|
 20 November 2023
|
|
|
The U.S. Global Change Research Program, comprised of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and 13 other federal agencies, recently released the Fifth National Climate Assessment. The report found that Americans are experiencing increased risks from extreme weather events that are exacerbating social inequities. It also found that the United States is taking concrete action to combat climate change, which presents an opportunity to create a more resilient and just nation. DOE researchers were among the nearly 500 authors who contributed to the report, the fifth iteration of the National Climate Assessment since it was first released in 2000.
Learn more about the report’s conclusions and how DOE contributed to it.
|
|
High-performance batteries: Multivalent batteries could be more useful for electric vehicles and grid storage than today’s lithium-ion batteries. Scientists at DOE’s Argonne National Laboratory discovered a behavior that occurs among complex mixtures of components in these batteries. They found that combining two different types of negatively charged ions with positively charged ions can significantly improve the battery’s performance. They conducted the analysis using the Advanced Photon Source Office of Science user facility. |
Separating molecules: Manufacturing medicine, chemicals, and other products relies on separating molecules. Current processes use large amounts of energy. Membranes could provide a cheaper, more sustainable alternative, but they often break down during use. A team led by University at Buffalo researchers created a new sturdier membrane that can better withstand harsh environments. |
|
Solar cell materials: Halide perovskites have led to far more efficient solar cells than previous ones. However, they’re hard to produce reliably at scale. Rice University researchers led a team that developed a new production process. It yields 2D semiconductor layers based on perovskites that have ideal thickness and purity. The process involves carefully controlling the temperature and duration of the crystallization process. |
|
The Office of Science posted five new highlights between 11/7/23 and 11/20/23.
|
|
COVID Inhibitors: Antiviral drugs are critical to treating COVID-19. However, to work effectively, they need to be tailored at the atomic level. A team of researchers that included scientists from DOE’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory combined the features of clinical drugs to treat hepatitis C and viruses similar to COVID-19. This approach allowed them to create BBH-1. It’s a promising inhibitor that targets the breakdown of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19. Inhibitors prevent viruses from entering the body, replicating, or otherwise spreading. The study used several DOE Office of Science user facilities, including the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences, the Spallation Neutron Source, and the High Flux Isotope Reactor. |
|
|
Knowable: The challenge of fusion power
This feature discusses the future of fusion energy and includes quotes from Jonathan Menard at DOE’s Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory.
|
|
National Lab Scientists Receive Gordon Bell Prizes
|
|
|
The Gordon Bell Prize is considered the most prestigious award in advanced scientific computing. Given by the Association for Computing Machinery, it recognizes outstanding achievement in high-performance computing. The 2023 prizes were announced last week at the Supercomputing 2023 conference in Denver, Colorado. Two of the teams that received major awards included scientists at the DOE Office of Science’s national laboratories.
The main ACM 2023 Gordon Bell Prize was awarded to an international team for simulations of materials that achieve quantum accuracy at scale. While molecular dynamics simulations that start from basic physical principles have been useful, they can’t achieve both the quantum accuracy and scale that researchers need them to. The team developed a framework that combines accuracy and efficiency to solve this problem. The team used the Frontier and Summit supercomputers at the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility as well as computers at the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center, both DOE Office of Science user facilities. The team also included a member from DOE’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
The inaugural ACM Gordon Bell Prize for Climate Modeling was awarded to a 19-member team for their project “The Simple Cloud-Resolving E3SM Atmosphere Model Running on the Frontier Exascale System.” Almost all of the team members are based at DOE national laboratories, including Sandia National Laboratories, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Argonne National Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. The model allows scientists to simulate deep convective clouds more accurately. These clouds have large effects on how heat moves across the planet. This model allows exascale computers to run efficient and accurate simulations of these clouds.
|
|
Science 101: Dark Matter and Dark Energy
|
|
Mysterious influences seem to be stretching the universe apart and clumping stuff together in unexpected ways, but we can’t see or touch them. Scientists call these influences dark energy and dark matter. DOE’s Argonne National Laboratory has a new Science 101 article and video explaining what we know – and don’t know – about these influences. |
|
|
Research News Update 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.
|
|
|
|
Please see the Research News Update archive on Energy.gov for past issues.
No. 115: 20 November 2023
|
|
|
|
