Feature Articles

On Aug. 3, 2022, scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory received the 2022 Microscopy Today Innovation Award for their development of a system with bonded x-ray lenses that make nanoscale resolution more accessible than ever before. When the team at the National Synchrotron Light Source II (NSLS-II), a DOE Office of Science user facility, tested the new lens system, they achieved a resolution down to approx. 10 nanometers.

Near-real-time fish tracking using a new acoustic receiver developed by PNNL can support enhanced fish passage through hydropower dams.

Scientists at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have created a miniaturized environment to study the ecosystem around poplar tree roots for insights into plant health and soil carbon sequestration.

Reflections from Brookhaven Lab physicists on culmination of 2020-22 U.S. high-energy physics community planning process

What happens when a unique research machine breaks? The question isn’t academic. In April, sensors showed that a vacuum seal in Jefferson Lab's Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility had failed in a critical area of the injector – the chopper – where electrons are sorted by large copper cavities and directed for experiments. Without that vacuum seal, outside air we breathe will enter those cavities, contaminating the system and effectively crippling accelerator operations. An ad hoc team of experts from the accelerator and engineering divisions assembled to diagnose the situation and figure out how to fix it.

In order to design radically new idea offshore wind turbines, Sandia National Laboratories engineers first needed to build a design tool capable of modeling the physics vertical-axis wind turbine, or a new "drawing board."

Through a collaboration among the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory, educators, the American Association of Blacks in Energy (AABE), and local energy companies like ConEdison, students at Brooklyn’s Bedford Academy were offered a unique opportunity to participate in a pilot course on sustainable energy and learn about careers within the energy sector.

Training the next generation of researchers on advanced computing is imperative, but resources for them are limited. That training gap is what inspired the Brookhaven National Laboratory-led Co-design Center for Quantum Advantage (C2QA) to design the QIS101 quantum computing summer school program.

As climate change leads to larger and more frequent wildfires, researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory are using sensors, drones and machine learning to both prevent fires and reduce their damage to the electric grid. Engineers are honing technology to remotely sense electrical arcing and faulty equipment, as well as the direction of spreading fires.

Stephen Klippenstein was chosen to deliver the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Spiers Memorial Lecture. The lecture is one of the society’s top honors.