Grand Challenge In Science Research Articles

Progress and prospects for accelerating materials science with automated and autonomous workflows.

Accelerating materials research by integrating automation with artificial intelligence is increasingly recognized as a grand scientific challenge to discover and develop materials for emerging and future technologies. While the solid state materials science community has demonstrated a broad range of high throughput methods and effectively leveraged computational techniques to accelerate individual research tasks, revolutionary acceleration of materials discovery has yet to be fully realized. This perspective review presents a framework and ontology to outline a materials experiment lifecycle and visualize materials discovery workflows, providing a context for mapping the realized levels of automation and the next generation of autonomous loops in terms of scientific and automation complexity. Expanding autonomous loops to encompass larger portions of complex workflows will require integration of a range of experimental techniques as well as automation of expert decisions, including subtle reasoning about data quality, responses to unexpected data, and model design. Recent demonstrations of workflows that integrate multiple techniques and include autonomous loops, combined with emerging advancements in artificial intelligence and high throughput experimentation, signal the imminence of a revolution in materials discovery.

Effect of size on phase transformation temperatures in Ge/Bi/Ge films

Despite numerous studies the nature of phase transformations of nanomaterials in confinement remains among grand scientific challenges of nanoscience and nanotechnology. We address this issue in a comprehensive experimental study of melting and crystallization of 3–100 nm thick bismuth films confined between germanium layers. Layered Ge/Bi/Ge films modeled a “nanosized object – matrix” system and were formed by successive deposition of the components in a high vacuum. Two experimental approaches were used to trace the phase state of the system. The first one is based on studying crystalline structure during in situ heating and cooling of the samples in a transmission electron microscope. The second one is a differential method based on the registration of an abrupt change in the morphology of the films during their melting. It has been shown that the eutectic temperature is not a monotonic function of size. It decreases gradually as the size of the Ge/Bi/Ge system reduces and reaches its lowest value ≈ 190 °C for a ≈5 nm thick Bi film. For a thinner Bi film, the liquid phase formation temperature quickly rises in the system. The data on the metal-induced crystallization of amorphous germanium films in contact with bismuth, as well as the data on the crystallization of a liquid phase confined between Ge layers are presented. The processes of interphase interaction in the studied system are discussed.

Ecological-hydrological processes in arid environment: Past, present and future

Ecohydrology, aiming to study the interactions between terrestrial ecological systems and hydrological cycles as well as their impacts on water management, has been an emerging interdisciplinary research field since the 20th century. It hosts both natural and human regulated processes that are potentially coupled in complex ways. Understanding the ecological-hydrological processes, the fundamental mechanisms and the connections between them is critical since these processes are not isolated but integrated to impact basin- scale hydrological and biogeochemical functioning of a larger river system, especially in arid environment where water resources are considered to be the source of life. Thus, research on ecological-hydrological processes in arid environment is not only a scientific focus area but also important to sustainable development. Research projects and initiatives involved in observation, measurement, modeling and data assimilation have been well-developed for those purposes over the past 20 years. This review summarizes the historical development of ecohydrology science in China and the state-of-the-art tools available in the research framework. Five grand scientific challenges are listed as prospects and exciting opportunities for the scientific community. To advance the current ecological-hydrological processes research, scientists from multidisciplinary backgrounds (such as geography, geology, geomorphology, hydrology, geochemistry and ecology), need to unite to tackle the many open problems in new dimensions.

Growing new generations of critical zone scientists

AbstractCritical zone (CZ) science is entering its second decade. A new generation of scientists is emerging trained specifically in CZ science and are contributing to advances in environmental science across disciplines. Concurrently, the global scope of CZ science is being elevated as new countries invest in CZ observatories. Global CZ science has great potential to address a diverse array of questions beyond any single discipline. In this commentary we discuss a series of CZ science grand challenges that should be targeted by early‐career researchers: understanding water availability in the CZ; expanding CZ science into new environments; communicating the societal relevance of CZ science including earthcasting to the public; seamlessly integrating biological sciences within the CZ framework; and scaling CZ processes over large spatial and temporal gradients. Targeting these grand challenges will push CZ science well into the future. We also highlight mechanisms for increased leadership within the CZ community. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The brain on low power architectures: Efficient simulation of cortical slow waves and asynchronous states

