Dangerous Origins: Solving a Genetic Mystery at the Heart of the COVID-19 Pandemic
Computational biologists dig into the origins of the single unique protein in the SARS-CoV-2 lineage. As the COVID-19 pandemic enters its second year, scientists are…
DOE
Unexpected Twist in Quantum Physics May Explain Matter/Antimatter Imbalance
Lack of symmetry in qubits can’t fix errors in quantum computing, but might explain matter/antimatter imbalance. Unexpected twist in the Kibble-Zurek theory offers a new…
A COSMIC Approach to Nanoscale Science: World-Leading Resolution of Nanomaterials
Instrument at Berkeley Lab’s Advanced Light Source achieves world-leading resolution of nanomaterials. COSMIC, a multipurpose X-ray instrument at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s (Berkeley Lab’s) Advanced…
Super-Earth Atmospheres Probed With Sandia National Lab’s Powerful Z Machine
A step in the search for life elsewhere in the galaxy. The huge forces generated by the Z machine at Sandia National Laboratories are being…
Tuning Electrode Surfaces to Drive the Sunlight-Powered Reactions That Split Water Into Clean Fuel
An electrode material with modified surface atoms generates more electrical current, which drives the sunlight-powered reactions that split water into oxygen and hydrogen—a clean fuel….
Quantum Building Blocks to Produce Exotic Electronic and Magnetic Properties
Oak Ridge National Laboratory scientists demonstrated that an electron microscope can be used to selectively remove carbon atoms from graphene’s atomically thin lattice and stitch…
Researchers Develop Speedier Network Analysis to Boost Recommendation Algorithms and Internet Search
Graphs — data structures that show the relationship among objects — are highly versatile. It’s easy to imagine a graph depicting a social media network’s…
New Metamaterial Structures for Studying the Oldest Light in the Universe
The cosmic microwave background, or CMB, is the electromagnetic echo of the Big Bang, radiation that has been traveling through space and time since the…
Science Made Simple: What is Cosmic Acceleration and Dark Energy?
The universe is expanding, and it expands a little faster all the time. Scientists call the speeding up of this expansion cosmic acceleration. This growth…
Nature’s Funhouse Mirror: New Discovery May Explain the Confounding Asymmetry in the Proton
Asymmetry in the proton confounds physicists, but a new discovery may bring back old theories to explain it. Symmetry — displayed in areas ranging from…
Getting to Net Zero Carbon Emissions – and Even Net Negative – Is Surprisingly Feasible and Affordable
New analysis provides detailed blueprint for the U.S. to become carbon neutral by 2050. Reaching zero net emissions of carbon dioxide from energy and industry…
New Equipment Finds the Flaws in Everything – From Airplanes to Cell Phones
Fracture technology innovation allows faster materials testing. Tim Briggs has built a career at Sandia National Laboratories tearing and breaking things apart with his team…
Clocking the Movement of Electrons Inside an Atom – Down to a Millionth of a Billionth of a Second
Scientists get dramatically better resolution at X-ray free-electron lasers with a new technique. Intense, ultrashort X-ray pulses from hard X-ray free-electron lasers (XFELs) can capture…
New Machine Learning Theory Raises Questions About the Very Nature of Science
A novel computer algorithm, or set of rules, that accurately predicts the orbits of planets in the solar system could be adapted to better predict…
Mira’s Last Journey: Extreme-Scale Exploration of the Dark Universe
A massive simulation of the cosmos and a nod to the next generation of computing. A team of physicists and computer scientists from the U.S….
Experiments Probe Carbon’s Crystal Structure at Record Pressures – Five Times the Pressure in Earth’s Core
Carbon is one of the most ubiquitous elements in existence. As the fourth most abundant element in the universe, a building block for all known…
Charges Cascading Along a Molecular Chain: Paving the Way for Information Transfer in Tiny Circuits
Removing one charged molecule from a one-dimensional array causes the others to alternately turn ‘on’ or ‘off,’ paving the way for information transfer in tiny…
How to Reduce Greenhouse Gas? Tips From Methane-Eating Microbes
Advanced X-ray techniques yield insights into a bacterial enzyme that turns methane gas into liquid fuel. Scientists have determined the structure of a unique enzyme,…