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From Colliders To Computational Biology

Many of Brookhaven's "big machines" were built to help us understand the basic structure of matter. Our Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider, for example, is helping us to see what the universe may have looked like in the first few moments after its creation. Findings to date have led to compelling questions in the field of quantum chromodynamics (QCD), the theory that describes the interactions of the smallest known components of the atomic nucleus. Upgrades to the RHIC complex are being considered that would allow scientists to explore these questions, and perhaps reveal more about why the physical world works the way it does.

Work at the Interface Of Life & Physical Sciences

The proposed National Synchrotron Light Source-II (NSLS-II), one of the projects in the Department of Energy’s 20-year plan, is an advanced third generation, medium-energy electron storage ring that will produce x-rays 10,000 times brighter than Brookhaven’s current National Synchrotron Light Source (NSLS). The unprecedented brightness of NSLS-II will lead to many advanced experimental capabilities in a wide range of scientific disciplines including materials and nanoscience, life sciences and chemistry, geosciences, and more.

Standing next to the NSLS-II will be Brookhaven’s Center for Functional Nanomaterials (CFN), one of five nanotechnology centers that have been approved by the Department of Energy. The CFN will provide researchers with state-of-the-art capabilities to fabricate and study nanoscale materials. The Center's focus is to achieve a basic understanding of how these materials respond when in nanoscale form. Nanomaterials offer different chemical and physical properties from those of bulk materials, and have the potential to form the basis of new technologies.

Together, the NSLS-II and CFN present opportunities for Brookhaven researchers and facility users to achieve breakthroughs at the interface of the life and physical sciences. Exploring this interface is seen as a key to future advances.

Life Sciences

Our cutting-edge brain imaging work on obesity, addiction, and aging is based on the use of physical tools, like magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and positron emission tomography (PET). Earlier research in the physical sciences led to the discoveries of the radioisotopes technetium-99m, now used to diagnose heart disease and other ailments in more than 11 million people annually, and thallium-201, now used in hundreds of thousands of heart stress tests each year.

Homeland Security

Brookhaven is an invaluable counterterrorism planning and implementation resource for the New York metropolitan area, because of its proximity to New York City and the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Plum Island and Environmental Measurements Laboratory facilities, and its scientific and technical expertise and experience.

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Last Modified: January 31, 2008
 


DOE, Office of ScienceOne of ten national laboratories overseen and primarily funded by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Brookhaven National Laboratory conducts research in the physical, biomedical, and environmental sciences, as well as in energy technologies and national security. Brookhaven Lab also builds and operates major scientific facilities available to university, industry and government researchers. Brookhaven is operated and managed for DOE’s Office of Science by Brookhaven Science Associates, a limited-liability company founded by Stony Brook University, the largest academic user of Laboratory facilities, and Battelle, a nonprofit, applied science and technology organization.

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