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High-temperature superconductor magnets have the potential to lower the costs of operating particle accelerators and enable powerful new technologies like fusion reactors. But quenches – the sudden, destructive events wherein a part of the material loses superconductivity – are a major barrier to their deployment. Berkeley Lab scientists have developed an approach to prevent quenches altogether, rather than simply trying to manage them after they occur.

A greater understanding of how plants and microbes work together to store vast amounts of atmospheric carbon in the soil will help in the design of better bioenergy crops for the fight against climate change. Deciphering the mechanics of this mutually beneficial relationship is, however, challenging as conditions in nature are extremely difficult for scientists to replicate in the laboratory. To address this challenge, researchers created fabricated ecosystems or EcoFABs. 

Five of the world’s leading research and education (R&E) networking organizations have joined forces to form MetrANOVA, a consortium for Advancing Network Observation, Visualization, and Analysis. Together, founding members Energy Sciences Network (ESnet), GÉANT, GlobalNOC at Indiana University, Internet2, and Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) operate and connect a dizzying number of national, regional, and local R&E networks — yet representing a portion of the decentralized fabric linking scientific researchers in hundreds of countries worldwide. MetrANOVA’s goal is to develop and disseminate common network measurement and analysis tools, tactics, and techniques that can be applied throughout the global R&E community.

In a new study, researchers broke down how human-induced greenhouse gas and aerosol emissions influence rainfall in the United States. Greenhouse gas emissions increase rainfall, while aerosols have a long-term drying effect as well as short-term impacts that vary with the seasons. As aerosols decrease, their long-term drying effect will likely diminish, causing rainfall averages and extremes to rapidly increase.

Following ignition demonstrations at the National Ignition Facility, the prospect of developing a fusion energy source using lasers looks brighter than ever. Here, SLAC experts weigh in on what it will take to develop the science and technology toward that aim and how the lab and its partners will contribute.

When seen on an atomic scale, the seemingly smooth flow of ions through a battery electrolyte is actually a series of erratic hops within the electrolyte’s roomy atomic lattice. Now scientists have discovered that the ions can briefly reverse direction in response to a jolt of voltage and return to their previous positions before resuming their usual, more random travels. It was the first indication that the ions remembered, in a sense, where they had just been.

Wetlands are Earth’s largest natural source of methane, a potent greenhouse gas that is about 30 times more powerful than carbon dioxide at warming the atmosphere. A research team analyzed wetland methane emissions data across the entire Boreal-Arctic region and found that these emissions have increased approximately nine percent since 2002. 

For more than 50 years, the National Hurricane Center has used the Saffir-Simpson Windscale to communicate the risk of property damage; it labels a hurricane on a scale from Category 1 (wind speeds between 74 - 95 mph) to Category 5 (wind speeds of 158 mph or greater). But as increasing ocean temperatures contribute to ever more intense and destructive hurricanes, climate scientists wondered whether the open-ended Category 5 is sufficient to communicate the risk of hurricane damage in a warming climate.

For more than 50 years, the National Hurricane Center has used the Saffir-Simpson Windscale to communicate the risk of property damage; it labels a hurricane on a scale from Category 1 (wind speeds between 74 - 95 mph) to Category 5 (wind speeds of 158 mph or greater). But as increasing ocean temperatures contribute to ever more intense and destructive hurricanes, climate scientists wondered whether the open-ended Category 5 is sufficient to communicate the risk of hurricane damage in a warming climate.

Research from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL),  and UC Davis sheds new light on how to access the sugars locked up in plants to produce petroleum-free fuels, chemicals, and medicines.