Feature Stories
Theoretical calculations predicted now-confirmed tetraneutron, an exotic state of matter
Iowa State UniversityIowa State University's James Vary and an international team of nuclear physicists used supercomputers to theorize and predict that a four-neutron structure, a tetraneutron, could form for just billions of billionths of a second. Experiments in Japan have now confirmed the reality of a tetraneutron.
- Funder
- U.S. Department of Energy, National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center
City, county and port support Galveston Bay Park study
Rice UniversityHouston, Harris County, Port Houston and entrepreneur Joe Swinbank have chipped in for an engineering study of Galveston Bay Park, a chain of man-made islands that Rice University experts have proposed building as both a hurricane barrier and a 10,000-acre public park.
A novel crystal structure sheds light on the dynamics of extrasolar planets
DOE/Argonne National LaboratoryScientists uncover a new crystal structure of a mineral in extrasolar planets using Argonne’s Advanced Photon Source.
- Journal
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Rescuing ancient Maya history from the plow
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, News BureauThings have changed since I was last in Belize in 2018, when I excavated the ancestral Maya pilgrimage site Cara Blanca. Thousands of acres of jungle are gone, replaced by fields of corn and sugarcane. Hundreds of ancestral Maya mounds are now exposed in the treeless landscape, covered by soil that is currently plowed several times a year.
- Funder
- National Science Foundation
Exploring explosives for expanding geothermal energy
DOE/Sandia National LaboratoriesWhy are scientists setting off small-scale explosions inside 1-foot cubes of plexiglass? They’re watching how fractures form and grow in a rock-like substance to see if explosives or propellants, similar to jet fuel, can connect geothermal wells in a predictable manner.
- Funder
- DOE/US Department of Energy
Welcome to snake season
University of Texas at ArlingtonAs average temperatures blaze into the mid-90s, Texas residents venturing outdoors may spot a few snakes slithering across their backyards or local walking trails. It’s snake season, and Greg Pandelis, curator of the Amphibian and Reptile Diversity Research Center at The University of Texas at Arlington, is on a mission to raise awareness of and appreciation for Texas’ reptilian residents.
Humanitarian effort to eradicate schistosomiasis enters important stage
Texas Tech University Health Sciences CenterTTUHSC’s Afzal A. Siddiqui, Ph.D., began developing a schistosomiasis vaccine in 1991 as a humanitarian effort. In May, the first dose of SchistoShield® vaccine was delivered into the arm of a human being, filling Siddiqui with joy and fear and other new feelings. An estimated 250 million people are currently infected with schistosomiasis; approximately 800 million more are at risk in 79 countries where the disease is considered to be endemic.
- Funder
- NIH/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, European Union Horizon 2020 Program, Wellcome Trust, RIGHT Fund
Argonne introduces Safe Zone training during Pride Month to advance allyship, inclusion for LGBTQIA+ employees
DOE/Argonne National LaboratoryThe first Safe Zone Project workshop at Argonne focuses on allyship with more vital topics to help increase communication, safety and bias-free inclusion in the workplace for LGBTQIA+ employees.
Is recycled wastewater the answer to California’s water shortage?
University of Southern CaliforniaQ&A with Dan McCurry, assistant professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering, on California water restrictions, the different types of wastewater and whether he meets the new state requirements for personal water use.