Efficient brain simulation is a scientific grand challenge, a parallel/distributed coding challenge and a source of requirements and suggestions for future computing architectures. Indeed, the human brain includes about 10^15 synapses and 10^11 neurons activated at a mean rate of several Hz. Full brain simulation poses Exascale challenges even if simulated at the highest abstraction level. The WaveScalES experiment in the Human Brain Project (HBP) has the goal of matching experimental measures and simulations of slow waves during deep-sleep and anesthesia and the transition to other brain states. The focus is the development of dedicated large-scale parallel/distributed simulation technologies. The ExaNeSt project designs an ARM-based, low-power HPC architecture scalable to million of cores, developing a dedicated scalable interconnect system, and SWA/AW simulations are included among the driving benchmarks. At the joint between both projects is the INFN proprietary Distributed and Plastic Spiking Neural Networks (DPSNN) simulation engine. DPSNN can be configured to stress either the networking or the computation features available on the execution platforms. The simulation stresses the networking component when the neural net - composed by a relatively low number of neurons, each one projecting thousands of synapses - is distributed over a large number of hardware cores. When growing the number of neurons per core, the computation starts to be the dominating component for short range connections. This paper reports about preliminary performance results obtained on an ARM-based HPC prototype developed in the framework of the ExaNeSt project. Furthermore, a comparison is given of instantaneous power, total energy consumption, execution time and energetic cost per synaptic event of SWA/AW DPSNN simulations when executed on either ARM- or Intel-based server platforms.

Grand challenges for global brain sciences

The next grand challenges for science and society are in the brain sciences. A collection of 60+ scientists from around the world, together with 15+ observers from national, private, and foundations, spent two days together discussing the top challenges that we could solve as a global community in the next decade. We settled on three challenges, spanning anatomy, physiology, and medicine. Addressing all three challenges requires novel computational infrastructure. The group proposed the advent of The International Brain Station (TIBS), to address these challenges, and launch brain sciences to the next level of understanding.

Special Issue for Electrochemical Immunosensors – State of the Art

There is a huge demand for fast, reliable and low-cost analytical systems for the detection and quantification of proteins with relevance in medicine, environmental pollutant monitoring, food safety, detection of foodborne pathogens and bioterrorism. Indeed, the development of biosensors fulfilling the requirements of adequate sensitivity and selectivity as well as convenience of use and cost is one of the grand scientific, engineering, and educational challenges of the 21st century. In this context, electrochemical immunosensors are considered particularly attractive analytical tools as a consequence of their inherent high sensitivity, simplicity of the operational procedure, easy availability and affordable cost of the required equipment together with possibility of miniaturization and suitability for in-field applications. Electrochemical immunosensors seek to exploit the great potentiality of immunoreactions in conjunction with electroanalytical techniques in a broad context facing a wide variety of analytical problems in medicine, biomedical research, drug discovery, environment, food, process industries, security and defense. The main goal is to provide a selective and fast response to the presence of a specific compound in a complex mixture of components, without perturbing the system. Interestingly, immunosensing using electroanalytical techniques is playing a more and more important role in protein analysis. Moreover, the growing research in advanced nanomaterials has impressively impacted also this field, by providing a great variety of novel, versatile and rationally designed nanostructured supports for transduction, signal generation and amplification. In parallel with these major advances in nanotechnology, the wide variety of immunoreagents available (commercial or produced by genetic recombination on demand conjugated with a variety of tags according to the required needs) and the versatility of design and modification offered by electrochemical substrates have also played major roles in the outstanding capabilities demonstrated by these electrochemical biosensors. The plethora of sophisticated approaches developed has exceeded even the experts' expectations in terms of functionality and resiliency. Due to the high demand of the world market and human interest for having devices able to provide the concentration of species in different complex samples, in a simple and fast way, a hard competition on this field has occurred among the researchers in recent years. In addition, the excellent and solid academic and practical multidisciplinary formation in sensors biotechnology, surface chemistry, advanced nanomaterials, and electrochemical transduction and characterization methods for immunodetection of these researchers amply justifies the unimaginable progress reached in such a short time and the fact that people working in this area do not dare to put limits on this field. The present Special Issue, which compiles 9 full papers, 2 short communications and 8 dedicated review articles, was authored by leading experts and pioneers in electrochemical immunosensors. These articles shed useful insights into the latest advances, current trends and future prospects in this exciting field. In particular, the selected contributions described the development of electrochemical immunosensing scaffolds to detect pollutants (polybrominated diphenyllethers, mycotoxins), clinical biomarkers (interleukin-8, estrogen and progesterone receptors), drugs (brombuterol), rotavirus and microbes and revise nicely the use of screen-printed electrodes, common and uncommon nanostructures, polymeric films, 3D-printing microfluidics and proximity ligation assays in the development of electrochemical immunosensors. Compiled contributions give also expert and updated overviews of this topic in multiplexed approaches, control of electron transfer, advantages compared with aptasensors and latest applications in real clinical practice. Therefore, one can envision further exciting applications of electrochemical immune-platforms for making ‘house-calls' in biomedical diagnostics and cancer theranostics, as inspectors for environmental monitoring, even in harsh working conditions, as well as alarm devices for food safety. The unique combination and integration of nanotechnology, micro and nanofluidics with immunoreactions and electrochemical analytical methodologies is expected to produce major advances in this area and open up new opportunities not only from the scientific point of view but even from a market perspective preparing point-of-care devices and in-situ alarm systems. Given the rapid development, interest and progress made in this field, the examples compiled in this Special Issue are just a small sample of those expected to come in this amazing field which future growth and success will rely on the abilities of the researchers to continue innovating and collaborating to address the existing challenges and opportunities. In the near future, advances in fundamental knowledge of new nanomaterials along with a focus on practical applications in real-world systems will drive electrochemical immunosensors to breakthroughs in many fields of social and economical relevance. As a logical consequence of the incessant flow of impressive ideas and innovations it looks like this field has the horsepower to keep on advancing for the foreseeable future.

