Feature Articles

Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory

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Updates every hour. Last Updated: 24-Jun-2026 04:15 ET (24-Jun-2026 08:15 GMT/UTC)

Rouven Essig: Then and Now / 2012 Early Career Award Winner

DOE/US Department of Energy

Rouven Essig is a theoretical particle physicist at Stony Brook University. He conceives new experiments and detection methods in the search for knowledge about dark matter.

RHIC gets ready to smash gold ions for Run 23

DOE/Brookhaven National Laboratory

The start of this year’s physics run at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) also marks the start of a new era. For the first time since RHIC began operating at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory in 2000, a brand new detector, known as sPHENIX, will track what happens when the nuclei of gold atoms smash into one another at nearly the speed of light. RHIC’s STAR detector, which has been running and evolving since 2000, will also see some firsts in Run 23.

X-ray beams help researchers learn new tricks from old metals

DOE/Argonne National Laboratory

From a nanoscale grain of platinum, researchers made a first step in developing a tool that enables them to characterize the materials with a new level of detail, ultimately producing the best materials for the hydrogen production and use.

Journal: Nano Letters

New tools to combat Chicago’s changing climate

DOE/Argonne National Laboratory

Argonne and Northeastern Illinois University launched instruments to measure Chicago’s changing climate. These sensors are the first for the Argonne-led Urban Integrated Field Laboratory called Community Research on Climate and Urban Science (CROCUS).

A new look at the electric vehicle supply chain as battery-powered cars hit the roads en masse

DOE/Argonne National Laboratory

Researchers at Argonne have published a series of reports that look at how production of electric vehicles and lithium-ion batteries for cars are reshaping the transportation sector, with impacts ranging from job creation to reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.

Using math to map social connections

DOE/Sandia National Laboratories

Mike Brzustowicz and his team are using a mathematical principle and Sandia’s computing capabilities to probe the mysteries of connections between people and things, and create a predictive measure for everything from energy grid resiliency to A.I.

Zhaodi Pan seeks to uncover the oldest mysteries of the universe

DOE/Argonne National Laboratory

Zhaodi Pan developed a detector to search for ancient clues in the cosmic microwave background.

Sustaining US nuclear power plants could be key to decarbonization

DOE/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

As the world races to discover solutions for reaching net zero carbon emissions, a PNNL analysis quantifies the economic value of the existing nuclear power fleet and its carbon-free energy contributions.

Journal: Nuclear Technology

Cybersecurity goes undercover to protect electric grid data

DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Inspired by one of the mysteries of human perception, an ORNL researcher invented a new way to hide sensitive electric grid information from cyberattack: Within a constantly-changing color palette.

Let’s get cracking: Sandia scientists detect gases from fractured rock

DOE/Sandia National Laboratories

Geoscientists have detected specific gases being released from fractured rocks in real time after a series of small chemical explosions set underground. This fundamental research, led by Sandia National Laboratories geoscientist Steve Bauer, could one day improve the prediction of earthquakes or detection of underground explosions.

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