Science Highlights

Ecologists know that adding more plant food that prey animals eat can also benefit predators. Scientists wanted to know if the same principles apply in bacterial food webs. They found that predatory bacteria grow faster and consume more resources than non-predators, and they use predatory behavior and physical features to hunt and feast on prey bacteria.

Proteins bind together through a complex mix of chemical interactions. What if some proteins bind due to their shapes, a much simpler process? Researchers used the Summit supercomputer to model a type of interaction that requires proteins to chemically “fit” precisely. The team found that among a sample of 46 protein pairs that bind to one another, 6 often assembled based on their shapes.

Scientists have created crystalline sheets one molecule thick using a synthetic molecule called a polypeptoid. Scientists take images of these nanosheets using electron microscopes, but until recently these images were blurry. This new study used machine learning to process about 500,000 independent images to produce the first clear image of individual atoms in a synthetic soft material.

To form, cloud droplets need aerosol particles and humidity in the atmosphere. Scientists previously believed cloud droplets formed only when the humidity rose above 100%. Now, new research found that if the humidity falls below 100%, the primary driver of cloud formation involves small changes in humidity caused by turbulence.

Researchers performed the world’s first measurement of how the size of the radium nucleus modifies the structure of molecules containing different radium isotopes. Violations of fundamental symmetries help explain why there is more matter than antimatter in the universe. Radioactive molecules containing isotopes of heavy elements like radium are ideal for studying violation of fundamental symmetries.

A team of fusion researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory used datasets from measurements on the Joint European Torus, or JET, tokamak to model an improved method for quantifying the amount of plasma-radiated power during a disruption of normal operations.

Impurities in the plasmas in tokamaks can reduce performance. These impurities are from interactions between the hot plasma and tungsten tokamak walls. This experiment found that tokamak magnetic fields that rotate clockwise direction can remove these impurities. This is the opposite direction from normal and the same direction the plasma current moves.