Overview of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6) experimental design and organization

Abstract. By coordinating the design and distribution of global climate model simulations of the past, current, and future climate, the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP) has become one of the foundational elements of climate science. However, the need to address an ever-expanding range of scientific questions arising from more and more research communities has made it necessary to revise the organization of CMIP. After a long and wide community consultation, a new and more federated structure has been put in place. It consists of three major elements: (1) a handful of common experiments, the DECK (Diagnostic, Evaluation and Characterization of Klima) and CMIP historical simulations (1850–near present) that will maintain continuity and help document basic characteristics of models across different phases of CMIP; (2) common standards, coordination, infrastructure, and documentation that will facilitate the distribution of model outputs and the characterization of the model ensemble; and (3) an ensemble of CMIP-Endorsed Model Intercomparison Projects (MIPs) that will be specific to a particular phase of CMIP (now CMIP6) and that will build on the DECK and CMIP historical simulations to address a large range of specific questions and fill the scientific gaps of the previous CMIP phases. The DECK and CMIP historical simulations, together with the use of CMIP data standards, will be the entry cards for models participating in CMIP. Participation in CMIP6-Endorsed MIPs by individual modelling groups will be at their own discretion and will depend on their scientific interests and priorities. With the Grand Science Challenges of the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) as its scientific backdrop, CMIP6 will address three broad questions: – How does the Earth system respond to forcing? – What are the origins and consequences of systematic model biases? – How can we assess future climate changes given internal climate variability, predictability, and uncertainties in scenarios? This CMIP6 overview paper presents the background and rationale for the new structure of CMIP, provides a detailed description of the DECK and CMIP6 historical simulations, and includes a brief introduction to the 21 CMIP6-Endorsed MIPs.

