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.
Today, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced a plan to provide up to $50 million to support U.S. scientists conducting experimental research in fusion energy science at tokamak and spherical tokamak facilities in the U.S. and around the globe.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
In support of the Biden-Harris Administration’s commitment to build the American economy back better, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today announced $125 million for small businesses pursuing clean energy research and development (R&D) projects. The projects range from grid modernization and carbon removal to renewable energy and energy storage.
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.
Today, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced plans to provide $1.5 million for new grants to colleges and universities that are underrepresented in DOE’s climate, Earth, and environmental science investments to help provide technical assistance to build capacity and achieve the goal of broadening institutional participation.
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today announced awards totaling $110 million for diverse small businesses in 27 states. Many of the 87 projects are focused on developing advanced scientific instruments for conducting climate research and developing advanced materials as well as technologies for clean energy conversion and storage.
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.
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.
Today, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced a plan to provide $22 million for efforts to advance particle accelerator technology for medical, security, energy, and industrial applications.
Wildfires destroy and alter carbon in forests. The remaining carbon can be difficult for many organisms to consume. New research shows that one type of fungi thrives after wildfires because it has genes that allow it to feed on carbon altered by fires. The research helps to explain how carbon returns to the food web after a fire.
Even the best laser has “quantum noise” that makes images from microscopy blurry and hides details. This results in measurements that are less precise than scientists need. Researchers have designed a new type of microscope that uses quantum squeezed light to reduce measurement uncertainty, enabling a 50 percent improvement in the sensitivity of a specific scientific measurement.
Researchers see great potential in DNA for its ability to direct the assembly of a wide range of customized artificial materials. Scientists have developed a way to design and assemble nanoscale DNA objects that can host nanoparticles and link them together into complex structures. Researchers recently extended this approach to include the tunable construction of complex 1, 2 and 3-dimensional structures.
Today, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced $18 million for research and development (R&D) in accelerator science and technology for nuclear physics research.
The Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Science is pleased to announce that the Office of Science Graduate Student Research (SCGSR) program is now accepting applications for the 2022 Solicitation 1 cycle.
Light nuclei typically contain close to an equal number of protons and neutrons, but as nuclei get heavier, they need more neutrons than protons to remain intact. These extra neutrons tend to stick to the outer edges of heavy nuclei in a kind of neutron-rich “skin.” A recent experiment made the most direct observation of this skin to date in lead nuclei and measured its thickness as 0.28 femtometers.
Supported by his 2011 Early Career Research Program award, Alexandre Tartakovsky developed modeling methods. The models explain how mass spreads from highly concentrated areas to less concentrated areas and the interactions of several fluids.
Making Designer Crystals? It’s Easier with a New Targeted Particle Bonding Strategy, BES: Crystals made from colloids are valuable for applications from batteries to catalysts. Scientists have sought ways to assemble these crystals into larger structures using bonding methods that operate in targeted directions, but this approach is challenging. A new strategy exploits the ability to create precise regions with specific chemical and physical properties on the surface of the crystal particles.
Metal alloys often have one primary element and smaller amounts of other elements. Now scientists have discovered a new class of alloys that have several elements combined in equal amounts. These alloys are very strong, and high-resolution microscopy indicates that unexpected atomic-scale clusters are the source of the alloys’ high strength.
New research sheds light on the mechanism behind how a special quantum material, lanthanum strontium nickel oxide, transitions from an electrical insulator to a conductive metal. The mechanism is associated with atomic vibrations that trap electrons and thus impede electrical conduction. The results will help validate theoretical models of materials with strongly interacting electrons and contribute to the design of new materials.
Scientists recently discovered novel quantum materials whose charge carriers exhibit ‘topological’ features that result in the charge’s transport not being affected by continuous transformations. Because of this “protection,” topological materials often show peculiar quantum states on their surfaces and edges. This study observed superconducting edge currents for what the researchers believe is the first time.
Microbes release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere when they eat and represent a huge amount of the Earth’s biomass. As a result, they have a huge effect on carbon dioxide emissions. Predicting the size of that effect and how global warming will affect it is challenging. Researchers showed that measuring certain features of microbes allows them to reliably predict how respiration in those microbes will change as temperatures rise.
Small diameter carbon nanotube porins have previously found applications in energy technology. Now these nanotubes have been assembled in a new way to deliver a cancer drug. The nanotubes pull liposomes and cancer cells together, allowing the membranes of the liposome and cancer to mix. This fusion process allows the drug to freely pass from the liposome to the cell for very effective drug delivery.
Scientists can create synthetic communities of bacteria and other microbes to learn how they affect their plant hosts. New research presents a culture collection of 3,211 individual strains of bacteria from the root community of Populus trees. This huge new collection will help scientists study how microbes can assist plant hosts and may help improve these trees’ resistance to stresses.
