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Na Hyun Jo, Materials Sciences Postdoc

Na Hyun Jo has only been at Berkeley Lab for five months, but she’s already helping to organize the Energy Sciences Area Science Hour. Find out more about her research and what inspired her to become a scientist. Read more »

A Multiscale Picture of Oxygen Loss in Battery Electrodes

In lithium-ion batteries, oxygen atoms leak out of electrode particles as the lithium moves back and forth between electrodes. Now, researchers have measured this process at multiple length scales, showing how the oxygen loss changes the electrode’s structure and chemistry, gradually reducing the amount of energy it can store. Read more »

In a Hawaiian Lava Fountain, Fluid Magma Turns Brittle

Compared to the violent explosions of Mount Vesuvius or Mount St. Helens, Hawaiian volcanic eruptions are relatively calm, characterized by flowing rivers and fountains of lava. Here, researchers have discovered that even low-viscosity magma sometimes behaves more like brittle glass that shatters into fine particles. Read more »

Main Attraction: Scientists Create World’s Thinnest Magnet

A one-atom-thin 2D magnet that operates at room temperature could lead to new applications in computing and electronics—such as high-density, compact spintronic memory devices—and new tools for the study of quantum physics. X-ray experiments at the ALS characterized the material’s magnetic parameters under high temperature. Read more »

Alpha N’Diaye, Research Scientist

Alpha N’Diaye first came to Berkeley Lab as a postdoc, but his interest in Berkeley was piqued far earlier. Find out what inspired teenage Alpha, and what keeps him here to this day. Read more »

Mineral Microstructures Shed Light on Planet-Scale Dynamics

To explore what happens to minerals under the extreme conditions in Earth’s mantle, researchers developed an x-ray technique that bridges the gap between methods that reveal bulk properties and those that focus on individual crystals. Use of the technique has shed light on the dynamics of tectonic-plate subduction in Earth’s lower mantle. Read more »

Researchers Set Sights on Another COVID-19 Target

Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, it was quickly established that the receptor binding domain (RBD) of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein is a prime target for neutralizing antibodies. Now, scientists have found a second region of the spike protein that is targeted by dozens of antibodies, some of which exhibit ultrapotent neutralizing activity. Read more »

Key to Cleaner Combustion? Look to the Stars

Researchers made the first real-time, lab-based measurement of free radicals reacting under cosmic conditions, prompting elementary carbon and hydrogen atoms to coalesce into primal benzene rings. The findings are key to understanding how the universe evolved with the growth of carbon compounds and could also help the car industry make cleaner combustion engines. Read more »

Angelic Lucero, Accelerator Operator Specialist

Working at the ALS started out as a summer job in college for Angelic Lucero—and then she never left. She gives us a glimpse into all the details our operators need to monitor and talks about efforts to help new people at the Lab access resources. Read more »