 12-Jun-2023 10:55 AM EDT
Kevin Wilson: Then and Now / 2012 Early Career Award Winner
Department of Energy, Office of Science

Kevin Wilson studies how chemistry proceeds at liquid interfaces on cloud droplets, atmospheric aerosols, and ocean surfaces. With the support of his 2012 Early Career award, his team focused on reactions between gases and surfaces of ozone and hydroxyl radicals in the atmosphere.

Newswise: Scientists Develop Inorganic Resins for Generating and Purifying Radium and Actinium
Released: 7-Jun-2023 4:15 PM EDT
Scientists Develop Inorganic Resins for Generating and Purifying Radium and Actinium
Department of Energy, Office of Science

Targeted alpha therapy using radioisotopes such as actinium-225 can destroy cancerous cells without harming healthy cells. However, making actinium-225 by bombarding radium targets with neutrons poses a challenge: how to chemically separate the radium from the actinium. A new approach uses radiation-resistant inorganic resin scaffolds as platforms for separating radium, actinium, and lead, improving production time, cost, and safety.

   
Newswise: Precision Nuclear Physics in Indium-115 Beta Decay Spectrum using Cryogenic Detectors
Released: 6-Jun-2023 7:05 AM EDT
Precision Nuclear Physics in Indium-115 Beta Decay Spectrum using Cryogenic Detectors
Department of Energy, Office of Science

Nuclei such as Indium-115 (In-115) are extremely long lived, with half-lives of more than 100 billion years. These nuclei allow scientists to probe elusive high energy nuclear states. In a new study, scientists theoretically determined the electron energy spectrum from decays of In-115 based on data collected in a specialized detector. The scientists also performed the world’s most precise measurement of the half-life of In-115.

Newswise: New Strategy Can Harvest Chemical Information on Rare Isotopes with a Fraction of the Material
Released: 5-Jun-2023 3:15 PM EDT
New Strategy Can Harvest Chemical Information on Rare Isotopes with a Fraction of the Material
Department of Energy, Office of Science

Studying radioactive materials is very difficult due to the potential health risks, the cost, and the difficulty of producing some radioisotopes. Scientists recently developed a new approach to harvest detailed chemical information on radioactive and/or enriched stable isotopes. The new approach is much more efficient, requiring 1,000 times less material than previous state-of-the-art methods, with no loss of data quality.

   
Newswise: A Low-Energy ‘Off Switch’ for Quark-Gluon Plasma
Released: 5-Jun-2023 2:30 PM EDT
A Low-Energy ‘Off Switch’ for Quark-Gluon Plasma
Department of Energy, Office of Science

systematically varying the amount of energy involved in collisions of gold nuclei, scientists have shown that the quark-gluon plasma (QGP) exists in collisions at energies from 200 billion electron volts (GeV) at least to 19.6 GeV. However, its production appears to be “turned off” at the lowest collision energy, 3 GeV. The “off” signal shows up as a sign change in data that describe the distribution of protons produced in these collisions. The findings will help physicists further study the QGP and phases of nuclear matter.

Newswise: A Simple Solution for Nuclear Matter in Two Dimensions
Released: 5-Jun-2023 8:05 AM EDT
A Simple Solution for Nuclear Matter in Two Dimensions
Department of Energy, Office of Science

Understanding the behavior of nuclear matter is extremely complicated, especially when working in three dimensions. Mathematical techniques from condensed matter physics that consider interactions in just one spatial dimension (plus time) greatly simplify the problem. Using this two-dimensional approach, scientists solved the complex equations that describe how low-energy excitations ripple through a system of dense nuclear matter such as exists at the center of neutron stars.

Newswise: Resolving a Mathematical Puzzle in Quarks and Gluons in Nuclear Matter
Released: 2-Jun-2023 12:40 PM EDT
Resolving a Mathematical Puzzle in Quarks and Gluons in Nuclear Matter
Department of Energy, Office of Science

Theoretical calculations involving the strong force are complex in part because of the large number of ways these calculations can be performed. These options include “gauge choices.” All gauge choices should produce the same result for the calculation of any quantity that can be measured in an experiment. However, it is difficult to obtain consistent results when using one particular choice, “axial gauge.” New research resolves this puzzle.

