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Supported by his Early Career Research Award at the University of Oregon, computer science professor Hank Childs created new approaches to store, load, and visualize large data sets generated by high-performance computers.

Researchers recently produced single-photon sources with operating wavelengths compatible with existing fiber communication networks using two-dimensional molybdenum ditelluride semiconductor layers on nano-size pillars. This is the first time researchers have demonstrated this type of tunable light sources that could bring quantum advantage to existing telecommunications systems.

While peatlands have historically stored massive amounts of soil carbon, warming is expected to enhance decomposition, leading to a positive climate change feedback effect. This study experimentally warmed peatlands in northern Minnesota and observed increased methane production relative to carbon dioxide release. This methane release process is likely to amplify global climate warming.

Scientists measuring the nucleus of calcium-48 to determine how its 20 protons and 28 neutrons are distributed inside its nucleus found that the protons and neutrons aren’t simply sprinkled throughout the nucleus. Instead, they form a neutron-rich “thin skin” around a core of evenly distributed protons and neutrons. This skin is thinner than many theoretical models predicted and not consistent with expectations based on recent observations of lead’s thick skin.

Northern peatlands contain one third of the Earth’s soil carbon, making them important for carbon storage. In northern peatlands, carbon losses from soil during the winter can exceed carbon storage during the warm growing season, primarily because of the activity of microbes. To better understand how microbes interact in peatland soils during the winter months, this study incubated Arctic peat soils under winter conditions, then analyzed the microbes to understand how the microbes released carbon dioxide.

Quarks are distributed differently in free protons and neutrons versus those inside nuclei, something called “the EMC effect.” Scientists previously thought that the EMC effect treated the up and down quarks in protons and neutrons equally. New high-precision data from the MARATHON experiment indicates that the EMC effect may exert more influence on the distribution of down quarks compared to up quarks inside nuclei.

As precipitation patterns shift in response to climate change, scientists must understand how this change affects soil viruses. In this study, scientists analyzed DNA viruses in three grassland soils with different historical precipitation patterns: low precipitation from eastern Washington, intermediate precipitation from Kansas, and high precipitation from Iowa. The researchers found that viruses were more diverse and more common in drier soil.

Subatomic particles’ spin dictates how they propagate, interact, and form bound states. But how proton spin arises from quarks and gluons is a mystery, and experimental measurements of the individual contributions of quark and gluon spin don’t add up to the proton’s total spin. The orbital motion of quarks and gluons in the proton may account for the rest. Theorists have now proposed a way to measure this property using the future Electron-Ion Collider.