Feature Stories
Exploring explosives for expanding geothermal energy
DOE/Sandia National LaboratoriesWhy are scientists setting off small-scale explosions inside 1-foot cubes of plexiglass? They’re watching how fractures form and grow in a rock-like substance to see if explosives or propellants, similar to jet fuel, can connect geothermal wells in a predictable manner.
- Funder
- DOE/US Department of Energy
Argonne introduces Safe Zone training during Pride Month to advance allyship, inclusion for LGBTQIA+ employees
DOE/Argonne National LaboratoryThe first Safe Zone Project workshop at Argonne focuses on allyship with more vital topics to help increase communication, safety and bias-free inclusion in the workplace for LGBTQIA+ employees.
Bo Peng ensures quantum computers don’t ‘bring in da noise’
DOE/Argonne National LaboratoryA profile of Bo Peng, a scientist at PNNL working on error correction for quantum computing. He is a collaborator with Q-NEXT, one of the DOE National QIS Research Centers.
Exploring new materials through collaboration
DOE/Pacific Northwest National LaboratoryMaterials Scientist Jim De Yoreo guides a team that develops novel materials and understands how they form through collaboration and mentorship.
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- DOE/US Department of Energy
Andreas Kemp: Then and Now / 2012 Early Career Award Winner
DOE/US Department of EnergyAt Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Andreas Kemp studies the interaction of intense, extremely short laser pulses with matter. This new field of research studies extreme nuclear physics reactions at rates far higher than those of current accelerator experiments.
Microbes enhance resilience of carbon-rich peatlands to warming
DOE/Oak Ridge National LaboratoryScientists at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory discovered that certain bacteria increase the climate resilience of Sphagnum moss, the tiny plant responsible for storing a third of the world’s soil carbon in peat bogs. Heat tolerant microbes transfer that protection to the plants, helping them survive climate warming.
- Journal
- New Phytologist
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- DOE/US Department of Energy
Evasive quantum phenomenon makes debut in routine tabletop experiment
DOE/Oak Ridge National LaboratoryA Quantum Science Center-supported team has captured the first-ever appearance of a previously undetectable quantum excitation known as the axial Higgs mode.
- Journal
- Nature
- Funder
- DOE/US Department of Energy, Quantum Science Center, Office of Naval Research, Air Force Office of Scientific Research, National Science Foundation, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, David and Lucile Packard Foundation, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Swiss National Science Foundation
Build-a-satellite program could fast track national security space missions
DOE/Sandia National LaboratoriesValhalla, a Python-based performance modeling framework developed at Sandia National Laboratories, uses high-performance computing to build preliminary satellite designs based on mission requirements and then runs those designs through thousands of simulations. The results of the simulations feed into an interactive multidimensional video-like view of satellites executing their mission and hundreds of plots that show the user the relationship between each of the outputs and inputs at a glance. This data enables the user to quickly find the solution that best executes the mission.
Mentoring the next generation of marine researchers
DOE/Pacific Northwest National LaboratoryProgram pairs PNNL experts with aspiring UW undergraduates who learn through doing on laboratory projects.