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 6 February 2023
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The Early Career Research Program provides financial support that is foundational to early career investigators, enabling them to define and direct independent research in areas important to Department of Energy (DOE) missions. The Early Career Award Winner series provides awardees with an opportunity to explain the results of their research in their own words.
Developing liquid transportation fuels that are both renewable and compatible with existing fuel infrastructure is a major research challenge. Corn ethanol provides nearly all the renewable fuel currently used in the United States. However, attention is shifting to “advanced” biofuels that more closely resemble gasoline and jet fuel.
Learn how the Department of Energy (DOE) Early Career Research Program Award supported Jamey Young’s research on cyanobacteria to produce liquid renewable fuels.
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Garnet batteries: Solid-state batteries use solid material instead of a liquid to move ions between electrodes in a battery. They could store much more energy than current batteries. The gemstone garnet is a promising material for solid-state batteries, but forms needle-like growths that make them less durable. Researchers at DOE’s Argonne National Laboratory, DOE's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Princeton University, and Purdue University used the Advanced Photon Source user facility to examine how to avoid this problem. |
Folding proteins: How biological proteins fold and move is essential to almost every process in living organisms. However, studying these processes experimentally takes a tremendous amount of time. Researchers at Georgia Tech ran a deep learning tool (a form of artificial intelligence) on Summit at the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility Office of Science user facility with this focus. By comparing its predictions to experimental data, they found the tool could pick out which proteins were most likely to form functional complexes. |
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Extreme pressure: Conventional scientific thought says that when pressure increases, heat moves faster through materials. However, researchers at UCLA found that heat actually moved slower through the material boron nitride once it reached a certain point of extremely high pressure. This finding could be used to help make new materials for energy management. The scientists used the Advanced Light Source and Advanced Photon Source user facilities in their research. |
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A new form of carbon: In addition to being part of all living things, carbon is extremely useful in material science. Researchers at the Columbia Quantum Initiative have discovered a new form of carbon called graphullerene. It is like a cross between two-dimensional graphene and the superatomic structure of fullerene. It could point towards a whole new family of materials. |
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The Office of Science posted four new highlights between 1/24/23 and 2/6/23.
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Erosion in fusion reactors: Future fusion power reactors need walls that erode very little over time. As the wall’s surface erodes, it releases impurities that reduce the reactor’s performance and lifespan. To improve models of this process, scientists examined how erosion occurs on rough surfaces like walls in a fusion reactor. Researchers from DOE’s Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, Princeton University, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, San Diego State University, and General Atomics took and analyzed data from the D-IIID National Fusion Facility DOE Office of Science user facility. |
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Smithsonian Magazine: The Smithsonian will restore hundreds of the world’s oldest sound recordings
Scientists at DOE’s Berkeley Lab are helping historians at the National Museum of American History and the Library of Congress “play” recordings of Alexander Graham Bell that were thought to be impossible to listen to. The technology is based on research first done to develop instruments for particle physics.
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Renewable energy is essential to cutting our production of greenhouse gases, but technologies that capture and convert carbon dioxide can complement these efforts. Projects supported by the DOE’s Office of Science are finding new ways to capture and reuse this greenhouse gas.
Building on basic research supported by the Office of Science, researchers at DOE’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory recently created a new system that captures carbon dioxide and converts it into methanol, an important chemical for manufacturing. It is the cheapest system for carbon capture developed to date.
Scientists from DOE’s Ames National Laboratory, Iowa State University, University of Virginia, and Columbia University have developed a hybrid catalyst that converts carbon dioxide into ethylene in “one pot.” Ethylene is a major commodity chemical used to manufacture a variety of products. The scientists combined two catalysts to streamline the conversion process and make it more efficient.
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Video: Behind the Science - Technicians
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Investigating the fundamental forces that shape the world around us requires a skilled, passionate team of people, from technicians to researchers. Scientific technicians are essential to keeping our equipment in tip-top shape and ensuring that researchers can use that equipment effectively. Learn about the essential role they play in scientific discovery in this video from DOE’s Fermilab. |
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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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