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 11 July 2022
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Quantum Networks: A team of researchers with the Illinois‐Express Quantum Network successfully deployed a long-distance quantum network between DOE’s Argonne National Laboratory and Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory using local fiber optics. This accomplishment opens the door to scalable quantum computing. |
Microbial Diversity: Researchers at the University of Oklahoma have found that the warming climate is decreasing microbial diversity. This diversity is essential for soil health. Scientists also found that this loss could be more severe in drylands. The results came from a long-term field experiment that has been running since 2009. |
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Halting COVID Virus Replication: To hijack the body’s molecular machinery, the virus that causes COVID-19 takes over the body’s fat-processing system. In cell cultures, scientists at DOE’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and Oregon Health & Science University used fat-targeting compounds to try to stop the virus. In the cell culture, the virus stopped replicating within 48 hours. |
Li-Ion Batteries: Materials scientists and engineers from Boise State University and the University of California, San Diego have made a new cubic rock salt electrode for lithium-ion batteries. The new electrode has very good properties, including high stability and the ability to store large amounts of energy. |
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Mirror Neutrons Ruled Out: In an effort to solve a long-standing puzzle about how long a neutron can “live” outside an atomic nucleus, physicists at DOE’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory tested a theory positing the existence of a right-handed version of our left-handed universe. However, they did not find a “mirror neutron” or dark-matter twin to the neutron. |
Self-Assembling Spirals: Spirals in nature are associated with the idea that things will organize themselves in the simplest way possible. Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh found that this principle also applies to some non-biological systems. They found that 2D polymer sheets can rise and rotate in spiral helices without additional power. |
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The Office of Science posted two new highlights between 6/28/22 and 7/11/22.
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Quantum Tug Between Water Molecules: Water has many unusual properties that scientists don’t fully understand. The “proton quantum effect” involving the web of hydrogen bonds in water may be the cause of many of these odd characteristics. Scientists from DOE's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory directly observed how hydrogen atoms in water molecules tug and push neighboring molecules when water is excited with laser light. This discovery could help us better understand how water helps proteins function in living organisms. |
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Wired: Inside the deepest underground lab in the U.S.
This video provides a tour of the Sanford Underground Research Facility, which hosts the LZ dark matter experiment and the Majorana Demonstrator neutrino experiment, as well as the future LBNF/DUNE experiment, all of which are supported by DOE’s Office of Science.
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Scientists Discover Cancer Trigger that Could Spur Targeted Drug Therapies
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Researchers at DOE’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have definitively linked the function of a specific domain of proteins to a cancer trigger in humans. This domain of proteins is usually associated with plant-microbe biology. The scientists first used computer simulations to determine that the relevant domain is linked to both the action that drives tumor growth in humans and defense signaling in bioenergy crops. In this recent study, they proved the connection experimentally. This knowledge had eluded scientists for decades. Now, it opens up new possibilities for developing drug therapies for a number of forms of cancer. |
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Happy 10th Anniversary to the Discovery of the Higgs Boson!
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Happy birthday to the Higgs boson! A little more than ten years ago, scientists on two massive collaborations at CERN announced the discovery of the Higgs boson. It was the final piece of the Standard Model of Particle Physics to be discovered. It is also the particle that explains why other fundamental particles have mass.
To learn more, check out this short clip from a lecture Joseph Incandela (who was then the senior spokesperson for the Compact Muon Solenoid experiment at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN) made shortly after the discovery. You can also watch this anniversary explainer video from DOE Fermilab’s Don Lincoln.
Since the discovery of the Higgs, it’s had a huge impact on the physicists involved and those following in their footsteps. Check out articles from Symmetry magazine following up on the scientists involved and the scientists they inspired.
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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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