Science Highlights

Oak Ridge National Laboratory scientists have developed a method leveraging artificial intelligence to accelerate the identification of environmentally friendly solvents for industrial carbon capture, biomass processing, rechargeable batteries and other applications.

Groups of three quarks form stable composite particles called baryons (such as protons and neutrons), while pairs of quarks form unstable mesons. New measurements from the Large Hadron Collider beauty (LHCb) experiment show surprising variations in the rate at which baryons are produced, defying previous expectations. This finding helps to explain the creation of the first stable particles in the early universe.

New research finds that ab initio methods using effective field theory can be used to study the scattering of protons and neutrons off atomic nuclei. The research specifically examined the scattering of protons from carbon-12 and oxygen-16 at low energies.

To produce biofuels from nonedible plants, researchers can use cellulase to break down plant cellulose into glucose, which can be fermented to generate bioethanol. Researchers have now used a specialized optical microscope to visualize single cellulase enzymes interacting with different forms of cellulose. This allowed them to investigate enzyme function in the presence of the product of the reaction and other components of plant biomass.

New findings about chitinases, enzymes found naturally in plants, could allow farmers to address fungal infections sooner and more efficiently.