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Can defects turn inert materials into useful, active ones?
Demonstrating that a material thought to be always chemically inert, hexagonal boron nitride (hBN), can be turned chemically active holds potential for a new class of catalysts with a wide range of applications, according to an international team of researchers.
Jinlong Zhang: Then and Now / 2011 Early Career Award Winner
At Argonne National Laboratory, staff scientist Jinlong Zhang performs R&D on the CERN ATLAS and DAQ systems. These systems select and collect data from the billion-plus proton-proton collisions per second in particle physics experiments.
By keeping ferroelectric 'bubbles' intact, researchers pave way for new devices
Argonne scientists have discovered that ferroelectric bubbles remain intact and retain their electronic and electromechanical (piezoelectric) properties in a freestanding state. The discovery offers promise for novel microelectronics and energy-related applications.
PPPL wins state recycling award
The Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory celebrated America Recycles Day this week after recently winning a state Recycling Leadership Award for its recycling and sustainability programs.
PPPL scientists produce insights into perhaps the most extreme state of matter created on Earth
Article describes ground-breaking insight into measuring laser-produced high energy density plasmas.
'Oh, Snap!' A Record-Breaking Motion at Our Fingertips
Using an intermediate amount of friction, not too high and not too low, a snap of the finger produces the highest rotational accelerations observed in humans, even faster than the arm of a professional baseball pitcher. The results were published Nov. 17 in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface.
Using Rocks to Hammer Out a Connection Between Visual Gaze and Motor Skills Learning
New study led by Georgia Tech's Lewis Wheaton uses prehistoric stone toolmaking to fill in the gaps on how vision and movement evolve to help people learn complicated tasks
A focus on fusion energy and PPPL's expanded mission during U.S. Energy Secretary's visit
U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm recently paid a visit to the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory where she met with staff, took a virtual tour of the Laboratory, and learned more about PPPL's primary mission of developing fusion energy as clean and abundant source of electricity as well as expanded research directions exploring plasma applications in microelectronics and sustainability and advanced computing.
Climate Crisis Has No Borders: Physicists Join Forces to Support Fight Against Climate Change on Global Scale #COP26
A coalition involving AIP, the European Science Federation, International Union of Pure and Applied Physics, and physical science organizations from 13 countries signed the global call to action regarding the role of physics to mitigate the climate crisis and embrace the idea of a green, environmentally sustainable economy. The organizations pledge to continue international collaboration in research, evolve physics education, focus engagement with governments to promote physics-based solutions, and welcome minoritized, excluded, and marginalized peoples to build careers in physics.
Artificial intelligence successfully predicts protein interactions
UT Southwestern and University of Washington researchers led an international team that used artificial intelligence (AI) and evolutionary analysis to produce 3D models of eukaryotic protein interactions. The study, published in Science, identified more than 100 probable protein complexes for the first time and provided structural models for more than 700 previously uncharacterized ones. Insights into the ways pairs or groups of proteins fit together to carry out cellular processes could lead to a wealth of new drug targets.
Biophysicist Develops AI Methods to Understand How Cells 'Talk'
UF biological physicist Purushottam Dixit believes that artificial intelligence (AI) can let us in on cells' conversations -- and possibly help scientists introduce more targeted, effective therapies in medicine.
Climate Changed Abruptly at Tipping Points in Past
In the journal Chaos, climate scientists identify abrupt transitions in climate records that may have been caused by the climate system crossing a tipping point. They devised a statistical method to determine whether these transitions are simply noise or evidence of a more significant change. Their method is less error-prone than previous methods, since it doesn't rely on human determination. It also allows comparing different records consistently and can identify important events that may have been overlooked in older studies.
Microtissue System Allows Study of Deadly Lung Disease
Amid the COVID-19 pandemic and rising air pollution levels, incidence of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis is anticipated to rise, urgently increasing the need for strong model systems. In APL Bioengineering, researchers describe a 3D cell culturing platform that allows study of lung fibroblasts and their microenvironment. The platform enables measurement of cell behaviors and microenvironment changes involved in the disease progression of IPF, and the platform's size and simplicity make it suitable for use in high-throughput drug screening protocols.
