Each year, scientists with the Office of Science, at our national laboratories, and supported by the Office of Science at the nation’s colleges and universities, publish thousands of research findings in the scientific literature. About 200 of these are selected annually by their respective program areas in the Office of Science as publication highlights of special note.

For the archive of past publication highlights, click here.

March 27, 2024

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Scientists Confirm that Methane-Processing Microbes Produce a Fossil Record

Microorganisms and their metabolisms help silica to mineralize near deep ocean methane seeps.

March 25, 2024

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Not-Quite “Magic” Oxygen-28 Observed for the First Time

An almost-bound isotope of oxygen undergoes four-neutron decay that challenges theory.

March 22, 2024

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Entanglement Entropies of Nuclear Systems Grow as the Volume of those Systems

Quantum entanglement changes in atomic nuclei in ways that differ from other systems.

March 20, 2024

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Yeast Uses Plastic Waste Oils to Make High-Value Chemicals

Yarrowia lipolytica reallocates its production of protein toward energy and lipid metabolism to grow on hydrocarbons and produce high-value chemicals.

March 18, 2024

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Teasing Strange Matter from Ordinary

New insights reveal details of how strange matter forms.

March 15, 2024

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Searching for the Decay of Nature’s Rarest Isotope: Tantalum-180m

The first results from the MAJORANA experiment dramatically improve current limits on this rare isotope’s decay.

March 13, 2024

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Measuring the Thickness of the Neutron Skin with Ultra-Relativistic Heavy Ion Collisions

Researchers determined the neutron skin of lead-208 from experimental data collected in lead-lead collisions at the CERN Large Hadron Collider.

March 11, 2024

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Inverting Fusion Plasmas Improves Performance

Plasmas with negative triangularity show reduced gradients that develop into instabilities, including under conditions relevant to fusion power plants.

March 8, 2024

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Statisticians and Physicists Team Up to Bring a Machine Learning Approach to Mining of Nuclear Data

Bayesian statistical methods help improve the predictability of complex computational models in experimentally unknown research.

March 6, 2024

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In Peatland Soil, a Warmer Climate and Elevated Carbon Dioxide Rapidly Alter Soil Organic Matter

Experiments find increased temperatures and carbon dioxide rapidly altered peatland carbon stocks, highlighting peatlands’ vulnerability to climate change.