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 27 June 2022
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At first glance, the slightly murky waters in the tube look like a scoop of stormwater, complete with leaves, debris, and even lighter threads in the mix. But in the Petri dish, the thin vermicelli-like threads floating delicately above the leaf debris are revealed to be single bacterial cells, visible to the naked eye. The unusual size is notable because bacteria aren’t usually visible without the assistance of a microscope.
In the June 24, 2022, issue of the journal Science, researchers at the Joint Genome Institute (a Department of Energy Office of Science user facility), DOE’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the Laboratory for Research in Complex Systems, and the Université des Antilles, described the morphological and genomic features of this giant filamentous bacterium, along with its life cycle.
Learn more about this bizarre discovery and what it means for our understanding of bacteria.
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Carbon Fiber: Carbon fiber boasts densities comparable to plastic, strengths comparable to steel, and versatilities comparable to rubber under the right conditions. Researchers at DOE’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory took a first step toward building a scalable computer model that manufacturers can use to improve carbon fiber and its production. |
FRIB’s First Experiment: The first experiment at the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams, the newest DOE Office of Science user facility, has concluded successfully. The experiment – which included researchers from several DOE national laboratories – studied the beta-decay of calcium-48 fragments. The experiment will help us understand how the atomic nucleus changes over time. |
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Modeling Magnets: The performance of accelerator magnets depends in part on their past history. Resetting magnets before starting a new experiment can be time-consuming and expensive. A team that includes researchers from DOE’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory developed a technique to model a magnet’s previous states and make predictions about future states. |
Thawing Permafrost: More areas of year-round unfrozen ground have begun dotting interior and Northwest Alaska. They will continue to increase due to climate change, according to new research by scientists from the University of Alaska Fairbanks. This change has major implications for the movement of carbon among organisms, minerals, and the atmosphere. |
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Improving Tokamaks: Scientists at DOE’s Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory have refined the use of magnetic fields to improve the performance of fusion facilities known as tokamaks. The technique protects internal parts from damage by certain instabilities and will allow tokamaks to operate for longer without pausing. |
Battery Management: A new study shows how a rechargeable battery could use a magnetic material to help monitor the amount of life left in it before it needs to be recharged. The study was done by researchers at the University of Buffalo and Temple University. |
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The Office of Science posted five new highlights between 6/14/22 and 6/27/22.
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Watching Plant Roots: Plants are primary producers in the carbon cycle. They convert approximately 3 to 5 percent of the carbon they create through photosynthesis into molecules. They then convey these molecules into the rhizosphere, the living ecosystem around plant roots. Carbon cycling in these ecosystems has a large effect on global carbon cycling. To study these processes, researchers at DOE’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and Oak Ridge National Laboratory have created a synthetic rhizosphere in the lab. This tool allows scientists to view how roots grow over time in the soil. It will allow them to study underground interactions in a simulated habitat. |
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Axios: America is staring down a summer of disasters
Weather events in the summer are becoming more severe. This article quotes Michael Wehner at DOE’s Berkeley Lab about precautions he is taking in advance of the upcoming wildfire season in California.
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Developing a drug to treat a disease isn’t easy. It first requires screening hundreds of thousands of compounds. Scientists then test a small pool of promising candidates in tissue culture and then later test them in animals. Lastly, after many intermediate steps, they perhaps find one molecule worthy of testing on humans. Using powerful computers to design proteins with the best properties can save time, effort, and expense. Researchers are using the DOE Office of Science’s supercomputing user facilities to speed up this process even more. Find out how they are improving simulations of protein folding using machine learning and quantum computing technology in this feature from ASCR Discovery.
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Video: Science 101 – What is Nanoscience?
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Nanoscience is the science of the incredibly small — sizes that only the most sophisticated high-tech microscopes can see. Every year, many hundreds of scientists travel to the Center for Nanoscale Materials, a DOE Office of Science user facility, from around the world to investigate the properties of materials at the scale of atoms and molecules. In this Science 101: What is Nanoscience video, assistant scientist Jie Xu at DOE’s Argonne National Laboratory explains what nanoscience is and how it is being applied. |
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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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