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The nuclei that smash together to produce fusion energy in a reactor originate from ionized neutral particles. The edges of fusion devices have large numbers of neutrals available to gain or lose electrons to become ions. These neutrals influence several important features of the plasma, including the rate at which the plasma fuels a reactor. A new pinhole camera system called Lyman-alpha Measurement Apparatus (LLAMA) on the DIII-D tokamak helped researchers better understand these neutrals.

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Researchers have developed a new artificial intelligence (AI)-powered approach to analyzing X-ray diffraction (XRD) data. The X-ray Crystallography companion Agent (XCA) approach assembles a group of AIs that debate each other while analyzing live streaming X-ray data. Once the AIs cast their final votes, the XCA approach uses the vote tally to interpret what the most likely atomic structure is and to suggest how confident the researchers should be of the AI analysis. The AI analysis matches human effectiveness but takes just seconds.

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Drizzle is an important factor in how clouds form and change and how water moves around the Earth. This is an extremely complex process, so scientists simplify it for climate models using parameterization. However, many models do not model drizzle formation with sufficient accuracy. This research used data collected in the field along with machine learning to create new methods to estimate drizzle formation. The results also reveal the importance of drizzle drop number concentration in drizzle formation.

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Industry produces acetone and isopropanol using processes that release carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. Researchers have now developed a new fermentation process that efficiently converts waste carbon oxide gases into acetone and isopropanol. This use of engineered bacteria advances progress on “carbon-negative” biomanufacturing for more sustainable industrial production and reduced greenhouse gas emissions.

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Quantum computers are prone to errors that limit their usefulness in scientific research. While error correction would be the ideal solution, it is not yet feasible due to the number of qubits needed. New research shows the value of an error mitigation approach called noise estimation circuits for improving the reliability of quantum computer simulations.

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Scientists have developed a new theoretical model for preparing particle accelerator structures made of niobium metal. The model predicts how oxygen in the thin oxide layer on the surface of the niobium metal moves deeper into the metal during heat treatment. Tests indicate that the treatment should improve accelerator structure performance and make accelerators easier to build.

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New experiments have shown the source of the aurora borealis. Researchers have demonstrated Alfvén waves accelerating electrons under conditions that correspond to Earth’s magnetosphere. The new experiments show that electrons “surf” on the electric field of the Alfvén wave in a plasma. These electrons are the ultimate source of the light we call the aurora borealis.

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New materials will enable novel technologies to turn sunlight into electricity and fuels. Combinations of molecules and tiny nanoparticles make these materials a reality. Scientists have found a way to track electrons along their round trip from the molecules to the nanoparticles and back, helping to find where electrons can travel and where they get stuck, information that is crucial to finding better combinations for innovative materials.

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In a test of the photon entanglement that makes quantum communication possible, researchers built a quantum local area network (QLAN) that shared information among three systems in separate buildings. The team used a protocol called remote state preparation, where a successful measurement of one half of an entangled photon pair converts the other photon to the preferred state. The researchers performed this conversion across all the paired links in the QLAN—a feat not previously accomplished on a quantum network.

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Peatlands store a significant amount of carbon, and researchers expect that peatland plants respond to warming climates will influence future carbon uptake and storage. To better understand this mechanism, especially below ground level, researchers conducted experiments on ecosystem warming. They found that warming and the resulting soil drying significantly increased the growth of fine roots, which may indicate peatlands’ ability to adapt to changing conditions.

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Spatially isolated “hot spots” and brief “hot moments” shape methane emissions from tropical forest soils. In this research, scientists used model simulation to understand how microbes and soil variables contribute to the soil’s methane production and consumption. The models indicate that drought alters the diffusion of oxygen and microbes into and out of soil, leading to increased methane release from the entire hillslope during drought recovery. This finding is important for understanding sources of methane, an important greenhouse gas.

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Yongqin Jiao is a Group Leader in the Biosciences and Biotechnology Division at Lawrence Livermore National Lab. With her Early Career Research Program award, she investigated how the bacterium Caulobacter crescentus survives in high levels of uranium and its potential use for bioremediation.

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In an important milestone for the Energy Exascale Earth System Model, researchers have developed and evaluated an entirely new global atmosphere model. The model has a resolution 30 times finer than global climate models. This resolution will produce much more detailed climate simulations.

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Astatine-211 (At-211) shows promise for targeted alpha therapy, which may do more damage to cancer cells and cause less harm to the rest of the body than current cancer therapies. Researchers have developed a novel method of separating At-211 and shipping it in a safe, secure resin column. The approach will allow isotope producers to ship larger quantities of At-211 with less risk and loss to decay.

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One of the challenges of fusion tokamaks is how to keep the core of a plasma hot enough that fusion can occur while preventing the tokamak walls from melting from that heat. This problem is even more difficult if instabilities at the plasma edge release energy in short bursts instead of a steady flow. Experiments on the DIII-D tokamak have demonstrated that enhancing energy flow in the plasma edge due to turbulent fluctuations can bleed energy smoothly out of the plasma, leading to improved future fusion plant efficiency.

