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Setting up a supercomputer is far more complicated than just bringing it home from the electronics store. Staff members of the Department of Energy’s supercomputing user facilities spend years on the process, from laying out requirements through troubleshooting. In the end, they run some of the most powerful computers in the world to help solve some of science’s biggest problems.

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Plutonium has more verified and accessible oxidation states than any other actinide element, an important insight for energy and security applications.

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Easily manufactured, rigid membranes with ultra-small pores provides to be ultra-selective in separating chemicals.

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A new uranium-based metal-organic framework, NU-1301, could aid energy producers and industry.

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Calculations of a subatomic particle called the sigma provide insight into the communication between subatomic particles deep inside the heart of matter.

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This is a continuing profile series on the directors of the Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science User Facilities. These scientists lead a variety of research institutions that provide researchers with the most advanced tools of modern science including accelerators, colliders, supercomputers, light sources and neutron sources, as well as facilities for studying the nano world, the environment, and the atmosphere.

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A new polymer, created with a structure inspired by crystalline silicon, may make it easier to build better computers and solar cells.

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Researchers succeed in producing larger quantities of a long-lived radioisotope, titanium-44, that generates a needed isotope, scandium-44g, on demand.

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Developing a highly active and acid-stable catalyst for water splitting could significantly impact solar energy technologies.

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Antibody’s molecular structure reveals how it recognizes the Zika virus

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Scientists invented an approach to creating ordered patterns of nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamonds, a promising approach to storing and computing quantum data.

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Redox metabolism was engineered in Yarrowia lipolytica to increase the availability of reducing molecules needed for lipid production.

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Deeper soil layers are more sensitive to warming than previously thought.

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Microbial enzymes create precursors of nylon while avoiding harsh chemicals and energy-demanding heat.

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Scientists may be able to use self-assembly to design new materials with custom characteristics. Understanding self-assembly is particularly important for working with nanoparticles. Scientists supported by the Department of Energy are investigating two major methods of self-assembly. They are looking into both particles that assemble on their own as well as “nano-Velcro” that can pull together particles that wouldn’t otherwise connect on their own.

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Using a genetically modified line of switchgrass, scientists reduced plant cell wall recalcitrance while increasing sugar release over three generations.

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Scientists offer new insights into how the source of electrons in batteries fails.

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State-of-the-art mass spectrometer delivers unprecedented capability to scientists.

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Researchers develop the fastest synthetic catalyst for producing hydrogen gas, potentially leading to a new environmentally friendly, affordable fuel.

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Like water, neutrons seek their own level, and watching how they flow may teach us about how the chemical elements were made.

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FIONA (For the Identification Of Nuclide A) is a newly installed device designed to measure the mass numbers of individual atoms of heavy and superheavy elements. FIONA will let researchers learn about the shape and structure of heavy nuclei, guide the search for new elements, and offer better measurements for nuclear fission and related processes.

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Researchers demonstrate a new technique that could lead to significantly higher power proton beams to answer tough scientific questions.

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Despite popular conceptions as an offshoot of the environmental movement, much of the field of ecology evolved to meet the needs of the federal government during the Atomic Age. The Department of Energy’s national laboratories played a key role, from developing fundamental theories to computer models. The contributions from the institutions that became Savannah River Ecology Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory still influence the field today.

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Tracking movements of individual particles provides understanding of collective motions, synchronization and self-assembly.

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Bottom-up synthesis of tunable carbon nanoribbons provides a new route to enhance industrial, automotive reactions.

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More atomic bonds is the key for performance in a newly discovered family of cage-structured compounds.

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A twisted array of atomic magnets were driven to move in a curved path, a needed level of control for use in future memory devices.

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Simple, economical process makes large-diameter, high-performance, thin, transparent, and conductive foils for bendable LEDs and more.

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Enhanced stability in the presence of water could help reduce smokestack emissions of greenhouse gases.

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New material based on common iron ore can help turn intermittent sunlight and water into long-lasting fuel.

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The universe is stretching out ever more rapidly – a phenomena known as cosmic acceleration – and scientists don’t know why. Understanding the “dark energy” that is causing this expansion would help them put together a clearer picture of the universe’s history. Scientists supported by the Department of Energy’s Office of Science are using massive telescopes to chart how dark energy has influenced the structure of the universe over time.

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Scientists are devising ways to protect plants, biofuels and, ultimately, the atmosphere itself from damage caused by an element that sustains life on earth.

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Research reveals that giant viruses acquire genes piecemeal from others, with implications for bioenergy production and environmental cleanup.

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Researchers find a grass gene affecting how plants manage water and carbon dioxide that could be useful to growing biofuel crops on marginal land.

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Teamwork provides insight into complicated cloud processes that are important to potential environmental changes in the Arctic.

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Plants and soil microbes may be altered by climate warming at different rates and in different ways, meaning vital nutrient patterns could be misaligned.

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For the first time, scientists pinpointed how often storms topple trees, helping to predict how changes in Amazonia affect the world.

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A newly discovered metabolic process linking different bacteria in a community could enhance bioenergy production.

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Today U.S. Secretary of Energy Rick Perry announced that six leading U.S. technology companies will receive funding from the Department of Energy’s Exascale Computing Project (ECP) as part of its new PathForward program, accelerating the research necessary to deploy the nation’s first exascale supercomputers.

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In some of the coldest places in the world, scientists supported by the Department of Energy’s Office of Science are studying how permafrost thaws. Using both field and laboratory data, these researchers are collaborating with modelers to improve our understanding of future climate change.

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Researchers create materials with controllable electrical and magnetic properties, even at room temperature.

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Novel electrode materials have designed pathways for electrons and ions during the charge/discharge cycle.

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First observation of “quantum” heat transport uncovers the ultimate limits for nanoscale devices.

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Researchers made a sheet of boron only one atom thick with the potential to change solar panels, computers, and more.

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New well-packed organic glass better resists changes when exposed to light.

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Scientists devised a new synthesis route to produce a catalyst that doubles the conversion rate compared to the best previously reported catalyst.

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A new device design allows ten-fold increase in spin currents, laying the path to use in computing and high-efficiency electronics.

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Researchers perform first spectroscopic measurements on antihydrogen in pursuit of one of our biggest scientific mysteries: why is there so little antimatter in the universe?

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New work seeks to explain a strange phenomenon occurring in fusion reactor materials.

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A new type of lens improves the focusing precision at the world’s most powerful X-ray light sources.