Research in Brief: First-Ever Interior Earth Mineral Discovered in Nature
UNLV geochemists have discovered a new mineral on the surface of the Earth. Coined "davemaoite" and entrapped in a diamond, the mineral traveled from a depth of at least 410 miles deep within the Earth's lower mantle.
The age of exascale and the future of supercomputing
Argonne leaders discuss the advent of exascale computing and what lies ahead, including the challenges for developers and expectations of researchers. They also provide some insight on AI's potential to forge new frontiers in automation and real-time analysis.
Combining pressure, electrochemistry to synthesize superhydrides
A new study featured in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences offers a potential alternate approach that combines pressure and electrochemistry to stabilize superhydrides at moderate, perhaps even close to ordinary, pressures.
Researchers recreate deep-Earth conditions to see how iron copes with extreme stress
Measuring what happens during the collision of celestial bodies or at the Earth's core is obviously not very practical. As such, much of our understanding of planetary cores is based on experimental studies of metals at less extreme temperatures and pressures. But researchers at the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory have now observed for the first time how iron's atomic structure deforms to accommodate the stress from the pressures and temperatures that occur just outside of the inner core.
'Wonder gas' hailed as new treatment for diabetic foot ulcers could also kill COVID-19 virus indoors
In an experiment to find an effective treatment for diabetic foot ulcers, which affect 62 million people worldwide, a team led by University of South Australia physicist Dr Endre Szili has made an unexpected discovery: the same technology kills the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
Machine learning refines earthquake detection capabilities
Researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory are applying machine learning algorithms to help interpret massive amounts of ground deformation data collected with Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) satellites; the new algorithms will improve earthquake detection.
Porous artificial rock helps channel an answer to a 54-year-old mystery
Princeton researchers have solved a 54-year-old puzzle about why certain fluids strangely slow down under pressure when flowing through porous materials, such as soils and sedimentary rocks.
Why teapots always drip
The "teapot effect" has been threatening spotless white tablecloths for ages: if a liquid is poured out of a teapot too slowly, then the flow of liquid sometimes does not detach itself from the teapot, finding its way into the cup, but dribbles down at the outside of the teapot.
Key witness helps scientists detect 'spooky' quantum entanglement in solid materials
Quantum entanglement occurs when two particles appear to communicate without a physical connection, a phenomenon Albert Einstein famously called "spooky action at a distance." Nearly 90 years later, a team led by the U.S. Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory demonstrated the viability of a "quantum entanglement witness" capable of proving the presence of entanglement between magnetic particles, or spins, in a quantum material.
Anne White: Then and Now / 2011 Early Career Award Winner
Anne White at MIT had a vision for an innovative approach to experiments to aid in the study and understanding of tokamak turbulence. Her work has developed rigorous validation of the models used to detail measurements of the turbulence, towards fusion's promise of clean and nearly unlimited energy.
NOIRLab apoya la Vision del Estudio Decadal
NOIRLab de NSF apoya plenamente la vision cientifica de Pathways to Discovery in Astronomy and Astrophysics for the 2020s y se une a nuestra comunidad, junto a nuestra organizacion administradora, AURA, para defender y contribuir a la implementacion de las recomendaciones del estudio. NOIRLab, junto con sus asociados estan honrados de que la comunidad haya clasificado el Programa de Telescopios Extremadamente Grandes como la mas alta prioridad de los proyectos terrestres en Pathways to Discovery.
NOIRLab Response to Astro2020 Decadal Survey
NSF's NOIRLab fully supports the scientific vision of Pathways to Discovery in Astronomy and Astrophysics for the 2020s and stands ready, along with our managing organization, AURA, to join our community in advocating for and contributing to the implementation of the survey's recommendations. NOIRLab along with its partners are honored that the community has ranked the US Extremely Large Telescope Program as the highest ground-based priority in Pathways to Discovery.