Newswise: New Insights on the Interplay of Electromagnetism and the Weak Nuclear Force
Released: 2-Jun-2023 12:40 PM EDT
New Insights on the Interplay of Electromagnetism and the Weak Nuclear Force
Department of Energy, Office of Science

Outside atomic nuclei, neutrons are unstable, disintegrating in about fifteen minutes due to the weak nuclear force to leave behind a proton, an electron, and an antineutrino. New research identified a shift in the strength with which a spinning neutron experiences the weak nuclear force, due to emission and absorption of photons and pions. The finding impacts high precision searches of new, beyond the Standard Model interactions in beta decay.

Newswise: Machine Learning-Based Protein Annotation Tool Predicts Protein Function
Released: 1-Jun-2023 9:25 AM EDT
Machine Learning-Based Protein Annotation Tool Predicts Protein Function
Department of Energy, Office of Science

Microbes drive key processes of life on Earth. Research constantly expands the database of microbial DNA sequences but does not provide full biological information about proteins. To engineer microbes, scientists need a fuller understanding of protein function. Scientists currently infer protein function by comparing it with reference databases, but this process is slow. To address this challenge, scientists developed Snekmer, a machine learning-based tool for modeling protein function.

Released: 31-May-2023 6:10 PM EDT
DOE Announces $46 Million for Commercial Fusion Energy Development
Department of Energy, Office of Science

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today announced $46 million in funding to eight companies advancing designs and research and development for fusion power plants, representing a major step in President Biden’s commitment to a pilot-scale demonstration of fusion within a decade. Fusion reactions power the stars, and research is underway to make fusion energy production on Earth possible, providing an abundant, inherently safe, non-carbon-emitting energy source for the planet. This funding from the Milestone-Based Fusion Development Program will solidify U.S. leadership in fusion commercialization, a gamechanger that would help the United States meet the President’s goal of reaching a net-zero economy by 2050.

Newswise: Tunable Bonds: A Step Towards Targeted At-211 Cancer Therapy
Released: 31-May-2023 7:05 AM EDT
Tunable Bonds: A Step Towards Targeted At-211 Cancer Therapy
Department of Energy, Office of Science

The astatine isotope astatine-211 (At-211) shows promise as a cancer therapy, but scientists know little about how it interacts with chemicals. Researchers have now discovered a new tunable bonding interaction between At-211 and a class of chemicals known as ketones. This discovery has the potential to improve cancer therapy drugs by linking At-211 to cancer targeting molecules.

Newswise: A Holographic View into Quantum Anomalies
Released: 30-May-2023 10:05 AM EDT
A Holographic View into Quantum Anomalies
Department of Energy, Office of Science

Theorists calculated how the key ingredients of a phenomenon called the chiral magnetic effect should evolve over time in an expanding quark-gluon plasma. The theorists used the holographic principle to model the magnetic fields and other relevant characteristics needed for the effect. The results will help scientists interpret collision data and plan new searches for the chiral magnetic effect and the underlying quantum anomaly.

Newswise: Small Fusion Experiment Hits Temperatures Hotter than the Sun’s Core
Released: 30-May-2023 9:50 AM EDT
Small Fusion Experiment Hits Temperatures Hotter than the Sun’s Core
Department of Energy, Office of Science

Future commercial fusion power plants will need to achieve temperatures of 100 million degrees C, which requires careful control of the plasma. Researchers have now achieved these temperatures on a compact spherical tokamak called ST40. The results are a step toward fusion pilot plants and the development of more compact, and potentially more economical, fusion power sources.

Newswise: Paul Romatschke: Then and Now / 2012 Early Career Award Winner
Released: 22-May-2023 11:05 AM EDT
Paul Romatschke: Then and Now / 2012 Early Career Award Winner
Department of Energy, Office of Science

Paul Romatschke is a professor in the Department of Physics at the University of Colorado Boulder, and a fellow at the Center for Theory of Quantum Matter, also at the University of Colorado Boulder.

