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Energy cascades in quasicrystals trigger an avalanche of discovery

DOE/Argonne National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

In a new study from Argonne National Laboratory, scientists looked at networks of magnetic material patterned into the unique and quite beautiful geometries of quasicrystals to see how the nature of the non-repeating patterns lead to the emergence of unusual energetic effects.

Journal: Scientific Reports
Funder: DOE/US Department of Energy, Basic Energy Sciences

Machine learning enables predictive modeling of 2-D materials

DOE/Argonne National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

In a study published in The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters, a team of researchers led by Argonne computational scientist Subramanian Sankaranarayanan described their use of machine learning tools to create the first atomic-level model that accurately predicts the thermal properties of stanene, a 2-D material made up of a one-atom-thick sheet of tin.

Journal: The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters

Komodo dragons help researchers understand microbial health in captive animals

DOE/Argonne National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Researchers at the University of California San Diego, the University of Colorado-Boulder, the University of Chicago and Argonne are the first to identify similarities in the way in which Komodo dragons and humans and their pets share microbes within closed environments.

Journal: mSystems
Funder: US Department of Energy's Laboratory Directed Research and Development, John S. Templeton Foundation, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation

Argonne researchers study how reflectivity of biofuel crops impacts climate

DOE/Argonne National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Researchers at Argonne National Laboratory have conducted a detailed study of the albedo (reflectivity) effects of converting land to grow biofuel crops. Based on changes in albedo alone, their findings reveal that greenhouse gas emissions in land use change scenarios represent a net warming effect for ethanol made from miscanthus grass and switchgrass, but a net cooling effect for ethanol made from corn

Journal: Energy & Environmental Science
Funder: DOE/US Department of Energy, Bioenergy Technologies Office

Argonne researchers posit way to locally circumvent Second Law of Thermodynamics

DOE/Argonne National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

For more than a century and a half of physics, the Second Law of Thermodynamics, which states that entropy always increases, has been as close to inviolable as any law we know. In this universe, chaos reigns supreme. But researchers with Argonne announced recently that they may have discovered a little loophole in this famous maxim. Their research, published in Scientific Reports, lays out a possible avenue to a situation where the Second Law is violated on the microscopic level.

Journal: Scientific Reports
Funder: DOE/US Department of Energy, Swiss National Foundation, Pauli Center for Theoretical Studies at Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Russian Foundation for Basic Research

Former Fermilab researcher Sekazi Mtingwa to share 2017 Wilson Prize

DOE/Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory

Theoretical physicist Sekazi Mtingwa, a former Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory scientist, will share the 2017 Robert R. Wilson Prize for Achievement in the Physics of Particle Accelerators for groundbreaking theoretical work that helped researchers understand and cope with an important constraint on the intensity and focus of particle beams in accelerators.

Hunting the nearly un-huntable

DOE/Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory

Scientists on two neutrino experiments -- the MINOS experiment at Fermilab and the Daya Bay experiment in China -- have presented results that limit the places where sterile neutrinos might be hiding.

Argonne ahead of the 'curve' in magnetic study

DOE/Argonne National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

In a new study by researchers at the US Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory, scientists noticed that magnetic skyrmions -- small electrically uncharged circular structures with a spiraling magnetic pattern -- do get deflected by an applied current, much like a curveball gets deflected by airflow.

Journal: Nature Physics
Funder: US Department of Energy's Office of Science, National Science Foundation

Diamond proves useful material for growing graphene

DOE/Argonne National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A team has developed a method to grow graphene that contains relatively few impurities, and costs less to make, in a shorter time and at lower temperatures compared to the processes widely used to make graphene today.

Journal: Nature Communications
Funder: DOE/US Department of Energy

Seeing energized light-active molecules proves quick work for Argonne scientists

DOE/Argonne National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

To understand how molecules undergo light-driven chemical transformations, scientists need to be able to follow the atoms and electrons within the energized molecule as it gains and loses energy. In a recent study, a team of researchers at Argonne, Northwestern University and the Technical University of Denmark used the ultrafast high-intensity pulsed X-rays produced by the Linac Coherent Light Source to take molecular snapshots of these molecules.

Journal: Journal of the American Chemical Society
Funder: DOE/ Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences, National Institute of Health