University Research | U.S. DOE Office of Science (SC)

Project to Elucidate the Structure of Atomic Nuclei at the Femtoscale

The Argonne Leadership Computing Facility (ALCF), a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science User Facility, has selected 10 data science and machine learning projects for its Aurora Early Science Program (ESP).

Omer San Selected to Receive Early Career Research Funding

The Department of Energy (DOE) has selected Omer San, Oklahoma State University mechanical and aerospace engineering associate professor as one of 84 scientists from across the nation to receive significant funding for research as part of the DOE Office of Science’s Early Career Research Program.

BNL-Stony Brook Joint Outreach Exposes Young Women to Nanoscience

Opportunities to experience what scientists do were few and far between for Shruti Sharma while growing up in India. This lack of early exposure to hands-on science activities contributed to Sharma—now a fifth-year PhD candidate graduating this summer from the Department of Materials Science and Chemical Engineering in the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Stony Brook University and a guest researcher at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory—becoming involved in educational outreach.

Nobel Prize-Winning Stanford Physicist Burton Richter Dies at 87

Burton Richter, the Paul Pigott Professor in the Physical Sciences, Emeritus, former director of the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and winner of the 1976 Nobel Prize in physics, died July 18 in Palo Alto. He was 87.

Study Finds Climate Determines Shapes of River Basins

MIT scientists have discovered that a river basins shape is heavily influenced by the climate in which they form. The team found that in dry regions of the country, river basins take on a long and thin contour, regardless of their size. In more humid environments, river basins vary: Larger basins, on the scale of hundreds of kilometers, are long and thin, while smaller basins, spanning a few kilometers, are noticeably short and squat.

Getting to Know the Microbes that Drive Climate Change

A new understanding of the microbes and viruses in the thawing permafrost in Sweden may help scientists better predict the pace of climate change. Microbes have significant influence over global warming, primarily through the production of – or consumption of – methane, and new details about these microscopic beings’ genetics is now available, thanks to a trio of studies from a project co-led by researchers at The Ohio State University.

In Borophene, Boundaries Are No Barrier

Borophene, the atomically flat form of boron with unique properties, is even more interesting when different forms of the material mix and mingle, according to scientists at Rice and Northwestern universities.

A Physics Treasure Hidden in a Wallpaper Pattern

An international team of scientists has discovered a new, exotic form of insulating material with a metallic surface that could enable more efficient electronics or even quantum computing. The researchers developed a new method for analyzing existing chemical compounds that relies on the mathematical properties like symmetry that govern the repeating patterns seen in everyday wallpaper.

Physicists Practice 'Spin Control' to Improve Information Processing

Currently, information-processing tools like computers and cell phones rely on electron charge to operate. A team of UC San Diego physicists, however, seeks alternative systems of faster, more energy-efficient signal processing.

FSU Researchers Use Artificial Intelligence to Identify, Predict New Chemical Compounds

A team of Florida State University researchers is using artificial intelligence to identify which among hundreds of thousands of hypothetical crystal structures can result in the prediction of new chemical compounds.

DOE Early Career Program Funds Philipp Zerbe’s Biofuel Research

Funded by the DOE’s Early Career Research Program, Zerbe and his colleagues will study the contribution of small molecules to the environmental stress tolerance of switchgrass, with hopes of developing new avenues to generate crops that better withstand stress and produce biofuel more efficiently.

Eagle-eyed Algorithm Outdoes Human Experts

With collaborators that included Kevin Field, a staff scientist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and Wei Li, who earned his master’s degree in materials science and engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2018, used machine learning to quickly and consistently detect and analyze microscopic-scale radiation damage to materials under consideration for nuclear reactors.