For the past two-and-a-half
decades, the Office of Science at
the U.S. Department of Energy has
been at the forefront of scientific
discovery. We asked our staff and
colleagues to help us identify 100
or so of the most important discoveries
supported by the Office of Science.
The following list of discoveries
is grouped by general discipline—the
numerical order is random and not
ranked by importance.
Basic Energy Sciences
1. Adenosine
Triphosphate: The Energy Currency
of Life
2. Making
Better Catalysts
3. Understanding
Chemical Reactions
4. New Types
of Superconductors
5. Development
of Neutron Scattering Facilities
6. Development
of Synchrotron Radiation Light Sources
7. Development
of Lithium Batteries
8. A New
Class of Carbon Structures
9. Engineering
Organisms to Make Valuable Biomaterials
10. Heavy
Element Chemistry
11. Improving
Intermetallic Compounds
12. Ion
Beam Techniques Enhance Materials
Science
13. Preventing
Radioactive Contamination
14. Explaining
and Applying Magnetism
15. Modeling
Metals
16. Organic-Based
Magnets: A New Frontier
17. Manipulating
Light in Photonic Crystals
18. Extending
the Power of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance
Techniques
19. Saving
the Earth's Ozone Layer
20. Making
Solar Energy More Affordable
21. Enhancing
Separations and Analysis
22. Sequencing
the First Plant Genome
23. New
Opto-electronic Materials and Devices
24. Unraveling
the Mystery of High-Temperature Superconductivity
25. Harnessing
the "Thermoacoustic" Effect
26. Metallic
Glasses with Extraordinary Properties
27. Extending
the Science of Transition Metal Nitrides
28. A New
Type of Microscopy
High Energy and Nuclear
Physics
29. First
Evidence of a Third Family of Fundamental
Particles
30. Discovery
of One of the Smallest Particles of
Matter
31. A Limit
on the Complexity of the Universe
32. Completion
of the Third Generation of Matter
33. Confirmation
of the Unification of Two Fundamental
Forces
34. Methods
for Complex Calculations
35. Zeroing
in on the Elusive Higgs Boson
36. The
Missing Solar Neutrinos
37. Evidence
for Neutrino Mass
38. Setting
Limits on the Mass of the Electron
Anti-Neutrino
39. Beyond
the Standard Model?
40. Unraveling
the Mystery of Antimatter
41. Detecting
the Afterglow of the Big Bang
42. The
Inflationary Universe
43. Expansion
of the Universe is Accelerating
44. The
Most Distant Object Ever Observed
45. "The
Stars Above Us, Govern Our Conditions"
46. Rare
Double Beta Decay Process is Observed
47. Unusual
Nuclei May Answer Long-Standing Questions
48. A Theory
for Deducing Quark Behavior
49. The
World's Most Powerful Accelerator
50. First
Linear Collider Offers New Possibilities
51. World's
Most Intense Source of Polarized Electrons
52. Lifetime
of the Bottom Quark
53. New
Clues to the Disappearance of Antimatter
54. The
Highest-Energy Atom Smasher
55. Why
Dinosaurs Are Extinct
56. Understanding
and Applying Superstring Theory
Plasma Physics
57. Stable
Confinement of High-Pressure Plasmas
58. The
Role of Currents in Plasma Confinement
59. Reducing
Plasma Turbulence
60. Measuring
the Magnetic Field Inside Plasmas
61. A New
Magnetic Container for Super Hot Plasmas
62. Modeling
Large Systems of Particles
63. First
Achievement of Fusion Temperatures
in the Laboratory
64. A New
Plasma Confinement Regime
Advanced Scientific
Computing Research
65. Emergence
of Chaotic Systems
66. The
Launch of Internet Conferencing
67. Fluid
Dynamics Calculations in Complex Geometries
68. Best
Performances in Scientific Computing
69. Mathematics
Puzzle Finally Solved
70. Accurate
Modeling of Magnetic Materials
71. The
Transition to Massively Parallel Supercomputing
72. Identifying
an Intractable Scientific Problem
Biological and Environmental
Research
73. Improving
the Realism of Global Simulations
74. Decoding
the Human Genome
75. Verifying
the "Third Branch of Life"
76. The
World's Toughest Microbe
77. The
Smallest Genome that Sustains Independent
Life
78. Speeding
Up the Process of Gene Discovery
79. Engineered
Enzyme Accelerates DNA Sequencing
80. Tiny
Capillaries Have Giant Impact on DNA
Sequencing
81. "Painting"
Chromosomes for Quick and Easy Analysis
82. Putting
a Virus to Practical Use
83. Unraveling
the Role of DNA Repair
84. Of
Mice and Men
85. The
Role of the Extracellular Matrix in
Cancer
86. New
Tools for Structural Biology Research
87. The
Structure of Nature's "Molecular Machines"
88. Studies
of Protein Structure Help Fight Lyme
Disease
89. Accelerating
the Study of Proteins
90. Optical
Probes for Imaging Single Molecules
91. MicroPET
Enhances Studies of Small Animals
92. Mapping
Human Brain Function
93. Improving
Neutron Beams for Cancer Treatment
94. The
Biochemistry of Human Addiction
95. Observing
Chemical Changes in Living Cells
96. Modeling
and Simulating Environmental Problems
97. Discovering
the Processes of Acid Rain
98. Predicting
Effects of Elevated Carbon Dioxide
99. Clues
to the Location of the Missing Carbon
Dioxide
100. Human
Effects on Global Warming
101. Listening
to the Ocean's Temperature |
