Brookhaven Lab

Way back in 1872, the mid-stride motion of a galloping horse remained a mystery. Did all four hooves leave the ground? And if so, when? The human eye was incapable of pinpointing the action, so people turned to what was then the cutting edge in photon-based technology: the photograph. Eadweard Muybridge tackled the puzzle, pioneering techniques to produce brief and powerful bursts of light. Muybridge found a way to capture the horse at each moment of its stride—as seen in the GIF above—and instantly transformed both photography and the science of motion. Now, scientists are casting light on even fleeter feet: quantum waves. "Muybridge needed a photon source and detection source with unprecedented speed, so he pushed the limits of the technology," said Brookhaven physicist Yue Cao. "His puzzle happened to be about a half of a millisecond, while we're looking at things about a billion times faster, but the principle of using light to produce a revelatory snapshot is the same."

“Ch-ch-ch-changes...”

It might not be exactly what Bowie was singing about, but it comes to mind while watching this video. What you’re looking at are the nanoscale changes inside a battery material while it charges.

We start with pure magnetite. Next, lithium ions first diffuse into the surface of the nanoparticle and then proceed inward, creating lithiated rock salt, and finally a composite of metallic iron and lithium oxide. It’s easier to see in false color: 

The red is the magnetite, the blue is the rock salt, and the green is the composite metal. 

Given the laws of thermodynamics, the reactions behind these changes should happen at different voltages because of differences in their natural chemistry. The observed overlap between the two reactions suggests that the kinetic effect, or how charge or discharge currents impact the amount of energy that can be stored within a battery, plays an important role in lithiation -- the electrochemical process behind the power of a battery. 

What does science at the South Pole look like? Vast expanses of white and stunning views of the Aurora. 

These photos were taken on the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, where Brookhaven scientists are collaborating on a project to study the climate, and the ways clouds and aerosols impact it. The project, called the ARM West Antarctic Radiation Experiment (AWARE), will lead to a better understanding of how much of the sun’s light and the atmosphere’s heat radiation reach the Antarctic surface—variables that affect temperature patterns and ice melt throughout the region.  

In one of the most remote science stations on Earth, Brookhaven scientists have contributed instruments that use radar to scan clouds and measure how much of the sun’s light and the atmosphere’s heat radiation reach the Antarctic surface.

Science on Tap #15: In the Beginning...with Paul Sorensen from Alan Alda Center on Vimeo.

One of our RHIC physicists did a science chat with the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science. In it, he talks about how our atom smasher works, what we’re learning from it, and why it’s so important. 

As he put it: “You’re trying to answer some of deepest, most fundamental questions in nature. This is something that if you can contribute, if you can move human knowledge just that one bit, it’s never going to go away as long as we exist. It’s a contribution that is laying a groundwork for every generation that comes after us.”

“Aerosols are so much more than just what is in your hairspray can," says Art Sedlacek, one of our atmospheric scientists. 

Aerosols are suspensions of tiny particles in the atmosphere, and have both man-made sources such as industrial processes and car emissions, and natural sources such as forest fires, volcanoes, and wave-breaking in the ocean. Aerosol particles affect Earth's climate -- both individually and by serving as the nuclei around which cloud drops form -- by influencing how much solar energy is absorbed by Earth (including the oceans, atmosphere, and land) or is reflected back into space. 

Today at Brookhaven, we hosted hundreds of students from Long Island and New York City as part of President Obama’s My Brother’s Keeper Initiative. The high schoolers got to do some hands on science and visit our world class facilities, and we took over the Department of Energy’s Instagram for the day to share their excitement.

One of our favorite moments happened at the Center for Functional Nanomaterials, outside one of the clean rooms lit with orange light bulbs. A student asked, “Why is the room orange like that?” The scientist leading the group said, “Great question! That’s the most asked question we get at the nanocenter. Any guesses?” And one student, the one on the left in the uppermost photo, said, “Yeah, I know. You said you were looking at materials that respond to UV light. So you’ve gotta be filtering out UV to protect the materials, right?” 

Spot on. 

These bright, young minds have a great future in STEM careers ahead of them, and we were lucky to have them visit for a day. We’re looking forward to seeing them go on to be the scientists and engineers of tomorrow and to them helping us continue to solve energy challenges across the nation and the world.