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The source of the aurora borealis: Electrons surfing on Alfvén waves

DOE/US Department of Energy

New experiments have shown the source of the aurora borealis. Researchers have demonstrated Alfvén waves accelerating electrons under conditions that correspond to Earth’s magnetosphere. The new experiments show that electrons “surf” on the electric field of the Alfvén wave in a plasma. These electrons are the ultimate source of the light we call the aurora borealis.

Journal: Nature Communications

Department of Energy announces $10 Million for DOE Traineeship in Computational High Energy Physics

DOE/US Department of Energy
Grant and Award Announcement

Today, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced $10 million in funding for traineeships in computational high energy physics. This funding will support graduate student research that trains the next generation of computational scientists and engineers needed to deliver scientific discoveries.

Decoding the lifecycle of photogenerated charges

DOE/US Department of Energy

New materials will enable novel technologies to turn sunlight into electricity and fuels. Combinations of molecules and tiny nanoparticles make these materials a reality. Scientists have found a way to track electrons along their round trip from the molecules to the nanoparticles and back, helping to find where electrons can travel and where they get stuck, information that is crucial to finding better combinations for innovative materials.

Journal: The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters

DOE’s Office of Science to support 922 outstanding undergraduate students from 2-/4-year colleges and universities, and 64 faculty members from underrepresented institutions

DOE/US Department of Energy
Grant and Award Announcement

The Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Office of Science will sponsor the participation of 922 undergraduate students and 64 faculty members in three STEM-focused workforce development programs at 17 DOE national laboratories and facilities during Summer 2022. Awardees represent academic institutions from across America—including community colleges and historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and other Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs), and institutions in jurisdictions that are part of the Establishing Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR)—highlighting DOE’s commitment to supporting a highly skilled, diverse workforce that is equipped to tackle the science, energy, environmental, and national security challenges of today and tomorrow.

New quantum network shares information at a scale practical for future real-world applications

DOE/US Department of Energy

In a test of the photon entanglement that makes quantum communication possible, researchers built a quantum local area network (QLAN) that shared information among three systems in separate buildings. The team used a protocol called remote state preparation, where a successful measurement of one half of an entangled photon pair converts the other photon to the preferred state. The researchers performed this conversion across all the paired links in the QLAN—a feat not previously accomplished on a quantum network.

Journal: PRX Quantum

Peatland plants hide responses to environmental change

DOE/US Department of Energy

Peatlands store a significant amount of carbon, and researchers expect that peatland plants respond to warming climates will influence future carbon uptake and storage. To better understand this mechanism, especially below ground level, researchers conducted experiments on ecosystem warming. They found that warming and the resulting soil drying significantly increased the growth of fine roots, which may indicate peatlands’ ability to adapt to changing conditions.

Journal: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Department of Energy announces $10 million in novel algorithms for understanding complex energy systems and processes

DOE/US Department of Energy
Grant and Award Announcement

Today, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced $10 million for basic research in the design, development, and scalability of randomized algorithms for scientific computing.

Department of Energy announces $20 million in exploratory research for extreme-scale science

DOE/US Department of Energy
Grant and Award Announcement

Today, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced $20 million in basic research to explore potentially high-impact approaches in extreme-scale science and scientific computing.

Machine learning helps predict protein functions

DOE/US Department of Energy

To engineer proteins for specific functions, scientists change a protein sequence and experimentally test how that change alters its function. Because there are too many possible amino acid sequence changes to test them all in the laboratory, researchers build computational models that predict protein function based on amino acid sequences. Scientists have now combined multiple machine learning approaches for building a simple predictive model that often works better than established, complex methods.

Journal: Nature Biotechnology

Department of Energy announces $40 million for mathematical multifaceted integrated capability centers

DOE/US Department of Energy
Grant and Award Announcement

Today, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced $40 million for fundamental mathematics research on problems of interest to the DOE that require the integration of multiple mathematical topic areas. The Mathematical Multifaceted Integrated Capability Centers (MMICCs) supported by this funding opportunity will enable five-year, multi-institutional collaborations for cross-cutting mathematics.

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