Science Headlines | U.S. DOE Office of Science (SC)

Zahid Hussain holds his DOE Secretary’s Distinguished Service Award certificate. (Credit: Berkeley Lab)

Berkeley Lab Pioneer in Synchrotron Techniques and Tools Receives DOE Secretary’s Award

Zahid Hussain, a longtime scientist at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), has always been more focused on achievements than accolades, though his lists run long in both categories.

Crews work at the site of the POLARBEAR-2/Simons Array experiments in Chile. There are plans to combine data at this site with data collected near the South Pole for a next-generation cosmic microwave background experiment known as CMB-S4. (Credit: POLARBEAR Collaboration)

Scientists Team Up With Industry to Mass-Produce Detectors for Next-Gen Cosmic Experiment

Chasing clues about the infant universe in relic light known as the cosmic microwave background, or CMB, scientists are devising more elaborate and ultrasensitive detector arrays to measure the properties of this light with increasing precision.

Natalie Griffiths studies aquatic ecosystem dynamics in the Walker Branch watershed.

Fielding Scientific Questions with Natalie Griffiths

Growing up, Natalie Griffiths dreamed of playing shortstop for the Toronto Blue Jays. With a stint on the Canadian national women’s baseball team under her belt, Griffiths has retired her glove and now fields scientific questions about carbon and nutrient cycling and water quality as an aquatic ecologist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Clarice Phelps: Dedicated Service to Science and Community

More than 70 years ago, United States Navy Captain Hyman Rickover learned the ins and outs of nuclear science and reactor technology at the Clinton Training School at what would eventually become the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Rickover applied his knowledge towards the creation of the US Navy’s nuclear-powered ships and submarines, earning him the moniker of “father of the nuclear navy.” Decades later, ORNL researchers like Clarice Phelps carry on the Navy Nuke legacy and use their nuclear expertise to solve some of the grand challenges of science.

The Center for Functional Nanomaterials hosted a day-long event held in recognition of its first 10 years of operations

Brookhaven's CFN Celebrates Decade of Discovery

The Center for Functional Nanomaterials (CFN)—a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science User Facility located at Brookhaven National Laboratory and one of five Nanoscale Science Research Centers (NSRCs) built at DOE national laboratories—marked its first “Decade of Discovery” with a day-long celebration on Wednesday, Dec. 5, 2018.

SCIENTISTS ARE COVERING NEW GROUND IN 2019 IN A RANGE OF RESEARCH DOMAINS ON SUMMIT, INCLUDING FUSION ENERGY, ASTROPHYSICS, AND TURBULENCE.vvv

A Sneak Peek at 19 Science Simulations for the Summit Supercomputer in 2019

This month, Summit Early Science Program users are starting to work on some of the world’s toughest science problems on its most powerful supercomputer: the 200-petaflop, IBM AC922 Summit system at the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF). The OLCF is a US Department of Energy Office of Science User Facility located at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL).

A cross section of the model of colliding neutron stars shows the dense regions of the accretion disk in red around the black hole at the very center. The astrophysical jet is the funnel above and below the black hole, a less dense region of blue, which gave rise to a gamma-ray burst. (Credit: Rodrigo Fernández)

When Stars Collide: 3D Computer Simulation Captures Cosmic Event

Neutron stars are the smallest and densest stars, mostly made of elementary particles called neutrons. In August 2017, scientists detected the collision of two neutron stars for the first time by using the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory. When two of these stars collide, they merge in a flash of light and debris known as a kilonova, as material explodes outward.

Physicists Ahmed Diallo, front, and Julien Dominski.

Fiery Sighting: A New Physics of Eruptions That Damage Fusion Experiments

Working together, physicists Ahmed Diallo, an experimentalist, and Julien Dominski, a theorist, pieced together data from the DIII-D National Fusion Facility that General Atomics operates for the DOE in San Diego, to uncover a trigger for a particular type of ELM that does not fit into present models of ELM plasma destabilization.

Egemen Kolemen, assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Princeton, discusses the flowmeter.

PPPL Inventions Take the Spotlight at Technology Showcase

A day-long Technology Showcase spotlighting the unique research, technical expertise, and inventions that the U.S. Department of Energy’s Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory offers to collaborators and funders attracted a wide range of potential partners.

Commensal bacteria (red) reside amongst the mucus (green) and epithelial cells (blue) of a mouse small intestine. (Image courtesy of UChicago.)

Intestinal Bacteria from Healthy Infants Prevent Food Allergy

Researchers from the University of Chicago, Argonne National Laboratory and the University of Naples Federico II in Italy found that when gut microbes from healthy human infants were transplanted into germ-free mice, the animals were protected from an allergic reaction when exposed to cow’s milk.

Found: A Precise Method for Determining How Waves and Particles Affect Fusion Reactions

Like surfers catching ocean waves, particles within the hot, electrically charged state of matter known as plasma can ride waves that oscillate through the plasma during experiments to investigate the production of fusion energy.

Lund University professor Frederik Ossler (left) and ORNL researcher Charles Finney are using ORNL’s CG-1D instrument to study biomass fuels as they pyrolyze using neutron scattering. Their research could lead to more efficient energy production from biomass. (Image credit: ORNL/Genevieve Martin)

Researching Cleaner, More Efficient Bioenergy Production Using Neutrons

Nordic countries such as Sweden rely heavily on biomass-derived fuels to power their homes and businesses. However, in the process of burning biomass like wood or straw, gases are released that can pollute the air, damage the environment, and harm public health. To mitigate these negative effects, Frederik Ossler, an associate professor at Lund University, Sweden, and Charles Finney from the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) are studying approaches to cleaner energy conversion of biomass.