The quest for laboratory inertial fusion burn in the United States

Ignition and significant fusion yield from inertial confinement fusion (ICF) remains a grand scientific challenge with significant near-term and long-term applications. The ICF community in the U.S. is executing a coordinated effort to explore three viable approaches: laser x-ray drive, laser direct drive, and magnetic direct drive. Cooperative efforts from multiple institutions are directed at the physics basis of each of the three approaches with advancing diagnostics, precision targets, and improved simulations being the basis for the quest. X-ray drive experiments between 2010 and 2012 at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) gave yields much lower than expected because of both challenging hydrodynamics associated with high capsule convergence (∼35×) and laser-plasma instabilities (LPI's) in the hohlraum. Recent experiments employing a variation of the laser pulse and resulting in lower convergence and lower hydrodynamic instability growth gave higher yields approaching 1016 neutrons (for the first time with significant fusion heating of the fuel), roughly in agreement with predictions for that approach. At the Omega Laser Facility the direct laser drive of the capsule is being developed to determine what could be expected if the NIF were reconfigured for spherical direct drive. Recent experiments on OMEGA, hydrodynamically scaled to the NIF, project to yields similar in nature to those of the best x-ray drive cases. Mitigation of cross-beam energy transfer (CBET) is required for improvement in direct-drive implosions. At the Z pulsed-power facility, a new approach of magnetically pinching a cylinder containing magnetized and laser- heated plasma shows promise for attaining significant fusion yield. Improvements in this technique are being addressed at a number of facilities. In addition to the fusion-yield experiments, a number of basic science studies use the advanced facilities to study plasma physics, materials science, and astrophysical phenomena at extreme parameters not previously available in a laboratory.

Advanced Multidimensional Separations in Mass Spectrometry: Navigating the Big Data Deluge.

Hybrid analytical instrumentation constructed around mass spectrometry (MS) is becoming the preferred technique for addressing many grand challenges in science and medicine. From the omics sciences to drug discovery and synthetic biology, multidimensional separations based on MS provide the high peak capacity and high measurement throughput necessary to obtain large-scale measurements used to infer systems-level information. In this article, we describe multidimensional MS configurations as technologies that are big data drivers and review some new and emerging strategies for mining information from large-scale datasets. We discuss the information content that can be obtained from individual dimensions, as well as the unique information that can be derived by comparing different levels of data. Finally, we summarize some emerging data visualization strategies that seek to make highly dimensional datasets both accessible and comprehensible.

Avoiding collapse: Grand challenges for science and society to solve by 2050

AbstractWe maintain that humanity’s grand challenge is solving the intertwined problems of human population growth and overconsumption, climate change, pollution, ecosystem destruction, disease spillovers, and extinction, in order to avoid environmental tipping points that would make human life more difficult and would irrevocably damage planetary life support systems. These are not future issues: for example, detrimental impacts of climate change (increased wildfires and extreme weather, sea-level rise, ocean acidification), pollution (contaminated drinking water in many parts of the world), rapid population growth in some areas (contributing to poverty, war, and increasingly frequent migration) and overconsumption in others (a main driver of overexploitation of resources and greenhouse gas emissions), and new disease outbreaks (Ebola, Zika virus) already are apparent today, and if trends of the past half century continue, even more damaging, long-lasting impacts would be locked in within three decades. Solving these problems will require some scientific and technological breakthroughs, but that will not be enough. Even more critical will be effective collaboration of environmental and physical scientists with social scientists and those in the humanities, active exchange of information among practitioners in academics, politics, religion, and business and other stakeholders, and clear communication of relevant issues and solutions to the general public. This special feature offers examples of how researchers are addressing this grand challenge through the process of discovering new knowledge and relevant tools, transferring insights across disciplinary boundaries, and establishing critical dialogues with those outside academia to help effect positive global change.

Changes in Data Sharing and Data Reuse Practices and Perceptions among Scientists Worldwide.

The incorporation of data sharing into the research lifecycle is an important part of modern scholarly debate. In this study, the DataONE Usability and Assessment working group addresses two primary goals: To examine the current state of data sharing and reuse perceptions and practices among research scientists as they compare to the 2009/2010 baseline study, and to examine differences in practices and perceptions across age groups, geographic regions, and subject disciplines. We distributed surveys to a multinational sample of scientific researchers at two different time periods (October 2009 to July 2010 and October 2013 to March 2014) to observe current states of data sharing and to see what, if any, changes have occurred in the past 3–4 years. We also looked at differences across age, geographic, and discipline-based groups as they currently exist in the 2013/2014 survey. Results point to increased acceptance of and willingness to engage in data sharing, as well as an increase in actual data sharing behaviors. However, there is also increased perceived risk associated with data sharing, and specific barriers to data sharing persist. There are also differences across age groups, with younger respondents feeling more favorably toward data sharing and reuse, yet making less of their data available than older respondents. Geographic differences exist as well, which can in part be understood in terms of collectivist and individualist cultural differences. An examination of subject disciplines shows that the constraints and enablers of data sharing and reuse manifest differently across disciplines. Implications of these findings include the continued need to build infrastructure that promotes data sharing while recognizing the needs of different research communities. Moving into the future, organizations such as DataONE will continue to assess, monitor, educate, and provide the infrastructure necessary to support such complex grand science challenges.

