Feature Stories

What do a particle collider and a human have in common? Not much. But both have parts that need to be kept within a certain temperature range to function properly. It’s a phenomenon mechanical engineer Thea Vijaya Kumar knows well. She designs systems to keep people and machines cool — a cool job in every sense of the word. Her current focus is on meeting that goal, and how to do it efficiently, for the Electron-Ion Collider (EIC).

Argonne scientists designed a way to optimize discovery of nuclear material coatings and identified a promising new candidate along the way.

Plants are powerful factories – they can turn basic ingredients like carbon dioxide, water, and sunlight into oxygen, sugars, and plant mass. But plants don’t do all of this work on their own. Below the soil’s surface, plant roots work with tiny microbes to gain access to the nutrients they need to survive. This microbial ecosystem, known as the plant microbiome, has the power to make or break a plant’s success aboveground.