Peter Lindstrom is the project leader at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s Center for Applied Scientific Computing, where he develops efficient ways to avoid bottlenecks while moving data.
Scientists have used a powerful particle accelerator to create matter (and antimatter)—electrons (and positrons)—directly from collisions of light. The idea of creating matter from light stems from Einstein’s famous E=mc2 equation, but using light energy to test this idea—and proving that the photons are real and long-lived, not “virtual” and short-lived—has been challenging. This marks the first time scientists have achieved this process in a single direct step.
A tool called quantitative stable isotope probing (qSIP) lets scientists identity bacteria in a community and their demographic data. In a new qSIP study, scientists found that in many soil environments just a few types of bacteria use more than half of the available carbon. The results will help scientists focus future research on key soil functions such as carbon cycling.
Quarks and gluons are found deep inside protons and neutrons but also combine in less common configurations to make other subatomic particles. A new theory method aids in scientists’ efforts to study these configurations by predicting which less-common particles an experiment will produce. The method allowed physicists to make the first complete numerical prediction from theory for a three-particle system consisting of three positively charged pions.
Researchers are exploring chromium defects in silicon carbide as potential spin qubits. These spin qubits would be compatible with telecommunications optical fibers, making them potentially useful for optical fiber-based quantum networks. Researchers recently investigated new ways to make high-quality chromium defects in silicon carbide.
Today, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced a plan to provide up to $6 million to support frontier plasma science experiments at several plasma research facilities across the nation.
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today announced a $420 million funding opportunity for DOE’s Energy Frontier Research Centers (EFRC). This funding will advance climate solutions through early-stage research on clean energy technology, advanced and low-carbon manufacturing, and quantum information science.
Magnetic confinement fields in tokamaks can contain areas called magnetic islands in which plasma particles move extra quickly, preventing the plasma from reaching fusion temperatures. Researchers have now observed the spontaneous formation of a structure in the plasma with multiple magnetic islands. These “heteroclinic islands” do not merge into each other while embedded in a larger magnetic field tube. This information will aid the design and operation of future fusion reactors.
The Department of Energy (DOE) announced today that it is accepting nominations from the DOE national laboratories for the Department’s Distinguished Scientist Fellows Program.
The Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Office of Science will sponsor the participation of 153 undergraduate students from across the nation in two STEM-focused workforce development programs at 17 DOE national laboratories and facilities during Spring 2022.
Recent work shows that the plant microbiome—the microorganisms in a plant and its immediate environment—influences plant health, survival, and fitness. New research on the microbiome of several types of poplar trees found that the composition of the microbiome changed dramatically over time, and the trees’ genetic makeup proved to be less of a factor than researchers had expected.
Until the last decade, scientists examining gas-solid heterogeneous catalysis often studied these reactions under conditions not found in real-world industrial applications. That has changed, and now researchers have developed a suite of approaches to improve scientific understanding of the interactions between the catalyst surface and the near-surface gases at conditions relevant to operating catalysts.
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced $35 million in funding for diverse small businesses to pursue scientific, clean energy, and climate solutions. The funding will support 158 projects across 29 states that will aim to develop an array of clean energy technology, from climate research tools to improved batteries for electric vehicles.
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced $8 million for theoretical research in nuclear interactions, nucleon structure, and properties of nuclei and nuclear matter via collaborations that bring together leading nuclear scientists to address well-defined topical areas.
Some microbes can form thin films called biofilms that give those microbes an advantage by protecting them from stresses such as a lack of nutrients. Some biofilms also benefit plants and other host organisms. New research has identified an enzyme in bacteria that is key to the formation of helpful biofilms on willow and cottonwood trees. The research could lead to advances in studies of microbes important to medicine and agriculture.
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced $35 million for research in computation and simulation techniques and tools to understand the nucleon structure, nuclear matter, and strong force via collaborations that enable effective use of DOE high performance computers.
At MIT, associate professor Jesse Thaler develops new ways to analyze and interpret particle collision data from experiments like the Large Hadron Collider, with the ultimate goal of advancing our knowledge of fundamental physics.
Researchers believe that fluctuations in the magnetic fields tokamaks use to confine plasma can reduce fusion energy production by causing particle and heat losses from the plasma to the reactor walls. New research has developed a novel light probe that uses polarization to reveal small-scale magnetic turbulence in detail. This will help validate the models used to design reactors and predict their performance.
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced a plan to provide up to $30 million for basic research that will lead to transformative approaches to determine and validate gene function in plant species relevant to the sustainable production of bioenergy and bioproducts.
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