Scientists from Stanford University and the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory have captured the first atomic-level images of finger-like growths called dendrites that can pierce the barrier between battery compartments and trigger short circuits or fires. This is the first study to examine the inner lives of batteries with cryo-electron microscopy, or cryo-EM.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the 2017 Nobel Prize in Chemistry to Drs. Jacques Dubochet, Joachim Frank and Richard Henderson for their work advancing cryo-electron microscopy. The cryo-EM method both simplifies and improves the imaging of biomolecules, providing atomic, or high-resolution, structure determination for biomolecules in solution.

On October 14, CSA participated in the 5th annual Science Works Career Fair at the Museum of Science & Industry in Chicago. Over 200 representatives from more than 40 companies and organizations staffed stations throughout the museum, including Argonne National Laboratory (CSA CSM), Microsoft, Northrop Grumman and even CBS' “Young Sheldon” sitcom.

Scientists worldwide reported in October the detection of both gravitational waves—ripples in space and time—and light originating from the spectacular collision of two neutron stars, marking the first time that a cosmic event has been viewed in both gravitational waves and light. The discovery was made beginning on Aug. 17 using the US-based Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), the European-based Virgo detector and some 70 ground- and space-based observatories.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded its 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics to Drs. Rainer Weiss, Barry Barish and Kip Thorne, researchers who made decisive contributions to the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) and its observation of gravitational waves.

Scientists at CERN are celebrating a rare achievement in precision physics in which collaborators on its BASE experiment measured a property of antimatter 350 times as precisely as it had ever been measured before. The result was accomplished after researchers improved cooling methods for the experiment.

What appears to be a unique selfie opportunity was actually a critical photo for the cryogenic testing of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope in Chamber A at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. The photo was used to verify the line of sight (the path light will travel) for the testing configuration of the telescope.

Researchers have released the first collection of data from the full detector of CUORE (Cryogenic Underground Observatory for Rare Events), an experiment considered to be one of the most promising efforts to determine whether tiny elementary particles called neutrinos are identical to their own antiparticles.

European manufacturers have delivered the last of the 11 cryogenic tanks contracted for the cryoplant at ITER. The manufacturing of all components was undertaken by Air Liquide advanced Technologies (CSA CSM) and its subcontractors, while logistics were handled by DAHER. The ITER fusion machine will require a massive refrigerator to perform several tasks, including cooling its magnets to -179°C so that they become superconductive; helping the facility's cryopumps to minimize any thermal losses in the cryostat, and improving the thermal insulation of ITER’s massive vessel in order to create a vacuum.

On October 31, 2017, institutions worldwide will celebrate Dark Matter Day with events highlighting the experiments that could bring us closer to solving the cosmic riddle of dark matter. The Interactions Collaboration, an international community of particle physics communication specialists, is the celebration's sponsor. Information on local events is available on its website.

The National High Magnetic Field Laboratory (MagLab, CSA CSM) is playing a role in a nationwide effort to make human-scale particle accelerators for a host of applications. And now, with a $1 million grant from the US Department of Energy, scientists at the lab's Applied Superconductivity Center (ASC) are developing a key component of these slimmed-down accelerators called superconducting radio frequency (SRF) cavities.

The importance of additive manufacturing (AM) and 3-D printing has increased in almost every field of engineering, including biomedical engineering, a field where researchers are advancing applications such as 3-D cryoprinting. The technology is poised to develop into an important step in tissue engineering as it can produce biological tissues with large dimensions and in such a way that each individual cell in the object is frozen with optimal thermal parameters for cryopreservation as soon as it is printed.