Big Data: Next-Generation Machines for Big Science

Addressing the scientific grand challenges identified by the US Department of Energy's (DOE's) Office of Science's programs alone demands a total leadership-class computing capability of 150 to 400 Pflops by the end of this decade. The successors to three of the DOE's most powerful leadership-class machines are set to arrive in 2017 and 2018-the products of the Collaboration Oak Ridge Argonne Livermore (CORAL) initiative, a national laboratory-industry design/build approach to engineering next-generation petascale computers for grand challenge science. These mission-critical machines will enable discoveries in key scientific fields such as energy, biotechnology, nanotechnology, materials science, and high-performance computing, and serve as a milestone on the path to deploying exascale computing capabilities.

Conservation Paleobiology: Leveraging Knowledge of the Past to Inform Conservation and Restoration

Humans now play a major role in altering Earth and its biota. Finding ways to ameliorate human impacts on biodiversity and to sustain and restore the ecosystem services on which we depend is a grand scientific and societal challenge. Conservation paleobiology is an emerging discipline that uses geohistorical data to meet these challenges by developing and testing models of how biota respond to environmental stressors. Here we (a) describe how the discipline has already provided insights about biotic responses to key environmental stressors, (b) outline research aimed at disentangling the effects of multiple stressors, (c) provide examples of deliverables for managers and policy makers, and (d) identify methodological advances in geohistorical analysis that will foster the next major breakthroughs in conservation outcomes. We highlight cases for which exclusive reliance on observations of living biota may lead researchers to erroneous conclusions about the nature and magnitude of biotic change, vulnerability, and resilience.

Multiferroic oxide thin films and heterostructures

Multiferroic materials promise a tantalizing perspective of novel applications in next-generation electronic, memory, and energy harvesting technologies, and at the same time they also represent a grand scientific challenge on understanding complex solid state systems with strong correlations between multiple degrees of freedom. In this review, we highlight the opportunities and obstacles in growing multiferroic thin films with chemical and structural integrity and integrating them in functional devices. Besides the magnetoelectric effect, multiferroics exhibit excellent resistant switching and photovoltaic properties, and there are plenty opportunities for them to integrate with other ferromagnetic and superconducting materials. The challenges include, but not limited, defect-related leakage in thin films, weak magnetism, and poor control on interface coupling. Although our focuses are Bi-based perovskites and rare earth manganites, the insights are also applicable to other multiferroic materials. We will also review some examples of multiferroic applications in spintronics, memory, and photovoltaic devices.

A Chemical Engineering Perspective on the Origins of Life

Atoms and molecules assemble into materials, with the material structure determining the properties and ultimate function. Human-made materials and systems have achieved great complexity, such as the integrated circuit and the modern airplane. However, they still do not rival the adaptivity and robustness of biological systems. Understanding the reaction and assembly of molecules on the early Earth is a scientific grand challenge, and also can elucidate the design principles underlying biological materials and systems. This research requires understanding of chemical reactions, thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, heat and mass transfer, optimization, and control. Thus, the discipline of chemical engineering can play a central role in advancing the field. In this paper, an overview of research in the origins field is given, with particular emphasis on the origin of biopolymers and the role of chemical engineering phenomena. A case study is presented to highlight the importance of the environment and its coupling to the chemistry.

