“I like to think that many physicists look up, on occasion, from their experimental apparatus or computer screen, to see that all is not well with the world, and devote some time and effort to help.”
Andrew Sessler, 85, former director of DOE's Berkeley Lab (1973-1980), made that statement in 1994 when he became the first recipient of the American Physical Society’s Dwight Nicholson Medal for Humanitarian Service. Sessler received the Nicholson Medal for being a co-founder of the human rights group Scientists for Sakharov, Orlov and Sharansky (SOS), scientists who were persecuted as dissidents in what was then the Soviet Union.
Full Story
Feature
Modern weapons technologies often keep members of the military out of harm's way by allowing them to perform missions from a distance. Researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory are helping the military play defense from a distance, as well.
Dan Archer and Thomas Karnowski, along with their team of scientists, are working with the Navy and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution to continue the development of unmanned, autonomous underwater vehicles with sensors that can scan areas, detect anomalies and differentiate between objects—like a wrench and a hammer versus an explosive mine.
“It’s a difficult problem because if you have a wrench and a hammer—fine—you can distinguish those,” Archer said. “But throw a bunch of other stuff on the table and then try to find the tools amongst the clutter and distinguish them from one another.”
Full Story
See also…
Lithium batteries, with their exceptional ability to store power per a given weight, have been a major focus of research to enable use in everything from portable electronics to electric cars. Now researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and DOE's Brookhaven Lab have found a whole new avenue for such research: the use of disordered materials, which had generally been considered unsuitable for batteries. 
A "hybrid" anode developed at DOE’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory could quadruple the life of lithium-sulfur batteries; if these batteries can just overcome a few technical hurdles, they could power electric vehicles for longer distances before needing to charge and could save solar energy for a rainy day. The national lab’s research describing the anode's design and performance, bringing it closer to commercial use, recently appeared in Nature Communications.
Scientists and engineers working on the design of the particle detector for the proposed Long-Baseline Neutrino Experiment celebrated a major success in January. They operated for the first time a 35-ton prototype cryostat filled with liquid argon and met the stringent, less-than-200-parts-per-trillion purity requirement on oxygen contamination in the liquid.
Scientists at DOE's Ames Laboratory have demonstrated broadband terahertz (THz) wave generation using metamaterials. The discovery may help develop noninvasive imaging and sensing, and make possible THz-speed information communication, processing and storage.