Boosting energy efficiency
Oak Ridge National Laboratory researchers, in collaboration with Enginuity Power Systems, demonstrated that a micro combined heat and power prototype, or mCHP, with a piston engine can achieve an overall energy efficiency greater than 93%.
Scientists Develop Inorganic Resins for Generating and Purifying Radium and Actinium
Targeted alpha therapy using radioisotopes such as actinium-225 can destroy cancerous cells without harming healthy cells. However, making actinium-225 by bombarding radium targets with neutrons poses a challenge: how to chemically separate the radium from the actinium. A new approach uses radiation-resistant inorganic resin scaffolds as platforms for separating radium, actinium, and lead, improving production time, cost, and safety.
Superlubricity coating could reduce economic losses from friction, wear
Scientists at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory have invented a coating that could dramatically reduce friction in common load-bearing systems with moving parts, from vehicle drive trains to wind and hydroelectric turbines.
Calculation Shows Why Heavy Quarks Get Caught up in the Flow
Theorists have calculated how quickly a melted soup of quarks and gluons--the building blocks of protons and neutrons--transfers its momentum to heavy quarks. The calculation will help explain experimental results showing heavy quarks getting caught up in the flow of matter generated in heavy ion collisions.
Scientists analyze a single atom with X-rays for the first time
Scientists have analyzed single atoms using X-rays for the first time at Argonne's Advanced Photon Source. This new capability will find wide application in environmental and medical research, as well as in batteries, microelectronic devices and beyond.
Precision Nuclear Physics in Indium-115 Beta Decay Spectrum using Cryogenic Detectors
Nuclei such as Indium-115 (In-115) are extremely long lived, with half-lives of more than 100 billion years. These nuclei allow scientists to probe elusive high energy nuclear states. In a new study, scientists theoretically determined the electron energy spectrum from decays of In-115 based on data collected in a specialized detector. The scientists also performed the world's most precise measurement of the half-life of In-115.
New Strategy Can Harvest Chemical Information on Rare Isotopes with a Fraction of the Material
Studying radioactive materials is very difficult due to the potential health risks, the cost, and the difficulty of producing some radioisotopes. Scientists recently developed a new approach to harvest detailed chemical information on radioactive and/or enriched stable isotopes. The new approach is much more efficient, requiring 1,000 times less material than previous state-of-the-art methods, with no loss of data quality.
A Low-Energy 'Off Switch' for Quark-Gluon Plasma
systematically varying the amount of energy involved in collisions of gold nuclei, scientists have shown that the quark-gluon plasma (QGP) exists in collisions at energies from 200 billion electron volts (GeV) at least to 19.6 GeV. However, its production appears to be "turned off" at the lowest collision energy, 3 GeV. The "off" signal shows up as a sign change in data that describe the distribution of protons produced in these collisions. The findings will help physicists further study the QGP and phases of nuclear matter.
A Simple Solution for Nuclear Matter in Two Dimensions
Understanding the behavior of nuclear matter is extremely complicated, especially when working in three dimensions. Mathematical techniques from condensed matter physics that consider interactions in just one spatial dimension (plus time) greatly simplify the problem. Using this two-dimensional approach, scientists solved the complex equations that describe how low-energy excitations ripple through a system of dense nuclear matter such as exists at the center of neutron stars.
Resolving a Mathematical Puzzle in Quarks and Gluons in Nuclear Matter
Theoretical calculations involving the strong force are complex in part because of the large number of ways these calculations can be performed. These options include "gauge choices." All gauge choices should produce the same result for the calculation of any quantity that can be measured in an experiment. However, it is difficult to obtain consistent results when using one particular choice, "axial gauge." New research resolves this puzzle.
New Insights on the Interplay of Electromagnetism and the Weak Nuclear Force
Outside atomic nuclei, neutrons are unstable, disintegrating in about fifteen minutes due to the weak nuclear force to leave behind a proton, an electron, and an antineutrino. New research identified a shift in the strength with which a spinning neutron experiences the weak nuclear force, due to emission and absorption of photons and pions. The finding impacts high precision searches of new, beyond the Standard Model interactions in beta decay.