Released: 15-May-2023 1:20 PM EDT
New DOE Portal Connects Researchers and Students with Climate Science and Training Opportunities
Department of Energy, Office of Science

The National Virtual Climate Laboratory (NVCL), a comprehensive web portal for climate science projects funded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science’s Biological and Environmental Research (BER) program, is now available.

Newswise: Detecting Neutrinos from Nuclear Reactors with Water
Released: 10-May-2023 2:00 PM EDT
Detecting Neutrinos from Nuclear Reactors with Water
Department of Energy, Office of Science

Neutrinos are subatomic particles produced in many types of radioactive decays, including in nuclear reactors. Because neutrinos interact with matter extremely weakly, they are impossible to shield. The SNO+ experiment has just shown that a detector filled with simple water can detect neutrinos from nuclear reactors, even though the neutrinos create only tiny signals in the detector.

Newswise: Rouven Essig: Then and Now / 2012 Early Career Award Winner
Released: 8-May-2023 2:55 PM EDT
Rouven Essig: Then and Now / 2012 Early Career Award Winner
Department of Energy, Office of Science

Rouven Essig is a theoretical particle physicist at Stony Brook University. He conceives new experiments and detection methods in the search for knowledge about dark matter.

Released: 8-May-2023 2:40 PM EDT
Department of Energy Announces $45 Million for Inertial Fusion Energy (IFE)
Department of Energy, Office of Science

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, at the celebration ceremony of the historic achievement of fusion ignition at the National Ignition Facility (NIF), the U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm announced a plan to provide up to $45 million to support Inertial Fusion Energy (IFE) research and development.

Newswise: Viruses Could Reshuffle the Carbon Cycle in a Warming World
Released: 8-May-2023 2:40 PM EDT
Viruses Could Reshuffle the Carbon Cycle in a Warming World
Department of Energy, Office of Science

The roles microbes play in ecosystems are changing with global warming. Microbes are also affected by infection by viruses, but scientists know relatively little about how these viral infections could change how microbes react to warming. In this study, scientists describe different ways that increasing temperatures could affect viruses and their microbial hosts. Their preliminary models show that viruses could alter carbon balance, causing some ecosystems to switch from net carbon sources to net carbon sinks.

Newswise: Surprising Preference in Particle Spin Alignment
Released: 5-May-2023 3:45 PM EDT
Surprising Preference in Particle Spin Alignment
Department of Energy, Office of Science

Some mesons (quark-antiquark pairs) that emerge from a hot soup of matter generated in collisions of atomic nuclei appear to have a preferential “global spin alignment.” The spin preference cannot be explained by conventional mechanisms. A new model suggests that local fluctuations in the strong force may play a role in triggering the preference. The global spin alignment measurements may give scientists a new way to study local fluctuations in the strong force, which is the strongest and least understood of the four fundamental forces in nature.

Newswise: Conformer-Dependent Reactivity of Carbonyl Oxides Leads to Dramatically Different Atmospheric Fates
Released: 3-May-2023 3:00 PM EDT
Conformer-Dependent Reactivity of Carbonyl Oxides Leads to Dramatically Different Atmospheric Fates
Department of Energy, Office of Science

The air pollutant secondary organic aerosol (SOA) forms when ammonia and amines react with oxygenated species. When ammonia is present when alkenes react with ozone, SOA increases in size and numbers. This may be due to Criegee intermediates. New research found that a particular amine, dimethylamine, reacts 34,000 times faster with one version of the Criegee intermediate acetaldehyde oxide than with another version of the same compound.

