"Mirror" Nuclei Help Connect Nuclear Theory and Neutron Stars
Scientists face challenges in their understanding of nuclei. For instance, they have not connected the description of the size of nuclei with the theory of the strong nuclear force, and it is not clear if theories of atomic nuclei can provide a reliable description of nuclear matter.
Hurricane season: Has anyone checked on the beach?
Beach-loving environmental researchers wondered how a highly active hurricane season impacts beaches along the coast.
Ships Now Spew Less Sulfur, but Warming Has Sped Up
New findings document fewer ship tracks, reduced cloud cover, and boosted warming after ship emissions regulations took effect in 2020.
Studying Loss to Make Quantum Computing Gains
Scientists from Yale University and the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory have developed a systematic approach to understanding how energy is lost from the materials that make up qubits. Energy loss inhibits the performance of these quantum computer building blocks, so determining its sources -- and adjusting the materials as necessary -- can help bring researchers closer to designing quantum computers that could revolutionize several scientific fields.
Start-up Whisper Aero uses the ORNL Summit supercomputer to test concepts for an ultraquiet electric airplane
Whisper Aero, a start-up in Crossville, Tennessee, is revolutionizing aviation with its ultra-quiet electric ducted fan technology. Using the Summit supercomputer, the company is designing the Whisper Jet, a nine-passenger electric plane featuring 20 to 30 small, silent EDFs to drastically reduce noise and emissions compared to traditional engines. Summit's advanced simulations have accelerated their design process by over 20%, enabling rapid development and optimization of their aircraft. The technology is also being adapted for quieter commercial products like leaf blowers.
Powering Enzymes with Light to Make Ammonia
Converting dinitrogen into ammonia is critical for making fertilizer. Conventional conversion processes use adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Researchers are now working on processes that instead use sunlight, which reduces energy use and greenhouse gas production relative to the ATP process. In this research, scientists created a unique biohybrid that couples nanocrystals to nitrogen-catalyzing enzymes to produce ammonia using sunlight.
Ability to track nanoscale flow in soft matter could prove pivotal discovery
Scientists developed a novel technique using X-ray photon correlation spectroscopy to study soft matter at the nanoscale. This method enables precise determination of the flow behavior of nanoparticles in soft matter exposed to an external stimulus.
Students Sample Energy Opportunities at Brookhaven Lab and Beyond
Twenty high school juniors and seniors recently spent two weeks at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory learning how scientists play key roles in developing cleaner, renewable energy sources. The students visited the Lab through Suffolk County's Summer Youth Employment Program for "A Taste of the Trades" for an introduction to possible pathways they can pursue in the energy workforce.
X-ray imagery of vibrating diamond opens avenues for quantum sensing
Supported by the Q-NEXT quantum center, scientists at three research institutions capture the pulsing motion of atoms in diamond, uncovering the relationship between the diamond's strain and the behavior of the quantum information hosted within.
A Better Understanding of DNA Unpacking
Researchers now have a better understanding of the protein complex that creates access to packed DNA, TIP60. Knowing the detailed structure and behavior of TIP60 could provide insight into different diseases where the protein complex plays a role, such as Alzheimer's and various cancers.
What Happens to the Remains of Neutron Star Mergers?
The collision of neutron stars creates an enigmatic object called a remnant. These remnants can, but don't always, collapse into a black hole. This research used supercomputer simulations to examine the internal structure of these remnants and their cooling process, primarily through neutrino emissions, and what that means for black hole formation.
Heating for fusion: Why toast plasma when you can microwave it!
Can plasma be sufficiently heated inside a tokamak using only microwaves? New research suggests it can! Eliminating the central ohmic heating coil normally used in tokamaks will free up much-needed space for a more compact, efficient spherical tokamak.
In Neutrinos, Quantum Entanglement Leads to Shared Flavor
Neutrinos can change their identities or "flavors" when they interact. Researchers recently found that the neutrinos in a very dense environment such as a core collapse supernova can develop strong correlations through mutual interactions. This means that over time, neutrinos with different initial flavors reach a similar equilibrium flavor and energy distribution.
Born to Modulate: Researchers Reveal Origins of Climate-Controlling Particles
Aerosol particles imbue climate models with uncertainty. New work by PNNL researchers reveals where in the world and under what conditions new particles are born.
Pursuing the middle path to scientific discovery
Scientists have made significant strides in understanding the properties of a ferroelectric material under an electric field. This breakthrough holds potential for advances in computer memory, lasers and sensors for ultraprecise measurements.
Ground-Breaking Efforts Overcome an Operational Limit of Tokamaks, Advancing Efforts to Achieve Fusion Energy
Fuel density in fusion tokamak devices has historically been constrained by limits in device design. Now, however, researchers at the DIII-D National Fusion Facility have for the first time gone beyond these density limits while simultaneously maintaining high confinement quality. These conditions have in the past been mutually exclusive. The result points to a possible solution for a common challenge for tokamak devices.
Nuclear physicists question origin of radioactive beryllium in the solar system
Scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory led studies of beryllium-10, which existed when the solar system came into being some 4.5 to 5 billion years ago. They probed whether this isotope can be formed in sufficient quantities during the massive explosions of gigantic stars in their death throes.
New method detects environmentally unfriendly chemicals
Substances called polyethylene glycols, or PEGs, are widely used in industry, medical, cosmetics and personal care products. The problem is, when they enter the environment and build up, they can harm ecosystems and natural resources.
What Makes High Temperature Superconductivity Possible? Researchers Get Closer to a Unified Theory
In cuprate materials, superconductivity competes with magnetic spin and electric charge density wave (CDW) order in the material's electrons. In some of these materials, strong magnetic interaction causes spin density waves (SDW) and CDWs to lock together to form a stable long-range "stripe state" where the peaks and valleys of the two waves are aligned.
Frontier simulations could help build a better diamond
The world's fastest supercomputer helped researchers simulate synthesizing a material harder and tougher than a diamond -- or any other substance on Earth.The study used Frontier, the HPE Cray EX supercomputing system at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, to predict the likeliest strategy to synthesize such a material, thought to exist only within the interiors of giant exoplanets, or planets beyond our solar system - at least so far.
Discovery Sheds Light on the Origins of Matter in the Early Universe
Scientists recreate the conditions of the early universe in collisions of atoms in particle accelerators. Measuring the resulting particles allows scientists to understand how matter formed. A new calculation determined that as much as 70% of some measured particles are from reactions later than the early universe of quark-gluon plasma.
Atomic 'GPS' Elucidates Movement During Ultrafast Material Transitions
Scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory have created the first-ever atomic movies showing how atoms rearrange locally within a quantum material as it transitions from an insulator to a metal.
Researchers discover faster, more energy-efficient way to manufacture an industrially important chemical
The reactivity of zirconium on silicon nitride enhances the conversion of propane into propylene, a key commodity chemical needed to make polypropylene. This finding hints at the reactivity researchers might achieve with other nontraditional catalysts.
Exciting the Alpha Particle
An important part of physics research is examining why theoretical calculations and experimental results sometimes don't match. A recent physics experiment on the helium-4 nucleus and how it transitions from its basic energy state to its first excited state found evidence of a disagreement between theory and experiment. Now new calculations of the observed transition found agreement with the recent experimental results.
A New Way to Make Element 116 Opens the Door to Heavier Atoms
Researchers at Berkeley Lab's 88-Inch Cyclotron successfully made superheavy element 116 using a beam of titanium-50. That milestone sets the team up to attempt making the heaviest element yet: 120.