Subtle Signs of Fluctuations in Critical Point Search
Physicists analyzing data from gold ion smashups at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC), a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science user facility for nuclear physics research at DOE's Brookhaven National Laboratory, are searching for evidence that nails down a so-called critical point in the way nuclear matter changes from one phase to another.
Machine Learning-Based Protein Annotation Tool Predicts Protein Function
Microbes drive key processes of life on Earth. Research constantly expands the database of microbial DNA sequences but does not provide full biological information about proteins. To engineer microbes, scientists need a fuller understanding of protein function. Scientists currently infer protein function by comparing it with reference databases, but this process is slow. To address this challenge, scientists developed Snekmer, a machine learning-based tool for modeling protein function.
Understanding the Tantalizing Benefits of Tantalum for Improved Quantum Processors
Researchers working to improve the performance of superconducting qubits, the foundation of quantum computers, have been experimenting using different base materials in an effort to increase the coherent lifetimes of qubits. The coherence time is a measure of how long a qubit retains quantum information, and thus a primary measure of performance. Recently, scientists discovered that using tantalum in superconducting qubits makes them perform better, but no one has been able to determine why--until now.
Tunable Bonds: A Step Towards Targeted At-211 Cancer Therapy
The astatine isotope astatine-211 (At-211) shows promise as a cancer therapy, but scientists know little about how it interacts with chemicals. Researchers have now discovered a new tunable bonding interaction between At-211 and a class of chemicals known as ketones. This discovery has the potential to improve cancer therapy drugs by linking At-211 to cancer targeting molecules.
Extracting a clean fuel from water
A team led by Argonne has developed a new catalyst composed of elements abundant in the Earth. It could make possible the low-cost and energy-efficient production of hydrogen for use in transportation and industrial applications.
A Holographic View into Quantum Anomalies
Theorists calculated how the key ingredients of a phenomenon called the chiral magnetic effect should evolve over time in an expanding quark-gluon plasma. The theorists used the holographic principle to model the magnetic fields and other relevant characteristics needed for the effect. The results will help scientists interpret collision data and plan new searches for the chiral magnetic effect and the underlying quantum anomaly.
Small Fusion Experiment Hits Temperatures Hotter than the Sun's Core
Future commercial fusion power plants will need to achieve temperatures of 100 million degrees C, which requires careful control of the plasma. Researchers have now achieved these temperatures on a compact spherical tokamak called ST40. The results are a step toward fusion pilot plants and the development of more compact, and potentially more economical, fusion power sources.
First Measurements of Hypernuclei Flow at RHIC
Physicists studying particle collisions at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) have published the first observation of directed flow of hypernuclei -- short-lived, rare nuclei that contain at least one hyperon. The results may give insight into hyperon-nucleon interactions and the structure of neutron stars.
Long-Duration Energy Storage: The Time Is Now
Findings in a new PNNL report show long-duration energy storage will be a necessity in decarbonizing the grid and recommends the planning and procurement process to identify those needs start immediately.
Watching Molecules Relax in Real Time
Berkeley Lab scientists have visualized the distortions of chemical bonds in a methane molecule after it absorbs light, loses an electron, and then relaxes. Their study provides insights into how molecules react to light, which can help develop new methods to control chemical reactions.
Math Primes High-Performance Computing for the Age of AI
To overcome high-performance computing bottlenecks, a research team at PNNL proposed using graph theory, a mathematical field that explores relationships and connections between a number, or cluster, of points in a space.
A first step to designing better solid-state batteries
Researchers from Argonne and Northeastern University in Boston characterized reactions in all-solid-state lithium batteries.
Element creation in the lab deepens understanding of surface explosions on neutron stars
Scientists working in the lab have produced a signature nuclear reaction that occurs on the surface of a neutron star gobbling mass from a companion star. Their achievement improves understanding of stellar processes generating diverse nuclear isotopes.
New AI Model Aims to Plug Key Gap in Cybersecurity Readiness
Researchers have knitted together three large databases of information to help cybersecurity experts detect and prevent attacks.