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Mixed-phase clouds that contain both ice and water particles are extremely complex. Researchers using data from the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement facility have found a key to understanding how mixed-phase clouds in the Arctic form ice. That key is the role of drizzle droplets as they freeze then shatter. The results will help improve simulations of mixed phase clouds in climate and earth system models.

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By shortening simulation times and reducing energy consumption, techniques developed by North Carolina State professor Xipeng Shen are accelerating scientific research using supercomputers.

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Tiny silicon quantum processors have finally surpassed 99 percent fidelity, an important milestone toward future quantum computers. Three research groups demonstrated 99 percent fidelity for “if-then” logic gates between two silicon qubits. The researchers used a technique called gate set tomography to achieve this in two of the three experiments, an important methodological step.

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Scientists have created a new way to examine Mach waves in quark-gluon plasma. This plasma has almost no resistance to flow, making it the world’s most perfect fluid. The shape of a Mach wave can offer important information about quark-gluon plasma. Because quark-gluon plasma existed in the early universe a fraction of a second after the Big Bang, understanding its properties helps scientists understand how the universe formed.

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Scientists compared collisions of ruthenium-96 ions with collisions of zirconium-96 ions, which have four fewer protons, expecting to see a greater separation of charged particles emerging from ruthenium collisions because its greater proton number generates a stronger magnetic field. The results instead showed slightly more charge separation in zirconium collisions. This suggests there may be more differences between these two “isobar” nuclei than just their proton numbers.

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Meet Richard Buttery, director of DIII-D, the largest magnetic fusion device in the United States. As a Department of Energy Office of Science user facility, DIII-D plays a leading role in the advancement of #fusionenergy research. This is one in a series of profiles on the directors of the SC-stewarded user facilities.

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For optimal performance, thermoelectric materials must conduct small amounts of heat and large amounts of electricity. However, crystal structure and electrons that carry electricity also carry heat. Researchers have found that doping black phosphorous with arsenic results in a 2-D material with a structure that may break the link between heat and electrical conductivity, resulting in improved thermoelectric power and potential for use in future energy-efficient technologies.

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Natural microbial communities contain multiple species of bacteria, making it difficult to isolate and culture individual bacterial species. Two new tools allow researchers to genetically manipulate distinct bacterial species within their communities. Combined, these tools give researchers the ability to track genetic modifications as the community grows and to examine gene function in microorganisms that cannot be grown in the lab.

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Researchers have found direct evidence of the existence of anyons, a quasiparticle first predicted in the 1970s. These particles behave in two-dimensional systems in ways very different from their three-dimensional quasiparticle cousins, fermions, and bosons. The results could help to improve the duration of coherence in future quantum computer qubits.

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Physicists working at the MicroBooNE detector at Fermilab have developed new tools to help tune out “noise” from cosmic rays when searching for signs of neutrinos. This method combines data-sifting techniques with image reconstruction methods similar to CT scans to make signals of neutrinos produced by a particle accelerator stand out against the tracks produced by cosmic rays. The approach should work at all surface-based neutrino detectors.

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Tokamak fusion reactors will generate huge amounts of heat that can damage reactor walls. Injecting impurities in the form of gases into the plasma can radiate away excess heat, but there is a limited range of gases that can be injected, and some gases react poorly with hydrogen fusion fuel. A new approach uses impurities in powder form, which allows researchers to introduce a considerable amount of material directly into the exhaust system for more efficient heat control.

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Scientists using the Summit supercomputer to study superconductors found that negative particles in the superconductors interact strongly with phonons in the materials. This interaction leads to sudden changes in the materials’ behavior, explaining how certain copper-based superconductors work. The findings may lead to a new class of superconducting materials that work at relatively warm temperatures for efficient future electronic devices.

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Pyruvic acid is one of the few organic molecules destroyed in the Earth’s inner atmosphere by solar radiation rather than by reactions with highly reactive free radicals. In this study, scientists obtained the first experimental evidence that the primary degradation products are carbon dioxide and the carbene methylhydroxycarbene. This finding is important for synthetic chemistry and scientific understanding of atmospheric chemistry.

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Controlling the spin of a single unpaired electron is no easy task. In this research, scientists show that visible light can be used to influence a relative orientation of an unpaired electron in a molecule in a magnetic field. This process can potentially be applied across a class of small molecules and is an important step toward novel technologies such as quantum computers and quantum sensors.

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Microbes interact with each other in many ways, including theft. Methanotrophs, methane-consuming microbes, need copper to convert methane and have evolved strategies to collect copper by producing a special compound. But some methanotrophs actively “steal” this compound from others. This makes them more competitive and controls how the overall community consumes methane.

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Researchers have examined the antimatter makeup of the proton sea for a wide range of quark momenta with higher precision than ever before. This research found that there are, on average, 1.4 down antiquarks for every up antiquark. This finding will help scientists better understand the fundamental forces that keep the proton together.

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Studying low temperature chemistry (LTC) aids in understanding how internal combustion engines burn fuel. Fuel ignition is a complex two-step process that affects how engines produce harmful emissions. One way to make an LTC reaction faster is to inject ozone into a system. This study examined the use of ozone injection with methyl hexanoate to broaden understanding of LTC and potentially reduce harmful emissions.