Science Highlights

For the first time, scientists measured radium’s bonding interactions with oxygen atoms in an organic molecule. This finding will aid researchers developing chelators for the delivery of radium isotopes for cancer treatment. The results are important in part because they revealed that radium is less similar than expected to barium, which is often used as a substitute for radium during chelator development.

Building large-scale quantum computers will require the ability to create and control qubits made of industrially relevant materials. Researchers have used atomic-level simulations to understand how the vacancies in silicon carbide that translate into spin-based qubits form and behave. This is an important step toward the future of quantum computing as well as quantum sensing.

The way protons and neutrons move between two nuclei is key to understanding the processes in low-energy nuclear fusion reactions. As the nuclei draw close enough for the nuclear forces to become effective, neutrons and protons can migrate from one nucleus to another, potentially easing the fusion process. This study explored the influence on low-energy fusion processes of isospin composition, the property that differentiates protons from neutrons.

Oak Ridge National Laboratory scientists ingeniously created a sustainable, soft material by combining rubber with woody reinforcements and incorporating “smart” linkages between the components that unlock on demand. The smart linkages allow heat to unlock the structure, enabling the material to flow for rapid circular manufacturing, which essentially recycles materials back into the economy instead of discarding them.

Lignin is the world’s largest renewable source of aromatic carbon for potential bioproducts manufacture. Scientists have now engineered a bacterium to convert this aromatic carbon into two useful chemical compounds: carotenoids and an acid called PDC. This could help make biorefineries more sustainable and economically viable.

Bacteriophages are the most common biological entities in microbial communities, but it has been challenging to study their biology. As a result, the genomes of most phages contain many genes of unknown function. In this study, researchers developed a new CRISPR-based technology to reduce the activity of genes  in phages to determine if those genes are essential.

Astatine-211 is a promising alpha emitter for targeted alpha therapy for cancer, but astatine is among the least-studied elements. In this research, scientists investigated astatine’s behavior when interacting with ion exchange and extraction chromatography resins used to produce radioisotopes and delivering them to targets in the body. The results will help scientists understand how astatine binds to molecules that target the isotope’s delivery.