Released: 1-May-2023 3:45 PM EDT
DOE’s Office of Science Graduate Student Research (SCGSR) Program Selects 87 Outstanding U.S. Graduate Students
Department of Energy, Office of Science

The Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Office of Science has selected 87 graduate students representing 33 states for the Office of Science Graduate Student Research (SCGSR) program’s 2022 Solicitation 2 cycle. Through world-class training and access to state-of-the-art facilities and resources at DOE national laboratories, SCGSR prepares graduate students to enter jobs of critical importance to the DOE mission and secures our national position at the forefront of discovery and innovation.

Newswise: To Track Turbulence in Tokamaks, Researchers Turn to Machine Learning
Released: 1-May-2023 3:45 PM EDT
To Track Turbulence in Tokamaks, Researchers Turn to Machine Learning
Department of Energy, Office of Science

Fusion energy researchers use a technique called Gas-Puff Imaging (GPI) to visualize an important phenomenon in tokamak devices involving turbulence in plasma magnetic confinement fields. This technique can generate roughly 1 million frames of visual data, far too much for humans to analyze by eye. Scientists recently tested a machine-learning based approach for analyzing GPI images. The system provides detailed, time- and space-resolved information and could aid in design and operation of future fusion power devices.

Newswise: Zeroing in on a Fundamental Property of the Proton’s Internal Dynamics
Released: 28-Apr-2023 3:55 PM EDT
Zeroing in on a Fundamental Property of the Proton’s Internal Dynamics
Department of Energy, Office of Science

The tensor charge in protons is the net transverse spin of the proton or the quarks that make it up. The only way to obtain the tensor charge from experimental data is using the theory of quantum chromodynamics (QCD) to extract the "transversity" function, which encodes the difference between the number of quarks with their spin aligned and anti-aligned to the proton’s spin when it is in a transverse direction. Using state-of-the-art data science techniques, researchers recently made the most precise ever empirical determination of the tensor charge.

Released: 26-Apr-2023 1:05 PM EDT
Department of Energy Announces Fermi Award Ceremony
Department of Energy, Office of Science

The Biden-Harris Administration will be honoring Darleane C. Hoffman and Gabor A. Somorjai as recipients of the 2023 Enrico Fermi Presidential Award in a virtual ceremony June 6th, 2023, at 3:00 p.m. Pacific Time. The Enrico Fermi Presidential Award is one of the oldest and most prestigious science and technology honors bestowed by the U.S. government.

Newswise: Predicting Changes in Microbial Food Webs
Released: 26-Apr-2023 12:05 PM EDT
Predicting Changes in Microbial Food Webs
Department of Energy, Office of Science

Increasing temperature or nutrients in an ecosystem can destabilize food webs, but when temperature and nutrients increase together it can be difficult to predict the combined effects. This study examined a laboratory microbial food web consisting of bacterial prey and protist predators. It found that temperature and nutrients can alter the dynamics of microbial communities by changing how species’ abundances and average body sizes relate to each other.

Newswise: Controlling Materials Properties Through Nanoscale Patterning
Released: 25-Apr-2023 7:05 AM EDT
Controlling Materials Properties Through Nanoscale Patterning
Department of Energy, Office of Science

Scientists created a nanoscale pattern of holes on a thin film of metal oxide known as titania to control the material’s electronic properties. The thin film noticeably improved the flow of electrons and inhibited the flow of ions in the material, increasing the material’s electrical conductivity. This will aid in next-generation microelectronics applications and quantum information processing.

Newswise: Delving into Earth’s Systems Today to Support the Solutions of Tomorrow
Released: 24-Apr-2023 5:05 PM EDT
Delving into Earth’s Systems Today to Support the Solutions of Tomorrow
Department of Energy, Office of Science

Droughts, thunderstorms, heat waves, and warming oceans. Climate change is harming people, communities, and ecosystems right now. During 2022 alone, there were 18 different weather and climate disaster events that caused more than a billion dollars in damage each. Climate change isn’t a future problem. It is a today problem that will only get worse as long as we continue to produce large amounts of greenhouse gases.

