Feature Articles

Ames Laboratory

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Updates every hour. Last Updated: 20-Jun-2026 08:15 ET (20-Jun-2026 12:15 GMT/UTC)

Preparing for a future pandemic with artificial intelligence

DOE/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

PNNL data scientists are refining their artificial intelligence tools with COVID-19 data to advance therapeutics and treatments for a future pandemic.

High-speed alloy creation might revolutionize hydrogen’s future

DOE/Sandia National Laboratories

A Sandia National Laboratories team of materials scientists and computer scientists have spent more than a year helping to create 12 new alloys — and model hundreds more — that demonstrate how machine learning can help accelerate the future of hydrogen energy.

Enclosing radiation-loaded particles to better seek and destroy cancer

DOE/US Department of Energy

When medical isotopes are used to treat diseases, they emit large amounts of energy that makes it hard to keep them near the target cells. Researchers are now testing a way to enclose isotopes in tiny pieces of biodegradable material that will keep the isotopes at treatment sites, ensuring that their energy can kill diseased cells with little effect on surrounding cells.

One year in, Q-NEXT quantum research center is going strong

DOE/Argonne National Laboratory

The article summarizes Q-NEXT’s first year of activities, including scientific research, infrastructure building, and workforce development.

ORNL expertise supports latest IPCC report and efforts to understand, address climate change

DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Improved data, models and analyses from Oak Ridge National Laboratory scientists and many other researchers in the latest global climate assessment report provide new levels of certainty about what the future holds for the planet and highlight the urgency of decarbonization to avoid the most severe impacts.

Living laboratory, biodiversity hub: The Oak Ridge National Environmental Research Park

DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Nestled at the intersection of eastern Tennessee’s Anderson and Roane Counties, the Oak Ridge National Environmental Research Park is a living laboratory and a major resource for conducting ecological studies.

Keeping waste where it belongs: Grain size explains how spent nuclear fuel enters the environment

DOE/US Department of Energy

When compounds in spent nuclear fuel break down, they can release radioactive elements into the ground and water. Scientists know that one fuel compound, neptunium dioxide, reacts with water, but they do not fully understand the process. This new study found that neptunium tends to dissolve where grains of the material come together, and larger grains are less likely to dissolve.

The Lab in the living room: Summer interns delve into plasma and fusion research from their homes

DOE/Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory

Summer interns working for PPPL did hands-on research from their computers in their bedrooms or on their dining room tables all over the U.S. They worked closely with PPPL physicists and engineers on research aimed at understanding ionized gases called plasmas.

Fighting viruses with algae

DOE/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

A comprehensive literature review linking algae and antivirals determines compounds in algae may demonstrate an exceptional—and as yet untapped—potential to combat viral diseases at every point along the viral infection pathway.

Journal: Algal Research
Funder: U.S. Department of Energy

Anže Slosar: Then and Now; 2011 Early Career Award Winner

DOE/US Department of Energy

To map the structures in the universe, Anže Slosar scaled up Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey data. He uses light from very distant cosmic objects called quasars as a backlight to illuminate the structure in the universe in front of them.