News

Los Alamos National Laboratory sits perched atop the Pajarito Plateau, a vast volcanic rise cut deep by canyons carved by water over millennia. These same canyons funnel water from the mesa tops to the Rio Grande below. Because of this, the laboratory proactively monitors potential contaminants in stormwater,

stormwater

Rainwater or melted snow that runs off streets, lawns and other sites.

Source: EPA Source

surface water

surface water

Any body of water above ground, including streams, rivers, and lakes.

Source: NASA Source

and groundwater

groundwater

Water that occurs below Earth's surface. When rain falls to the ground, a portion percolates (sinks) into the ground and collects in spaces in the underground rocks.

Source: A student's guide to Global Climate Change Source

that could make their way to the river.

Off the coast of La Jolla, California, not far from downtown San Diego, marine stratocumulus clouds

marine stratocumulus cloud

Marine stratocumulus clouds (MSCs) typically lie at low-altitudes below 6,000 feet, covering about 20 percent of the low-latitude oceans, or 6.5 percent of the Earth’s surface.

Source: NOAA Source

often appear in dramatic decks. The surfers who crowd along either side of the Ellen Browning Scripps Memorial Pier might take for granted these gatherings of liquid water, ice (occasionally), particles, and complex gases. But to a cohort of international scientists, these clouds are of intense interest.

Brookhaven Women in Science (BWIS), supported in part by Brookhaven Science Associates (BSA) at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory, is accepting applications from women graduate students for three prizes and awards: the Renate Chasman Award, the Gertrude Scharff-Goldhaber Prize, and the Joanna Fowler Award in Chemical and Biochemical Sciences.

There is an old saying: You cannot change the wind, but you can always change your sails. Over the past year, the National Renewable Energy

renewable energy

Renewable energy comes from unlimited, naturally replenished resources, such as the sun, tides, and wind. Renewable energy can be used for electricity generation, space and water heating and cooling, and transportation.

Source: U.S Department of Energy Source

Laboratory (NREL) and industry partner Nextracker teamed up to advance the reliability of photovoltaic

photovoltaic

More commonly known as solar panels – generate power using devices that absorb energy from sunlight and convert it into electrical energy through semiconducting materials.

Source: Department of Energy Source

(PV) tracker technologies during severe weather events. What they discovered is already blowing down previously accepted industry design standards.

Neural networks reveal overlooked flow quantities for improved surface flux

flux

The amount of some type of particle or energy crossing a unit area per unit time.

Source: NRC Library Source

modeling and provide robust performance with a physics-aware approach. Turbulence near the Earth’s surface effectively transports momentum, heat, and moisture into the atmosphere. However, a universal model to accurately represent these turbulent fluxes in various flows does not exist.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory has once again won the DOE gold-level GreenBuy Award and its first GreenSpace Award (bronze level), making it the first site in the DOE complex to win both awards. The GreenBuy Award Program recognizes DOE sites for excellence in “green-sustainable purchasing” that extends beyond minimum compliance requirements.

Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory and Oklahoma State University have identified key genes and the mechanism by which they control flowering in sorghum,

sorghum

A cereal grain crop grown primarily for its seeds, which can be consumed by humans, fed to livestock, or used to make sorghum syrup.

Source: Source

an important bioenergy

bioenergy

A renewable energy derived from biological sources, to be used for heat, electricity, or vehicle fuel.

Source: USDA Source

crop. The findings, just published in the journal New Phytologist, suggest strategies to delay sorghum flowering to maximize plant growth and the amount of biomass

biomass

Material that comes from living things, including trees, crops, grasses, and animals and animal waste. Some kinds of biomass, such as wood and biofuels, can be burned to produce energy.

Source: EPA Global Climate Change Source

available for generating biofuels

biofuel

Liquid fuels that are produced from renewable biological sources, including plants and algae. Biofuels offer an alternative to some of the challenges of solar, wind, and other alternative energy sources.

Source: Energy.Gov Source

and bioproducts.

bioproducts

produced from renewable matter, usually found in the form of living plants.

Source: USDA Source

Students from Los Alamos have once again proven that when it comes to science and math, they know their stuff. They were among the science and math buffs from seven New Mexico high schools who gathered this weekend at Albuquerque Academy for the Department of Energy Regional Science Bowl, sponsored by Sandia National Laboratories.

A key solution for carbon capture and storage is under our feet. We’re investigating the interactions between plants, microbes,

microbe

Microbes are tiny living things that are found all around us and are too small to be seen by the naked eye. They live in water, soil, and in the air.

Source: NIH Source

and geological features in soil with the goal of using healthy soil ecosystems

ecosystem

A natural community of plants, animals, and other living organisms and the physical environment in which they live and interact.

Source: A student's guide to Global Climate Change Source

to pull carbon from the atmosphere and stash it underground for a long time, at a low cost.

Registration is now open for Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s (LLNL’s) summer science education programs. Programming for summer 2024 includes hands-on experiences for students that relate to several LLNL research themes. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory invites high school students to apply for these opportunities to explore the biology, mathematics, physics, and engineering necessary for 21st century careers.

The United States is home to more than 250,000 of these flowing bodies of water that connect to coastal zones and oceans. They vary in size, from small streams to large rivers, but all take in oxygen and give off carbon dioxide

carbon dioxide (CO2)

An important heat-trapping gas, also known as a greenhouse gas, that comes from the extraction and burning of fossil fuels (such as coal, oil, and natural gas), from wildfires, and natural processes like volcanic eruptions.

Source: NASA Source

and other greenhouse gases like methane.

methane

A hydrocarbon that is a primary component of natural gas. Methane is also a greenhouse gas (GHG), so its presence in the atmosphere affects the earth’s temperature and climate system

Source: EPA Source

Over recent years, a team of scientists led by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) has been immersed in crucial research around the processes and interactions that contribute to greenhouse gas dynamics.

It’s scary to ponder. An American energy infrastructure that’s already navigating the delicate transition to clean energy is now increasingly confronted by more intense weather and other potentially destructive events. How can the United States—and other nations—adapt to and overcome these challenging dynamics? Chris Chini, an Earth scientist at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, is helping find answers.