Released: 24-Apr-2023 5:05 PM EDT
Department of Energy to Support 999 Outstanding Undergraduate Students and 79 Faculty Members from Institutions Underrepresented in the Scientific Research Enterprise
Department of Energy, Office of Science

The Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Office of Science will sponsor the participation of 999 undergraduate students and 79 faculty members in three STEM-focused workforce development programs at 16 DOE national laboratories and a national fusion facility during summer 2023. Collectively, these programs ensure DOE and our nation have a strong, sustained workforce trained in the skills needed to address the energy, environment, and national security challenges of today and tomorrow.

Newswise: Delving into Earth’s Systems Today to Support the Solutions of Tomorrow
Released: 23-Apr-2023 5:05 PM EDT
Delving into Earth’s Systems Today to Support the Solutions of Tomorrow
Department of Energy, Office of Science

Droughts, thunderstorms, heat waves, and warming oceans. Climate change is harming people, communities, and ecosystems right now. During 2022 alone, there were 18 different weather and climate disaster events that caused more than a billion dollars in damage each. Climate change isn’t a future problem. It is a today problem that will only get worse as long as we continue to produce large amounts of greenhouse gases.

Released: 23-Apr-2023 5:05 PM EDT
Department of Energy to Support 999 Outstanding Undergraduate Students and 79 Faculty Members from Institutions Underrepresented in the Scientific Research Enterprise
Department of Energy, Office of Science

The Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Office of Science will sponsor the participation of 999 undergraduate students and 79 faculty members in three STEM-focused workforce development programs at 16 DOE national laboratories and a national fusion facility during summer 2023. Collectively, these programs ensure DOE and our nation have a strong, sustained workforce trained in the skills needed to address the energy, environment, and national security challenges of today and tomorrow.

Newswise: Understanding the Origin of Matter with the CUORE Experiment
Released: 21-Apr-2023 4:05 PM EDT
Understanding the Origin of Matter with the CUORE Experiment
Department of Energy, Office of Science

Neutrinos are involved in a process named beta decay that involves a neutron converting into a proton emitting an electron and an antineutrino. There may also be an ultra-rare kind of beta decay that emits two electrons but no neutrinos, called neutrinoless-double beta decay (NLDBD). Researchers are using the Cryogenic Underground Observatory for Rare Events (CUORE) to search for these rare NLDBD processes using different nuclei. Scientists have reported new tests using Tellurim-128 to look for NLDBD.

Newswise: Getting Purer Berkelium, Faster than Ever
Released: 19-Apr-2023 4:15 PM EDT
Getting Purer Berkelium, Faster than Ever
Department of Energy, Office of Science

A novel system uses the discovery that the actinide berkelium, when oxidized, does not form negatively charged ions in solutions of high nitric acid, as other actinides do. This means an anion exchange column can separate berkelium by absorbing other actinides with negatively charged ions. The new method is much faster than the previously used approach, and is easier, cleaner, and yields purer product.

Newswise: Deep Learning-Drives Insights into Protein-Protein Interactions
Released: 17-Apr-2023 1:15 PM EDT
Deep Learning-Drives Insights into Protein-Protein Interactions
Department of Energy, Office of Science

Protein-protein interactions are essential for life. Researchers used DeepMind’s AlphaFold 2 to develop a deep learning approach for predicting and modeling multi-protein interactions. The AF2Complex approach generates much more accurate structural models than previous methods for modeling a protein complex. As a proof of concept, the researchers used AF2Complex to virtually screen key proteins in E. coli, discovering unexpected protein-protein interactions.

Newswise: Nucleons in Heavy Ion Collisions Are Half as Big as Previously Expected
Released: 14-Apr-2023 8:05 AM EDT
Nucleons in Heavy Ion Collisions Are Half as Big as Previously Expected
Department of Energy, Office of Science

To understand quark-gluon plasma, theorists compare a sophisticated model to a large amount of experimental data. One of the parameters in this model is the size of the nucleons inside the two colliding lead nuclei. Low-energy experiments find a nucleon size of around 0.5 femtometers, while heavy ion experimental data have found a much larger nucleon size, of about 1 femtometers. A new analysis of heavy ion experimental data includes the experimentally measured reaction rate of lead-lead collisions to arrive at a nucleon size of 0.6 femtometers.