Multihazard Simulation and Cyberinfrastructure

The integration of multihazard simulations and remotely sensed observations is providing enormous benefits to earthquake and tsunami research. Integrating data and models through cyberinfrastructure is enabling understanding of earthquake and tsunami generation mechanisms in the Asia Pacific region and improving assessment strategies for mitigating risk. Earthquake rupture processes occur on all scales from microns to global and from sub-seconds to millions of years. Earthquakes cause damage, but also generate tsunamis, which create additional damage. Remotely sensed observations coupled with geologic field measurements and simulations contribute to our understanding of earthquake processes, which is necessary for mitigating loss of life and property from these damaging events. Remotely sensed observations play a unique role in the mitigation of natural hazards. Measurements of surface motions can be used to infer strain accumulation and transfer within interacting fault systems, as well as the mechanisms of earthquakes, which is an important input to tsunami generation models and disaster response. Remotely sensed geodetic imaging data include interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR), the Global Positioning System (GPS), and other techniques such as lidar or optical imaging. Geodetic imaging can be used to understand aspects of earthquakes including the tectonic plate motions that drive earthquakes (GPS), regional and local crustal deformation associated with faults or other sources (GPS, InSAR lidar, optical), and detailed motions associated with earthquakes at a resolution of 1 Hz (GPS). The United States hosted the 8th International Symposium of the APEC Cooperation of Earthquake Simulation (ACES) October 22‐26, 2012 in Maui, Hawaii. The workshop focused on assimilation of remotely sensed observations to advance multihazards simulation. The APEC Cooperation for Earthquake Simulation (ACES) is a multilateral grand challenge science research cooperation of APEC (the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation). ACES aims to develop realistic simulation models for the complete earthquake generation process and to assimilate observations into such models. This capability provides a powerful virtual laboratory to probe earthquake behavior and the earthquake cycle. Hence, it offers a new opportunity to gain understanding of the earthquake nucleation process, precursory phenomena, and space‐time seismicity patterns needed for breakthrough advances in earthquake forecasting and hazard quantification. The project represents a grand scientific challenge because of the complexity of phenomena and range of scales from microscopic to global involved in the earthquake generation process. ACES symposia provide unique opportunities for the APEC economies to work together on the topics important for the hazard mitigation of natural disasters. This volume follows earlier PAGEOPH topical volumes based on ACES Symposia (see references below). This topical volume reflects the 4-day workshop, which consisted of plenary talks, technical sessions, working sessions, and poster sessions. It brought together an interdisciplinary set of researchers. It brings together remote sensing experts, modelers, and computer scientists. The symposium and this

Enhancing synergy across citizen science projects to engage diverse audiences and address grand science challenges at a single location: Acadia National Park

Enhancing synergy across citizen science projects to engage diverse audiences and address grand science challenges at a single location: Acadia National Park

The ESS Superconducting RF Cavity and Cryomodule Cryogenic Processes

The European Spallation Source (ESS) is one of Europe's largest research infrastructures, tobring new insights to the grand challenges of science and innovation in fields as diverse as material and life sciences, energy, environmental technology, cultural heritage,solid-state and fundamental physics by the end of the decade. The collaborative project is funded by a collaboration of 17 European countries and is under design and construction in Lund, Sweden.A 5 MW, long pulse proton accelerator is used to reach this goal. The pulsed length is 2.86ms and the repetition frequency is 14Hz (4% duty cycle). The choice of SRF technology is a key element in the development of the ESS linear accelerator (linac).The superconducting linacis composed of one section of spoke cavity cryomodules(352.21MHz) and two sections of elliptical cavity cryomodules (704.42MHz). These cryomodules contain niobium SRF cavities operating at 2 K, cooled by the accelerator cryoplantthrough the cryogenic distribution system.This paper presents the superconducting RF cavity and cryomodule cryogenic processes, which are developed for the technology demonstrators and to be ultimately integrated for the ESS tunnel operation.

Combinatorial design of copolymer donor materials for bulk heterojunction solar cells.

Seeking π-conjugated polymers with targeted optical band gaps is not only a grand scientific challenge but also in great practical need for systematically improving the performance of organic optoelectronic devices. This work presents a generic combinatorial band-gap design strategy over 780 different copolymer donor materials for bulk heterojunction solar cell applications. Predicted optical band gaps effectively cover the entire solar spectrum from infrared, to visible, to ultraviolet. Combined with empirical arguments widely acknowledged in the literature, the optimal copolymer structures are identified for both single and tandem cells with the optimal power conversion efficiencies.