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21-Mar-2023

Department of Energy announces $150 million for research on the science foundations for Energy Earthshots

DOE/US Department of Energy
Grant and Award Announcement

Today, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced $150 million for research into the crosscutting foundational science for multiple Energy Earthshots. This funding, provided by the Office of Science, will support fundamental research to accelerate breakthroughs in support of the Energy Earthshots Initiative.

21-Mar-2023

Imaging the proton with neutrinos

DOE/US Department of Energy
Peer-Reviewed Publication

The interactions of the quarks and gluons that make up protons and neutrons are so strong that the structure of protons and neutrons is difficult to calculate from theory and must be instead measured experimentally. Neutrino experiments use targets that are nuclei made of many protons and neutrons bound together. This complicates interpreting those measurements to infer proton structure. By scattering neutrinos from the protons that are the nuclei of hydrogen atoms in the MINERvA detector, scientists have provided the first measurements of this structure with neutrinos using unbound protons.

Journal: Nature

21-Mar-2023

Scientists find a common thread linking subatomic color glass condensate and massive black holes

DOE/US Department of Energy
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Atomic nuclei accelerated close to the speed of light become dense walls of gluons known as color glass condensate (CGC). Recent analysis shows that CGC shares features with black holes, enormous conglomerates of gravitons that exert gravitational force across the universe. Both gluons in CGC and gravitons in black holes are organized in the most efficient manner possible for each system’s energy and size.

Journal: Physical Review D

17-Mar-2023

DOE announces $590 million to increase bioenergy research

DOE/US Department of Energy
Grant and Award Announcement

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today announced $590 million to renew its four existing Bioenergy Research Centers (BRCs). This funding will help support the Department’s research into the next generation of sustainable, cost-effective bioproducts and bioenergy from domestic biomass resources, which is critical to reducing harmful greenhouse gas emissions, ensuring future energy security, and creating new economic opportunities in rural areas. Since their inception, the BRCs have made groundbreaking scientific contributions to and advancements in biotechnology that are helping to expand the diversity of reliable domestic clean energy sources and ensuring the United States reaches President Biden’s ambitious goal of net-zero emissions economy by 2050.

15-Mar-2023

Resistance in walls can cause disruptive energy loss

DOE/US Department of Energy

Under certain conditions, tokamaks can suffer a sudden loss of energy to the vessel walls. This is sometimes caused by a magnetohydrodynamic instability, or mode, coupling to the vacuum vessel. New research demonstrates that the rate of thermal energy loss is consistent with the growth of a particular instability, the resistive wall tearing mode. The results will aid in the operation of the ITER tokamak now under construction.

Journal: Physics of Plasmas

13-Mar-2023

Deep forest soils lose carbon under experimental warming

DOE/US Department of Energy

Soils deeper than 20 centimeters may account for roughly half of the carbon that soils store overall. Warmer temperatures can stimulate microbial decomposition of this carbon. This study of five years of experimental warming found a significant reduction in the carbon stock stored in deep forest soils, confirming that climate change can increase the release of carbon from soil.

Journal: Science Advances

10-Mar-2023

Bio-mining fool’s gold

DOE/US Department of Energy

Scientists previously believed that microorganisms could not use pyrite to grow in oxygen-free conditions. New research shows that certain single-celled microorganisms can dissolve pyrite in the absence of oxygen. These microorganisms mine iron and sulfur from the pyrite to build biocatalysts needed for growth. The results have potential applications in biotechnology.

Journal: The ISME Journal

8-Mar-2023

Hitting nuclei with light may create fluid primordial matter

DOE/US Department of Energy
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A new analysis supports the idea that photons colliding with heavy ions create a fluid of “strongly interacting” particles. The results indicate that photon-heavy ion collisions can create a strongly interacting fluid that responds to the initial collision geometry and that these collisions can form a quark-gluon plasma. These findings will help guide future experiments at the planned Electron-Ion Collider.

Journal: Physical Review Letters

7-Mar-2023

Department of Energy and NASA join forces on innovative lunar experiment

DOE/US Department of Energy
Business Announcement

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) are working together to develop a science instrument that will survive the harsh and unforgiving environment of the nighttime lunar surface on the far side of the Moon to attempt first-of-its-kind measurements of the so-called Dark Ages of the Universe.

6-Mar-2023

Metal contamination causes metabolic stress in environmental bacteria

DOE/US Department of Energy

Most studies on the effects of heavy metals on bacteria living in these environments have only focused on one metal at a time. In this study, researchers found that exposing bacteria to a mixture of metals caused their metabolism to change and led them to act as if they were starved for iron.

Journal: The ISME Journal