Scientists have gained insights into the weak nuclear force from new, more sensitive studies of the beta decays of the “mirror” nuclei lithium-8 and boron-8. The weak nuclear force drives the process of nuclear beta decay. The research found that the properties of the beta decays of lithium-8 and boron-8 are in perfect agreement with the predictions of the Standard Model.
The Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Office of Science will sponsor the participation of 1,073 undergraduate students and 113 faculty members in three STEM-focused workforce development programs at 17 DOE national laboratories and a national fusion facility during Summer 2024. 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.
Today, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced $16 million in funding for four projects providing classroom training and research opportunities to train the next generation of accelerator scientists and engineers needed to deliver scientific discoveries.
Microbiologists do not fully understand how bacteria’s genes relate to their life strategies. Now, by analyzing large DNA sequencing datasets from around the globe, researchers discovered a new way of categorizing the dominant life strategies of soil bacteria based on their genes. This technique allowed the researchers to link different life strategies with specific climate and soil conditions.
Scientists know of more than 3,300 isotopes. Researchers have compiled experimental nuclear data for all known nuclei, including mass, quantum numbers, half-life, decay modes, and branching intensities.
You may have flown a flight simulator in a computer game or at a science museum. Landing without crashing is always the hardest part. But that’s nothing compared to the challenge that engineers are facing to develop a flight simulation of the very large vehicles necessary for humans to explore the surface of Mars. The Red Planet poses innumerable challenges to astronauts, not the least of which is getting there. That’s where the Department of Energy Office of Science’s user facility supercomputers come in. Researchers at DOE’s Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF) are working with NASA engineers and scientists to simulate the process of slowing down a huge spacecraft as it moves towards Mars’ surface.
When superconductors encounter too much current, they can become resistive. Researchers can design microscopic electronic components that use this effect to create a switch, like a transistor. The resulting nanowire superconducting switching devices (called nano-cryotrons, or nTrons) show promise for future superconducting electronics or particle detectors.
Soil microbes use volatile organic compounds (VOCs) as a food source but can also release VOCs as gases that enter the atmosphere.
To study quantum many-body systems, researchers use computational tools called quantum Monte Carlo simulations. In this work, researchers used a specific approach called the “floating block method” to compute atomic nuclei corresponding to two different Hamiltonians.
Creating multiple universes to see how they run might be tempting to scientists, but it’s obviously not possible. That is, as long as you need physical universes. If you can make do with virtual ones, there are far more options.
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has an ongoing competition for the management and operating contract for the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (TJNAF).
In early 2023, scientists published a new measurement testing the strong nuclear force. The experiment involved the way an alpha particle becomes excited. The study suggested a puzzle that could not be solved with existing theoretical methods.
Lanthanide elements are important for clean energy and other applications. To use them, industry must separate mixed lanthanide sources into individual elements using costly, time-consuming, and waste-generating procedures. An efficient new method can be tailored to select specific lanthanides.
On screensaver mode, smart TVs often rotate through photos of natural wonders, from waterfalls to canyons. Now imagine hundreds of those televisions, with one single image spread out among them.
Physicists use methods called finite-volume simulations with periodic boundary conditions to model the nuclei protons and neutrons can form. This new work solves a long-standing and fundamental problem for electrically charged systems in these “periodic boxes.” It derives the mathematical equation that describes how the properties of these electrically charged systems depend on the size of the simulation volume.
Background radioactivity from cables in equipment for ultra-precise physics experiments can impair those experiments.
As I depart the Office of Science to return to my academic position, I would like to take a moment to reflect on the amazing things we’ve done together over the past two years.
Microbes called anaerobic methanotrophic archaea form communities with sulfate reducing bacteria. These communities can consume methane in anaerobic environments. This research found that biological processes in these microbial communities can create silica deposits that appear to entomb the communities.
The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Electron-Ion Collider (EIC), a unique international particle collider being constructed to explore the building blocks of matter at the smallest scale, will get a significant boost from colleagues in the United Kingdom (UK).
According to the traditional model of nuclear shells, oxygen-28 is expected to be a doubly magic nucleus with 20 neutrons and 8 protons. However, an experiment performed at the Rare Isotope Beam Facility in Japan measured the direct decay of oxygen-28 into four neutrons and oxygen-24 and found that it is not a bound nucleus.
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