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

The weight of antihydrogen atoms (a positively charged positron or anti-electron orbiting a negatively charged antiproton) balances the weight of hydrogen atoms (a negatively charged electron orbiting a positively charged proton).

Antihydrogen Falls Downward!

Settling a long-standing question, scientists have proven that antihydrogen falls downward in a first-ever direct experiment.

Negative triangularity shaping in the DIII-D tokamak (left) produced plasmas with no observed instabilities for triangularities less than approximately -0.15, even at high heating power and core performance (right).

Inverting Fusion Plasmas Improves Performance

Plasmas with negative triangularity show reduced gradients that develop into instabilities, including under conditions relevant to fusion power plants.

The interior of the SPRUCE experimental chamber showing instruments to monitor climate changes.

In Peatland Soil, a Warmer Climate and Elevated Carbon Dioxide Rapidly Alter Soil Organic Matter

Experiments find increased temperatures and carbon dioxide rapidly altered peatland carbon stocks, highlighting peatlands’ vulnerability to climate change.

Composite of geopotential heights [m] (contours) and anomalies (colors) at 700 Hectopascal (hPa) of air pressure for each SOM node. These nodes help unpack how high- and low-pressure systems and other climate factors contribute to Texas rainstorms.

High-Pressure Systems Favor Sea-Breeze Convection Over Southeastern Texas

AI reveals relationships between weather systems and cloud physics.

The Model for Prediction Across Scales framework uses unstructured Voronoi tessellation meshes for sea ice dynamics. This approach captures sea ice in greater complexity than other methods and allows researchers to focus on specific regions of interest.

Beyond Ice Cubes: Researchers Bring Complex Shapes to Sea-Ice Dynamics Models

Voronoi tessellation meshes focus on sea ice areas of interest and reduce computer resource needs.

The modified Majorana module in the assembly glovebox with germanium detector crystals and tantalum samples installed.

Searching for the Decay of Nature’s Rarest Isotope: Tantalum-180m

The first results from the MAJORANA experiment dramatically improve current limits on this rare isotope’s decay.

Nitrogen-9 decays by first emitting one proton, generating carbon-8, then two protons, generating beryllium-6, and finally two more protons, with the resulting residue of a stable alpha particle.

The “Nested Doll” Nucleus Nitrogen-9 Stretches the Definition of a Nucleus to the Limit

Nitrogen-9 has only two neutrons to its seven protons and decays to an alpha particle by emitting five of its protons in stages.

Schematic illustration of the density of the Dirichlet distribution for true model mixing.

Statisticians and Physicists Team Up to Bring a Machine Learning Approach to Mining of Nuclear Data

Bayesian statistical methods help improve the predictability of complex computational models in experimentally unknown research.

A proton’s valence quarks (blue, red, and green), quark-antiquark pairs, and gluons (springs). Scalar gluon activity (pink) extends beyond the electric charge radius (orange) that surrounds the gluonic energy core (yellow).

Scientists Locate the Missing Mass Inside the Proton

Nuclear physicists have found the location of matter inside the proton that comes from the strong force - a fundamental force that holds protons together.

Measuring the Thickness of the Neutron Skin with Ultra-Relativistic Heavy Ion Collisions

Researchers determined the neutron skin of lead-208 from experimental data collected in lead-lead collisions at the CERN Large Hadron Collider.

Electrons emitted in radioactive beta decay in a magnetic field create radio waves or microwaves, which are then picked up by antennas to learn about the decay process and the particles they produce.

Physicists Remotely Sense Radioactive Decay to Probe Fundamental Forces and Particles

The Project 8 and He6-CRES collaborations use a new technique to set an upper limit on neutrino mass and prepare to test the nature of the weak force.

A novel method improves the accuracy of the CRISPR Cas9 gene editing tool scientists use to modify microbes for renewable fuels and chemicals production. It draws on quantum chemistry, artificial intelligence, and synthetic biology.

How the Quantum World Can Help Scientists Engineer Biology

Improving genome engineering with quantum biology and artificial intelligence.