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Neutrinos are the most abundant particles in the universe and could reveal insight into physics beyond the Standard Model. However, they're incredibly difficult to detect. While most neutrino detectors are very large, two experiments supported by the Department of Energy at Oak Ridge National Laboratory are poised to demonstrate that even modest neutrino experiments can make big discoveries.

Without fungi, dead trees wouldn't decay. The short-order cooks of the natural world, certain types of fungi can decompose plant cell walls and deposit carbon back in the soil. Scientists supported by the Department of Energy's Office of Science are investigating these processes and how we may be able to use them to make biofuels production cheaper and more efficient.

There are only a few places that quark-gluon plasma has ever existed -- just after the Big Bang, and at facilities supported by the Department of Energy's Office of Science. This unique substance is so hot that quarks and gluons move freely in it, not part of the protons and neutrons that make up the building blocks of ordinary matter. Scientists are now looking to understand where and how quark-gluon plasma turns into ordinary matter.

Researchers are grappling with increasingly large quantities of image-based data. Machine learning and deep learning offer researchers new ways to analyze images quickly and more efficiently than ever before. Scientists at multiple national laboratories are working together to harness the potential of these tools.

Graphene's remarkable electronic properties have surprised scientists for years. But electrons move through it too easily to use it in everyday electronics. Scientists are researching a variety of ways to direct its electron traffic: creating nanoribbons of it, stretching it, using it with boron nitride, and even making 'artificial atoms' in it.

Setting up a supercomputer is far more complicated than just bringing it home from the electronics store. Staff members of the Department of Energy's supercomputing user facilities spend years on the process, from laying out requirements through troubleshooting. In the end, they run some of the most powerful computers in the world to help solve some of science's biggest problems.