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Environmental Sciences

LATEST ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES NEWS

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 1-Jul-2025 11:10 ET (1-Jul-2025 15:10 GMT/UTC)

25-Mar-2025

Gas injection setup in new fusion system is guided by public-private research

DOE/Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Researchers have determined that six gas valves provide the best protection against plasma disruptions in SPARC, a next-generation, experimental fusion system. By refining the setup for the fusion vessel’s massive gas injection system, researchers are ensuring that disruptions — sudden jets of plasma that can damage the fusion vessel’s inner walls — are controlled efficiently, paving the way for safer, more robust fusion power plants.

Journal: Nuclear Fusion
Funder: DOE/US Department of Energy, DOE/US Department of Energy

24-Mar-2025

Chi, Advincula named Materials Research Society Fellows

DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Grant and Award Announcement

Miaofang Chi and Rigoberto “Gobet” Advincula, both researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, have been elected as Class of 2025 Fellows of the Materials Research Society, or MRS. Chi also holds a joint appointment at Duke University, and Advincula is jointly appointed at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

24-Mar-2025

Moiré than meets the eye

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Researchers have discovered that phasons, low-temperature quasiparticles found in crystal lattices, enable interlayer excitons to move at very low temperatures, when motion should stop. In addition to contributing to foundational materials science knowledge, this discovery could help improve the stability of quantum technologies, such as using excitons as qubits.

24-Mar-2025

Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) enters 25th and final run

DOE/Brookhaven National Laboratory
Business Announcement

The Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider, a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science user facility for nuclear physics research at DOE’s Brookhaven National Laboratory, entered its 25^th and final year of operations, smashing together the nuclei of gold atoms traveling close to the speed of light.

Funder: DOE/US Department of Energy

19-Mar-2025

New DESI results strengthen hints that dark energy may evolve

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Reports and Proceedings

The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument used millions of galaxies and quasars to build the largest 3D map of our universe to date. Combining their data with other experiments shows signs that the impact of dark energy may be weakening over time — and the standard model of how the universe works may need an update.

Meeting: Global Physics Summit 2025

19-Mar-2025

DESI opens access to the largest 3D map of the universe yet

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Reports and Proceedings

A new data release from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument is now available for researchers to explore. The collection contains information on 18.7 million galaxies, quasars, and stars — the largest dataset of its kind ever shared.

Meeting: Global Physics Summit 2025

18-Mar-2025

Web search formulas offer a first step for protecting critical infrastructure

DOE/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Scientists are exploring how web search engine technology might also keep the lights on, the water running and the trains moving.

Funder: Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency

12-Mar-2025

New computer code could lead to simpler, less costly stellarators for fusion power

DOE/Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Physicists have created a new computer code that could speed up the design of the complicated magnets that shape the plasma in stellarators, making the systems simpler and more affordable to build.

Journal: Nuclear Fusion
Funder: U.S. Department of Energy

11-Mar-2025

Scientists discover new heavy-metal molecule ‘berkelocene’

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Scientists have discovered “berkelocene,” the first organometallic molecule to be characterized containing the heavy element berkelium. The breakthrough disrupts long-held theories about the chemistry of the elements that follow uranium in the periodic table.

Journal: Science

6-Mar-2025

A new way to engineer composite materials

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A new study led by researchers at Berkeley Lab outlines a way to engineer pseudo-bonds in materials. Instead of forming chemical bonds, which is what makes epoxies and other composites so tough, the chains of molecules entangle in a way that is fully reversible.

Journal: Advanced Materials