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 13 June 2022
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Scientists often use unique materials and specialized equipment for research—such as powerful accelerators to move nuclei at half the speed of light or electron microscopes to probe individual atoms. At the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science, our national laboratories and user facilities house tools that are often at the forefront of technology and are frequently one-of-a-kind instruments.
These tools contain many thousands of unique components and take months or years to build. That’s why global supply chain disruptions—such as delayed shipping, high demand, or skilled labor shortages—can impact research. However, a mitigation plan can help keep projects on track.
Learn more about how DOE’s Office of Science is minimizing the risk of supply chain disruptions to scientific research.
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The Office of Science posted 56 news pieces between 6/1/2022 and 6/13/2022.
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Upcycling Plastics: A team led by scientists from DOE’s Ames Laboratory has found a way to speed up a strategy for breaking down polyolefin plastics. In 2020, they developed a catalyst to deconstruct these plastics into molecules that could then be used to make valuable products. This new research makes the catalyst even more useful. |
Protein Structures for Medicine: Researchers from Texas A&M have described several protein structures of a crucial player in cellular processes. They used the Advanced Light Source and Advanced Photon Source DOE Office of Science user facilities in their work. This work could contribute to developing treatments for diseases such as Alzheimer’s and AIDS. |
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Neutrino Flavors: The Daya Bay Reactor Neutrino Experiment has captured millions of interactions from subatomic particles called neutrinos. The research team – which includes scientists from DOE’s Brookhaven National Laboratory and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory – has reported the first result from the experiment’s full dataset. It is the most precise measurement yet of a key parameter for understanding how neutrinos change their “flavor.” |
Steps Towards Room-Temperature Superconductors: Scientists from DOE’s SLAC National Laboratory, Yale University, and their partners have found a new link between superconductivity — the flow of electric current without a loss of energy — and a phenomenon known as charge density waves. Charge density waves are ripples in the density of electrons in a material. This discovery brings us closer to developing room-temperature superconductors. |
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Decomposing Lignin: A new artificial enzyme can chew through lignin, the tough polymer that helps woody plants hold their shape. A team of researchers at Washington State University and the DOE’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory developed this new enzyme. While lignin has tremendous potential, it is very hard to break down. This technology could make it much more useful for renewable energy. |
Sustainable Agriculture: An integrated approach to land management practices in the U.S. can reduce carbon dioxide in the atmosphere far more than earlier estimates based on separate approaches calculated, according to researchers from Michigan State University. They combined growing crops for bioenergy with land management practices like growing cover crops, reforestation, and grassland management. |
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The Office of Science posted four new highlights between 6/1/2022 and 6/13/2022.
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Fixing Spinal Cord Injuries: Hundreds of thousands of people worldwide suffer spinal injuries every year, often leading to paralysis. A new injectable therapy for spinal cord injuries uses specially engineered molecules that trigger a healing response in spinal cells. The treatment reversed paralysis in mice after four weeks with a single dose. The research team from Northwestern University and the Air Force Research Laboratories used X-ray characterization at the Advanced Photon Source DOE Office of Science user facility. This allowed the researchers to determine the structure of these molecules as they come together to form tiny fibers in a liquid solution. |
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Pushing the Boundaries of Moore’s Law: How Can Extreme UV Light Produce Tiny Microchips?
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Advances in microelectronics – also known as microchips or chips – have enabled fast, powerful, compact smartphones and laptops. Chips consist of miniaturized components called transistors – tiny silicon switches that process and store data as ones and zeroes. The more transistors a chip has, the faster it can process data. Since the 1960s, the chip industry has used lithography to mass produce microchips. This technique uses light to print tiny patterns on silicon. Now the chip industry has started using extreme ultraviolet lithography, which allows the development of ever-smaller microchip circuits and transistors. This technology is the result of decades of research, much of which occurred at the Center for X-Ray Optics at DOE’s Berkeley Lab. The instruments at this center use the light from the Advanced Light Source, a DOE Office of Science user facility.
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Video: ORNL, Partners Launch First Experiments Using New Facility to Make Cosmic Isotopes on Earth
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The Facility for Rare Isotope Beams, a new flagship DOE Office of Science user facility for nuclear physics, opened on May 2 at Michigan State University. Scientists from DOE’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have a hand in 10 of its first 34 experiments. By being able to access more than 1,000 new isotopes, scientists will be able to advance research in physics, medicine, and national security. Learn more in this new video from DOE's Oak Ridge National Lab. |
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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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