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 24 January 2022
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In kilometer-sized particle accelerators, electric fields hurtle small bits of matter at nearly light speed. Those fast, powerful particle beams at facilities such as CERN and the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory have let physicists discover fundamental particles such as the Higgs boson, generate X-rays that reveal matter’s fundamental structures, and produce radioisotopes for cancer therapies. The largest particle accelerators are multibillion-dollar instruments, available to only a few scientists. But if researchers could shrink the devices to room size, more researchers could use them, even in hospitals. Compact devices, however, require fields more than a thousand times stronger than those today’s accelerators produce, a challenge that demands plasma-based instruments and multiple scientific advances.
Read more about how scientists are using the DOE Office of Science’s supercomputers to understand the behavior of plasma and enable the development of smaller particle accelerators.
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A team of scientists led by DOE’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Georgia Institute of Technology is using supercomputing and deep learning tools to investigate thousands of proteins with unknown functions. These approaches are using DNA sequences to predict proteins’ structures and functions. They could help improve environmental and biological technologies. |
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The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument has created the largest and most detailed 3D map of the universe ever. Yet it’s only about 10 percent of the way through its five-year mission. Once completed, that map will yield a better understanding of dark energy. Several Office of Science labs are involved in the project, including Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Fermilab. |
One of the current challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic is an adequate supply of N95 respirator masks. A study led by Stony Brook University researchers discovered that a method using dry ovens can be used to disinfect N95s for reuse if new masks are not available. The researchers used tools at the Center for Functional Nanomaterials user facility at Brookhaven National Laboratory to test if there were changes in the material. |
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Scientists at DOE’s Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory have found that adding a common household cleaning agent – the mineral boron contained in such cleaners as Borax – can vastly improve the ability of some fusion energy devices to contain heat. Containing this heat is required for the devices to produce fusion reactions on Earth the way the sun and stars do. |
Engineers from MIT and Kyushu University in Japan have demonstrated for the first time how light can be used to significantly improve the performance of fuel cells, lithium batteries, and other devices that are based on the movement of charged atoms, or ions. |
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The Office of Science posted four new highlights between 1/11/22 and 1/24/22.
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Nuclear physics works to describe all matter from its simplest building blocks: quarks and gluons. Quarks and gluons also combine in less common configurations to make other subatomic particles of matter. A new theory method developed by researchers at the University of Edinburgh and DOE’s Jefferson Lab helps scientists working to produce these less-common particles. It predicts which of these less-common particles an experiment – like experiments at the Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility at Jefferson Lab – will produce. |
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Physics World: Going global: the world the Web has wrought
Starting from the first web server in North America – launched at DOE’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory – this article traces how physicists have influenced the development of the internet.
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DOE’s Bioenergy Research Centers
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From producing fewer greenhouse gases to creating products that don’t use petroleum, biofuels and bioproducts could make our society more sustainable. DOE Office of Science’s Bioenergy Research Centers have focused on building this bioeconomy since 2007.
Each center takes a different approach to breaking down the barriers towards widespread use of biofuels and bioproducts made with non-food crops. The Center for Advanced Bioenergy and Bioproducts Innovation, led by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, is working to increase the value of energy crops. The Center for Bioenergy Innovation, led by DOE’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, is speeding up the domestication of microbes and plants that are relevant to bioenergy. The Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center, led by the University of Wisconsin-Madison in partnership with Michigan State University, is working to sustainably develop fuels and products from lignocellulose (a material in plant cell walls). The Joint BioEnergy Institute, led by DOE’s Berkeley Lab, focuses on using advanced tools to turn biomass into biofuels and bioproducts.
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Videos: 2021 at the DOE Office of Science’s National Labs
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CommUnique provides a review of recent Office of Science Communications and Public Affairs stories and features. This is only a sample of our recent work promoting research done at universities, national labs, and user facilities throughout the country.
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