Feature Articles

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.

From uncovering where best to apply controlled burns to protecting energy infrastructure from outer space, scientists at PNNL are applying their research to get an edge on tomorrow's wildfires.

Jean Clifford (Cliff) Brutus, an engineer at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory, has a cool job—literally. He’s developing components to keep particle beams circulating in the Lab’s Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) cool. Learn how he found his way to this innovative engineering career.

Idaho National Laboratory is perhaps best known for innovative research that helps shape the clean energy economies of today and tomorrow – and for good reason. But while much of the laboratory’s work is focused on building a sustainable future, INL is also doing its part to preserve the past. INL researchers recently imaged several fossils using a powerful X-ray microscope. The 3D images will be used to create exhibits for Wyoming’s Fossil Butte National Monument and help experts gain insight into the origins of these and other relics