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 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.

March 4, 2024

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The “Nested Doll” Nucleus Nitrogen-9 Stretches the Definition of a Nucleus to the Limit

Nitrogen-9 has only two neutrons to its seven protons and decays to an alpha particle by emitting five of its protons in stages.

March 1, 2024

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Filling in the Cracks: Scientists Improve Predictions for the Dissolution of Minerals in Rock Fractures

A new correction factor for predicting dissolution rates uses measurable geological properties in fractured media.

February 28, 2024

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Artificial Atoms Power a Novel Quantum Processor Architecture

Fluxonium qubits can build cutting-edge quantum devices that will harness the potential of quantum computing.

February 26, 2024

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Novel Theory-Based Evaluation Gives a Clearer Picture of Fusion in the Sun

Theoretical calculations and experimental data combine to reduce uncertainty in a key reaction rate in modelling high-energy solar neutrinos.