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ARGONNE VOLUME 09 | ISSUE 01 | SPRING 2016 HOW THINGS AND WHY SCIENTISTS WANT TO KNOW ALSO IN THIS ISSUE: WEATHER OR NOT WE’RE READY | THE COMPLEX CHEMISTRY OF COMBUSTION CONTENTS FEATURES 18 HOW THINGS BREAK 16 WOMEN IN STEM CAREERS: Breaking things can help scientists answer BREAKING DOWN BARRIERS both the most elemental and the most Three Argonne researchers share their experiences, everyday questions. why they pursued STEM careers, and how they’re paying it forward. WEATHER OR NOT WE’RE READY 24 Are America’s cities prepared for the 36 7 THINGS ABOUT: TRIBOLOGY Here’s the rub: Tribology is the science drought, heat, and floods of climate change? of friction, and it’s got a grip on our lives. 30 THE COMPLEX CHEMISTRY 38 CROWDSOURCE OF COMBUSTION Argonne scientists from dierent disciplines Your car is powered by a series of tiny each provide a perspective on a complex explosions. Scientists think they could question facing society. make them cleaner and more ecient. 40 WORKING WITH ARGONNE A Q&A with the head of the lab’s Technology 2 ON THIS YEAR IN SCIENCE HISTORY Development & Commercialization division, and two new collaborative centers at Argonne. 3 SECOND CHANCE FOR MRI MAGNETS A doctor’s trash is a physicist’s treasure. 42 SCIENCE IN 1000 WORDS An environmental engineer and a building scientist explain their work using only the 1,000 most common 4 SIMULATING SAFER TRANSPORT words in the English language. OF EXPLOSIVES Computational scientists are trying to figure out how a truck hauling explosives left a huge crater 43 INTRODUCING AURORA in a Utah highway in 2005. Planning for a next-generation supercomputer at Argonne. 8 EARTH’S MOST ABUNDANT MINERAL 44 EDUCATION FINALLY HAS A NAME Two summer camps give high school students An ancient meteorite and high-energy X-rays a taste of the STEM life. have helped scientists conclude half a century of eort to find, identify, and characterize a mineral that makes up 38% of the Earth. 46 THE SECRET LIVES OF SCIENTISTS This lab employee built his own plane in his spare time. 9 CLUSTERS CAPTURE CO2 A new tetramer could help convert carbon dioxide into fuel. 50 ASK A SCIENTIST: BATTERIES Je Chamberlain dishes on the next generation of batteries, why new inventions take so long to get to 10 CARBON SURPRISES UNDER THE SEA market, and clean room suits for dogs (they exist!) Some of the world’s tiniest organisms may have a large impact on climate change. 52 SCIENCE BEHIND THE FICTION, 12 PERSONALIZED ENERGY THROWBACK EDITION: BACK TO THE The local food movement is booming. FUTURE PART II Can we do the same for electricity? 30 years ago, Back to the Future Part II predicted society of the future. How did the science stack up? 14 PREVENTING CYBER “BREAKINS” Cyber security expert Mike Skwarek shares 54 70 YEARS OF DISCOVERY AT ARGONNE tips on security in the digital age. 57 BY THE NUMBERS: THE CLEANEST ROOM Inside this Argonne lab, the air has only 100 particles per cubic foot. (Normally there’s 1,000,000). II ARGONNE NOW 24 18 30 SPRING 2016 III 1 Lei Cheng 4 Sibendu Som 7 Megan Cliord Cheng discussed her Understanding the As drought, floods, work to make better chemistry and physics and storms rise around batteries with high behind how your car the world, Cliord works school students in one of engine works could help to boost preparedness. the lab’s summer camps. Som and others make Weather or Not We’re Ready better engines. FACES Summer Camps Inspire PG 24 Curiosity in High School e Complex Chemistry Students of Combustion PG 44 PG 30 8 Joshua Bergerson Bergerson studies how IN THIS 2 buildings use electricity Marcel Demarteau 5 Jon Almer and how we can improve Demarteau leads A giant X-ray synchrotron Argonne’s high-energy their eciency. helps Almer and fellow Science in 1000 Words physics division as researchers simulate it searches for the the eects of radiation PG 42 particles that make on materials. up the universe. ISSUE How ings Break How ings Break PG 18 PG 18 3 Matt Kwiatkowski 6 Walid Mohamed Kwiatkowski watches Mohamed studies the over the lab’s cyber materials inside nuclear security during the day— reactors to see how they and flies over it in his own break down—and how plane on the weekend. to make them stronger. e Secret Lives of Scientists How ings Break 1 PG 46 PG 18 4 2 7 5 8 3 6 ARGONNE NOW EDITOR Louise Lerner NOTE FROM EDITORIAL BOARD Todd Combs Matt Howard THE DIRECTOR Christopher Kramer Rick Stevens Stephen Streier Dear reader, In fact, all of the grand challenges Harry Weerts that Argonne is built to address— Seventy years ago, Argonne’s safe, sustainable energy, clean PHOTOGRAPHY founding scientists put the “break” Wes Agresta environment, and a thriving in breakthrough when they set out Mark Lopez