Newswise: First Science Results from FRIB Published
Released: 12-Apr-2023 4:55 PM EDT
First Science Results from FRIB Published
Department of Energy, Office of Science

A multi-institutional team of nuclear science researchers has published the results of the first experiment at the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams. The experiment involved colliding a beam of stable calcium-48 nuclei traveling at about 60 percent of the speed of light into a beryllium target to produce isotopes near the “drip line,” the spot where neutrons can no longer bind to a nucleus but instead drip off.

Newswise: A Day and Night Difference: Molecular Composition of Aerosols Differs from Day to Night
Released: 10-Apr-2023 3:50 PM EDT
A Day and Night Difference: Molecular Composition of Aerosols Differs from Day to Night
Department of Energy, Office of Science

Aerosols particles in the atmosphere are an important factor in the Earth’s climate, but researchers lack information on these aerosols’ molecular composition, especially for aerosols during the day and night above agricultural fields. In this research, scientists examined secondary organic aerosols over agricultural fields in the Southern Great Plains in Oklahoma. They found that the aerosols’ composition and structure differ from day to night and that some aerosols are ultimately from urban sources.

Newswise: Kirstin Alberi: Then and Now / 2012 Early Career Award Winner
Released: 10-Apr-2023 10:25 AM EDT
Kirstin Alberi: Then and Now / 2012 Early Career Award Winner
Department of Energy, Office of Science

Kirstin Alberi is Director of the Materials Science Center at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Her research into semiconductor materials shows that scientists can use light as a tool while depositing materials as a vapor and controlling the substrate’s temperature.

Newswise: New Findings on the Flow of Particles in Heavy Ion Collisions
Released: 7-Apr-2023 3:05 PM EDT
New Findings on the Flow of Particles in Heavy Ion Collisions
Department of Energy, Office of Science

Scientists analyzed data from collisions of heavy ions to determine the factors that most influence fluctuations in the flow of particles. The researchers found that conditions established just as the ions collide have the greatest impact on particle flow fluctuations. This will help physicists make more precise calculations of the properties of the quark-gluon plasma formed in these collisions and understand how the collision transforms nuclei from protons and neutrons into quark-gluon plasma.

Newswise: A Novel Way to Get to the Excited States of Exotic Nuclei
Released: 5-Apr-2023 3:25 PM EDT
A Novel Way to Get to the Excited States of Exotic Nuclei
Department of Energy, Office of Science

Researchers developed a novel approach that observes dissipative scattering reactions to investigate discrete energy levels in an excited exotic nucleus. These energy levels are the nucleus’ unique fingerprint. The researchers observed unusual excited levels in calcium-38. These levels appear to be due to the simultaneous excitation of several protons and neutrons.

Released: 5-Apr-2023 1:35 PM EDT
Department of Energy Announces 2024 Enrico Fermi Presidential Award Call for Nominations
Department of Energy, Office of Science

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has issued a call for nominations for the 2024 Enrico Fermi Presidential Award. One of the most prestigious science and technology awards bestowed by the U.S. government, the Fermi Award recognizes individual(s) of international stature for exceptional scientific, technical, policy, and/or management achievements related to the broad missions of the DOE and its programs to address energy, environmental and nuclear challenges through transformative science and technology solutions.

Newswise: Warming Strongly Increases Nutrient Availability in a Nutrient-Limited Bog
Released: 4-Apr-2023 10:15 AM EDT
Warming Strongly Increases Nutrient Availability in a Nutrient-Limited Bog
Department of Energy, Office of Science

The dynamics and availability of soil nutrients affects the growth of plants and microbes and how ecosystems respond to changing environmental conditions. Researchers investigated climate impacts on peat nutrient availability as part of the large-scale Spruce and Peatland Responses Under Changing Environments (SPRUCE). The experiment found that above- and below-ground warming exponentially increased the availability of nutrients throughout below-ground peat layers. However, elevated carbon dioxide did not affect the availability of nutrients.

