Feature Articles
Having a spirit of curiosity, being a fighter and developing the ability to overcome hardship and rejection without losing spirit — that's Aurora.
It's tough enough talking in front of your peers, but add to it the challenge of working as a team and it gets rather intense. Learn what helped and what scared the competitors in the Team Science finals.
Scientists are teaching a computer to predict material structure-property relationships faster and more cost-effectively than ever before.
Research Highlights
Distance matters in love and chemical reactions. See how researchers are using cross-linkers to put proteins and other reaction components at the right distances to study...
Filling pockets with crystals could be key to membranes sorting nearly identical chemicals under extreme conditions.
What affects carbon dioxide's behavior in deep underground reservoirs? Rough, brine-filled pockets and surface coatings.
A hardworking catalyst turns methane from natural gas into a desired building block in one step.
Scientists demonstrate cooling below the air’s temperature using a simple device made from abundant, inexpensive materials.
Editor's Note
It’s about being a fighter. The scientists at the nation’s Energy Frontier Research Centers are a smart and scrappy lot. It takes something special to come to work every day and punch through a problem with no known solution. The answer isn’t in the back of a book. Your former professors may have no idea how to solve it. Your colleagues may not have even thought of the problem in this light. This issue salutes the scientists and the science that comes from rolling up your sleeves and doing the hard work. Read about Aurora Clark, a theoretical chemist who changed careers because she wanted to tackle big questions without answers … yet. Learn about early career scientists who faced their fears of dropping microphones and tough questions in the Team Science finals. And discover how scientists are helping computers fight to get the right answers with deep machine learning.
But it isn’t just about the people or the computers. It is about winning. Five articles highlight the results of various scientific pugilistic matches. Read about the fights. And the wins.
Editorial Board
- Luke Berry, Center for Biological Electron Transfer and Catalysis
- Andrea Bruck, Center for Mesoscale Transport Properties
- Robert Choens, Center for Frontiers of Subsurface Energy Security
- Victoria Davis, Center for Solar Fuels
- Max Grossnickle, Spins and Heat in Nanoscale Electronic Systems
- Zachary Lebens-Higgins, NorthEast Center for Chemical Energy Storage
- Stephen Meckler, Center for Gas Separations Relevant to Clean Energy Technologies
- Daniel Pope, Interfacial Dynamics in Radioactive Environments and Materials
- Jingyun Ye, Inorganometallic Catalyst Design Center
Editor-in-Chief
Kristin Manke, Center for Molecular Electrocatalysis
Photo courtesy of Scott Butner
Disclaimer: The opinions in this newsletter are those of the individual authors and do not represent the views or position of the Department of Energy.