economy—are so complex that to create energy by splitting atoms. they require multidisciplinary teams ART AND DESIGN Today, the scientists and engineers Abby Miesen with many dierent backgrounds Sana Sandler of Argonne continue to break new coming together. And those teams ground in search of understanding need large facilities, techniques, and COPYEDITING how and why things break. By instruments—precisely what we bring Katherine Obmascik understanding how something to bear as a national laboratory. PRODUCTION breaks, we can make it work better. As we look forward to another Gary Weidner In this issue you’ll meet a cross- 70 years of ambitious research and Send correspondence and questions to: section of talented researchers exciting discoveries, we appreciate Argonne Now working here at Argonne, including: your interest and your support. Find Communications, Education & Public Aairs scientists who run batteries in special Building 201 out more about us on our website, Argonne National Laboratory chambers until they break down; www.anl.gov, or follow us on social 9700 S. Cass Avenue physicists who smash atoms to find media for the latest updates on the Argonne, IL 60439 out what makes up the smallest very important work we’re doing. [email protected] parts of matter; modelers who build 630 252 5526 Thank you, and I hope you enjoy elaborate simulations of car engines this issue of Argonne Now. This report was prepared as an account of work and nuclear reactors; and analysts sponsored by an agency of the United States who work to prevent our country’s Government. Neither the United States Government nor any agency thereof, nor UChicago Argonne, infrastructure from breaking down LLC, nor any of their employees or ocers, makes amid violent storms. any warranty, express or implied, or assumes any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, The work happening at Argonne is apparatus, product, or process disclosed, or designed to answer big questions— represents that its use would not infringe privately owned rights. Reference herein to any specific so big, in fact, that our researchers commercial product, process, or service by trade are constantly collaborating to name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise, does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, answer them. Take, for example, the recommendation, or favoring by the United States scientists and engineers examining Government or any agency thereof. The views and opinions of document authors expressed herein do the microstructures of a material not necessarily state or reflect those of the United used in nuclear reactors in order States Government or any agency thereof. to build more robust power plants. Argonne is a U.S. Department of Energy At ATLAS, our linear accelerator, laboratory managed by UChicago Argonne, LLC. they use xenon ions to mimic the Peter B. Littlewood The laboratory’s main facility is outside Chicago at Director 9700 South Cass Avenue, Argonne, Illinois 60439. eects of radiation on the metal Argonne National Laboratory they’re studying. The next stop is ARGONNE the Advanced Photon Source, a Argonne National Laboratory powerful X-ray source, to see how 9700 South Cass Avenue the metal behaves under intense Argonne, Illinois 60439 USA heat and pressure. Finally, this data is www.anl.gov combined with complex simulations of reactors at the Argonne Leadership Computing Facility to strengthen our understanding of reactor materials behavior and safety. SPRING 2016 1 THIS YEAR IN SCIENCE HISTORY 151 YEARS AGO 75 YEARS AGO 50 YEARS AGO 20 YEARS AGO 1941 1996 Russian explorer Inside a German Tatyana Ustinova accelerator, scientists discovers the “Valley produce a single atom of Geysers” in eastern of element 112, later Russia—one of just five named copernicium, major geyser fields in for the first time. This the world. Her valley radioactive metal is so turned out to contain highly unstable that 20 geysers and more only a few atoms have than 200 thermal pools. ever been produced. 1865 A BIT OF MARS ON 1966 EARTH ROYALTY AT Witnesses retrieve an ARGONNE 11-pound meteorite after King Simeon II (left) and its fall to earth in India. Queen Margarita, exiled The Shergotty Meteorite monarchs of Bulgaria, is thought to be about 165 tour Argonne. Simeon million years old and was would later become one ejected from the surface of only two monarchs of Mars 11 million years to become head of ago. It wasn’t til 1962 that government through we saw another Martian democratic elections. rock land on Earth. 2 ARGONNE NOW USED MRI MAGNETS GET A SECOND CHANCE AT LIFE IN PHYSICS EXPERIMENTS BY JARED SAGOFF Scientists at Argonne are reusing old hospital MRI magnets to benchmark instrumentation for new high-energy physics experiments.