On the Line: Watching Nanoparticles Get in Shape
Berkeley Lab scientists have captured real-time, high-resolution videos of liquid structures taking shape as nanoparticles form a solid-like layer at the interface between oil and water. Their findings could help advance all-liquid robotics for targeted cancer drug delivery and other applications.
Argonne National Laboratory Climate Model Helps Pacific Gas and Electric Company Combat Climate Change Impacts, Including Wildfires
Scientists at Argonne developed a climate model that projects future conditions at neighborhood-level scale across the entire United States to help PG&E plan for extreme weather events in California.
Nature's funhouse mirror: understanding asymmetry in the proton
The results of a new experiment could shift research of the proton by reviving previously discarded theories of its inner workings.
Seeing schizophrenia: X-rays shed light on neural differences, point toward treatment
An international research team used the ultrabright X-rays of the Advanced Photon Source to examine neurons in the brains of schizophrenia patients. What they learned may help neurologists treat this harmful brain disorder.
Adjusting the Dance Tunes the Melt
Many chemical processes require liquids as solvents, but the liquids often vaporize and release hazardous emissions in the process. Ionic liquids offer a solution because they have low volatility but can have melting points too high for practical use. New research used molecular simulations and experiments to demonstrate how changing the structure of ionic liquids changes their melting point.
New Phenomena for the Design of Future Quantum Devices
Research has shown that the topology of the electronic states in a Weyl semimetal can leave fingerprints on their phonon properties. This happens because of a type of electron-phonon interaction called the Kohn anomaly that impacts how electrons screen phonons through a material. This instability can lead to new electronic properties in materials.
New Artificial Membranes Enable Better Understanding of Membrane Proteins
The cell membrane is the wall-like outer layer consisting primarily of lipids and proteins that separates the inside of a cell from its surrounding environment. Scientists have now used X-ray and neutron scattering techniques to develop a disc-shaped artificial membrane that shows how proteins can exhibit different properties when embedded in membranes with different lipid compositions.
Researchers Hunt for New Particles in Particle Collider Data
Berkeley Lab researchers participated in a study that used machine learning to scan for new particles in three years of particle-collision data from CERN's ATLAS detector.
Scientists Use Supercomputers to Study Reliable Fusion Reactor Design, Operation
A team used two DOE supercomputers to complete simulations of the full-power ITER fusion device and found that the component that removes exhaust heat from ITER may be more likely to maintain its integrity than was predicted by the current trend of fusion devices.
Tuning Electrode Surfaces to Optimize Solar Fuel Production
Changing the topmost layer of atoms on electrode surfaces can impact the activity of splitting water into oxygen and hydrogen--a clean fuel.
Upending Complex Crystal Formation
PNNL researchers discover a new route to forming complex crystals
Worth their salt: New battery anodes use salt for energy, stability
Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory and the University of California San Diego have discovered that a material that looks geometrically similar to rock salt could be an interesting candidate for lithium battery anodes that would be used in fast charging applications.
Getting the lead in
Researchers developed a low-cost, high-performance, sustainable lead-based anode for lithium-ion batteries that can power hybrid and all-electric vehicles. They also uncovered its previously unknown reaction mechanism during charge and discharge.
Story tips: Modeling COVID, permafrost lost and taking the heat
ORNL story tips: Modeling COVID, permafrost lost and taking the heat
Random twists of place: How quiet is quantum space-time at the Planck scale?
Fermilab scientist and University of Chicago professor of astronomy and astrophysics Craig Hogan gives perspective on how the Holometer program aimed at a tiny scale -- the Planck length -- to help answer one of the universe's most basic questions: Why does everything appear to happen at definite times and places? He contextualizes the results and offers optimism for future researchers.
Applying Quantum Computing to a Particle Process
A team of researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) used a quantum computer to successfully simulate an aspect of particle collisions that is typically neglected in high-energy physics experiments, such as those that occur at CERN's Large Hadron Collider.
New machine learning theory that can be applied to fusion energy raises questions about the very nature of science
A novel computer algorithm, or set of rules, that accurately predicts the orbits of planets in the solar system could be adapted to better predict and control the behavior of the plasma that fuels fusion facilities designed to harvest on Earth the fusion energy that powers the sun and stars.
Great expectations: Argonne scientists weigh benefits of increased hydrogen production
Hydrogen technology has the potential to transform aspects of the energy landscape, according to a new report from Argonne scientists.
The AI-driven initiative that's hastening the discovery of drugs to treat COVID-19
Ten organizations have created a pipeline of artificial intelligence and simulation tools to narrow the search for drug candidates that can inhibit SARS-CoV-2.
Study Reveals Platinum's Role in Clean Fuel Conversion
Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory, Stony Brook University (SBU), and other collaborating institutions have uncovered dynamic, atomic-level details of how an important platinum-based catalyst works in the water gas shift reaction. The experiments provide definitive evidence that only certain platinum atoms play an important role in the chemical conversion, and could therefore guide the design of catalysts that use less of this precious metal.
Quantum computing enables simulations to unravel mysteries of magnetic materials
A multi-institutional team became the first to generate accurate results from materials science simulations on a quantum computer that can be verified with neutron scattering experiments and other practical techniques.
Supercomputers Aid Scientists Studying the Smallest Particles in the Universe
Using the nation's fastest supercomputer, Summit at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, a team of nuclear physicists developed a promising method for measuring quark interactions in hadrons and applied the method to simulations using quarks with close-to-physical masses.
Supercomputers Help Advance Computational Chemistry
Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have succeeded in developing an artificial intelligence (AI) approach to detect electron correlation - the interaction between a system's electrons - which is vital but expensive to calculate in quantum chemistry.
Inside the battery in 3D: Powerful X-rays watch solid state batteries charging and discharging
Using high-speed X-ray tomography, researchers captured images of solid-state batteries in operation and gained new insights that may improve their efficiency.