Newswise: Particle Errors: Quantifying the Effects of Simulation Mixing State on Aerosol Optical Properties
Released: 29-Mar-2023 2:20 PM EDT
Particle Errors: Quantifying the Effects of Simulation Mixing State on Aerosol Optical Properties
Department of Energy, Office of Science

Particles in the atmosphere such as black carbon affect global climate by absorbing and radiating light and heat. To calculate the effects of aerosols on climate, scientists rely on simulated aerosol fields, but these models represent mixtures of aerosol particles in simplified ways that can introduce errors. This study quantified the resulting errors in simulated aerosol optical properties, finding errors great enough to warrant more attention.

Released: 28-Mar-2023 2:50 PM EDT
Biden-Harris Administration Announces Recipients of the Enrico Fermi Award
Department of Energy, Office of Science

Today, the Biden-Harris Administration announced Darleane C. Hoffman and Gabor A. Somorjai as recipients of the Enrico Fermi Presidential Award, one of the oldest and most prestigious science and technology honors bestowed by the U.S. government.

Newswise: Exploring Bonds and Electronic Structure in Plutonium Hybrid Materials
Released: 27-Mar-2023 3:20 PM EDT
Exploring Bonds and Electronic Structure in Plutonium Hybrid Materials
Department of Energy, Office of Science

Studying the electronic structure of actinide elements can help advance the future of nuclear materials. A new study of several plutonium hybrid materials found that the bonds between these elements were predominantly ionic but also involved covalent bonding associated with the 5f electron shell. This research contributes to the collective goal of resolving the f-electron challenge, the goal of the Department of Energy Office of Science’s Heavy Element Chemistry program.

Newswise: Signs of Gluon Saturation Emerge from Particle Collisions
Released: 24-Mar-2023 4:10 PM EDT
Signs of Gluon Saturation Emerge from Particle Collisions
Department of Energy, Office of Science

By colliding protons with heavier ions and tracking particles from these collisions, scientists can study the quarks and gluons that make up protons and neutrons. Recent results revealed a suppression of certain back-to-back pairs of particles that emerge from interactions of single quarks from the proton with single gluons in the heavier ion. The results suggest that gluons in heavy nuclei recombine, a step toward proving that gluons reach a postulated steady state called saturation, where gluon splitting and recombination balance.

Newswise: New Type of Entanglement Lets Scientists ‘See’ Inside Nuclei
Released: 24-Mar-2023 3:55 PM EDT
New Type of Entanglement Lets Scientists ‘See’ Inside Nuclei
Department of Energy, Office of Science

Nuclear physicists have found a new way to see inside nuclei by tracking interactions between particles of light and gluons. The method relies on harnessing a new type of quantum interference between two dissimilar particles. Tracking how these entangled particles emerge from the interactions lets scientists map out the arrangement of gluons. This approach is unusual for making use of entanglement between dissimilar particles—something rare in quantum studies.

Released: 21-Mar-2023 2:05 PM EDT
Department of Energy Announces $150 Million for Research on the Science Foundations for Energy Earthshots
Department of Energy, Office of Science

Today, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced $150 million for research into the crosscutting foundational science for multiple Energy Earthshots. This funding, provided by the Office of Science, will support fundamental research to accelerate breakthroughs in support of the Energy Earthshots Initiative.

Newswise: Imaging the Proton with Neutrinos
Released: 21-Mar-2023 12:40 PM EDT
Imaging the Proton with Neutrinos
Department of Energy, Office of Science

The interactions of the quarks and gluons that make up protons and neutrons are so strong that the structure of protons and neutrons is difficult to calculate from theory and must be instead measured experimentally. Neutrino experiments use targets that are nuclei made of many protons and neutrons bound together. This complicates interpreting those measurements to infer proton structure. By scattering neutrinos from the protons that are the nuclei of hydrogen atoms in the MINERvA detector, scientists have provided the first measurements of this structure with neutrinos using unbound protons.



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