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 8 April 2024
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On screen saver mode, smart TVs often rotate through photos of natural wonders, from waterfalls to canyons. Now imagine hundreds of those televisions, with one single image spread out across them. The photograph is a sweeping panorama of a huge section of the night sky, with stars and galaxies shining bright throughout. That is the type of image that the newly completed Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) Camera will take every 20 seconds on clear nights over the course of a decade.
The LSST Camera isn’t designed to just take pretty pictures. It will offer us new insights into the processes that shaped our universe. The Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Science has supported the design, development, and construction of the camera to further our research into dark matter and dark energy.
Learn more about how the LSST Camera will help us expand our understanding of the universe.
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Dark energy: Researchers have used the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument to make the most precise measurements of how the universe expanded between 8 and 11 billion years ago. This provides a powerful way to study dark energy, the mysterious cause of the universe’s accelerating expansion. The team also created the largest 3D map of the universe ever made. The project is supported by the Office of Science; the director of the project and its co-spokesperson are scientists at DOE’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. |
Lithium-sulfur batteries: Solid-state lithium-sulfur batteries could be less expensive and have higher energy density than today’s lithium-ion batteries. They are also made of more accessible and sustainable materials. But sulfur cathodes have limited longevity and suffer decreased performance as they charge and discharge. Researchers at University of California San Diego developed a new cathode material that better conducts electricity and heals itself, potentially solving many of those issues. |
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Unconventional superconductors: Scientists from DOE’s Ames National Laboratory have identified miassite as the first unconventional superconductor with a chemical composition found in nature. Miassite is one of four minerals found in nature that act as a superconductor when grown in the lab. The team found that miassite has properties similar to high-temperature superconductors. This could lead to less expensive and more sustainable superconductor-based technology. |
Frequency comb: Frequency combs are specialized lasers that act as very precise measurement devices. They’re important for measurement in many areas including molecular detection, but are large, expensive, and use a great deal of energy. Stanford University researchers developed a new type of frequency comb that is small, energy-efficient, and very accurate. The invention could potentially make it possible to integrate them into mass-market electronics. |
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Particle detectors: Physicists use particle detectors to identify the results of collisions of tiny particles. Some of these detectors use superconducting materials to sense very faint electrical traces that particles leave behind. To better detect these electrical traces, detectors need an instrument that can amplify them. Researchers at DOE’s Argonne National Laboratory have developed a “current multiplier” that could be a prototype for a device to fulfill that need. It will be particularly important for the upcoming Electron-Ion Collider user facility. |
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The Office of Science posted five new highlights between 3/26/24 and 4/8/24.
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Quiet cables: Radioactivity in the cables and electronics that detect signals in ultra-sensitive physics experiments can interfere with these experiments’ data collection. These experiments can include projects to detect dark matter or neutrinoless double-beta decay. Researchers at DOE’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory developed a way to reduce this inherent radioactivity. By examining the contaminants that come from cable production and changing the methods to prepare the cables, they developed cables that had 10 to 100 times less of certain radioactive isotopes. |
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Improving Cancer Diagnosis and Reporting with AI
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Artificial intelligence is becoming a powerful tool in cancer researchers’ suite of resources. Scientists at DOE’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) are working with the National Cancer Institute (NCI) on a number of projects through the Modeling Outcomes for Surveillance using Scalable Artificial Intelligence effort.
In two recent studies, researchers from ORNL, the NCI, and universities developed new methods to extract valuable data from cancer pathology reports. One study focused on evaluating attention mechanisms, which are tools to train AI models to focus only on relevant information. The other study focused on developing AI models that can transform large amounts of data into information that is useful and understandable by scientists. The goal is to make it easier to upload data into the NCI's databases, helping researchers access it more quickly. Ideally, it will help experts develop and implement prevention strategies.
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Farewell to DOE Office of Science Director Berhe
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As Director of the DOE’s Office of Science for the past two years, Asmeret Asefaw Berhe has overseen some of the office’s greatest accomplishments, including commencing the exascale era of supercomputing, unveiling the world’s most powerful X-ray laser, and creating a foundation for the future of clean energy. She led major efforts to make the office’s programs, our workforce, and our processes more inclusive, accessible, and equitable than ever before.
Dr. Behre recently announced that she is returning to academic research. March 27 was her final day as director. In her last few months as director, she visited the world’s largest climate research facility (our Southern Great Plains atmospheric observatory) and fostered relationships between the Office of Science and emerging research institutions, historically black colleges and universities, and minority serving institutions. For more on her legacy, read her farewell open letter to staff members of the Office of Science.
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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.
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Please see the archive on Energy.gov for past issues.
No. 116: 8 April 2024
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