Author: Raider Rat
Brookhaven National Laboratory is part of the U.S. Department of Energy and studies everything from the vast universe to tiny subatomics. On December 29, 2021, Brookhaven National Laboratory announced the top ten most read events of 2021. The main contents are compiled below for reference.
Source: Brookhaven National Laboratory
(1) The development of a vaccine to fight the new crown epidemic is one of the major scientific breakthroughs in 2021. The T7 gene expression system at Brookhaven Lab plays a key role in this. Companies like Pfizer use genetic factors discovered at Brookhaven Labs more than 40 years ago to generate messenger RNA.
(2) Brookhaven Laboratory captures a snapshot of the binding of viral envelope proteins to human lung cell proteins. The structure at the atomic level hints at how the coronavirus is wreaking havoc on the lungs and supports the design of drugs to block this devastating effect.
(3) Another group of researchers in the laboratory developed mathematical models to understand and predict the spread of the new crown virus. The model shows that in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is not herd immunity, but changes in people's social activities that lead to the suppression and re-emergence of the NEW CROWN epidemic. A new study suggests that random changes in social activity can continue to lead to a brief decline in collective immunity, with the possibility of new waves of infection.
(4) Laboratory researchers use machine learning, artificial intelligence and other tools to continue their efforts to screen drugs that may inhibit the new crown virus.
(1) The "μ meson g-2" experiment carried out by the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory confirmed the strange behavior of μ mesons observed by brookhaven laboratories more than 20 years ago. Μ persistent discrepancies between experimental results and theoretical predictions of meson behavior suggest that μ mesons may interact with particles that have not yet been discovered.
(2) Scientists are looking for new particles to explain the abnormal physical behavior of predicting neutrino oscillations. Despite the "MicroBooNE" experiment at Fermilab, there is no evidence that there is a fourth inert neutrino in addition to the three known types. But neutrino tracking software/signal processing and detector technology developed by Brookhaven Labs will be key to future neutrino experiments.
(1) The laboratory uses the STAR detector of the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) to track particle collisions, creating matter and antimatter particles from light. This is an example of Einstein's famous equation of E=mc2. The results confirm a prediction made more than 80 years ago that this collision of light particles around accelerating particles could produce matter.
(2) The researchers also found signs of turbulence in RHIC collision data collected at different energies. These fluctuations may indicate a change in the way nuclear material transitions from nucleons (protons and neutrons) to quark-gluon soup.
Plans to convert the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider to the Electron-Ion Collider (EIC) were approved by the U.S. Department of Energy for Key Decision Level 1. This marks the next phase in transforming the EIC program into a state-of-the-art research facility, becoming a new frontier in the study of nuclear physics. Brookhaven Lab researchers are working with their peers at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility and collaborators around the world to design the accelerator components, while members of the EIC User Group develop plans for a possible detector.
(1) Laboratory researchers inject inorganic elements into organic materials to create photoresist masks that are sensitive to extreme ultraviolet. This method can etch smaller size features on computer chips to increase speed and efficiency.
(2) Researchers at the Center for Functional Nanomaterials at Brookhaven National Laboratory and National Synchrotron Radiation Light Source Phase II used a series of methods such as X-rays to discover how to improve a cheap commercially available porous material. To capture inert gases in the pores of this porous material nanoscale. If successful, the porous material may trap inert gases such as krypton and xenon for special lighting, or remove dangerous gases such as radon from basements.