Security guards stand in front of the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan, China, on Jan. 11, 2020, after the market had been closed following an outbreak of COVID-19 there. Two studies document samples of SARS-CoV-2 from stalls where live animals were sold. Noel Celis/AFP via Getty Images hide caption
The facility uses powerful lasers to compress fuel pellets. The result is nuclear fusion, the process that powers the Sun and the world's largest nuclear weapons. Don Jedlovec/LLNL/NNSA hide caption
Tia Tate is a computational biologist currently working in a postdoctoral position at a federal agency in North Carolina. Cornell Watson for NPR hide caption
An artist's rendering shows the reactor's core is about the size of a paper towel roll and could provide a decade's worth of electricity to future missions. NASA hide caption
Robert Murray of Murray Energy (right) meets with Energy Secretary Rick Perry at the Department of Energy headquarters in Washington in a March 29, 2017, photo obtained by The Associated Press. Simon Edelman/AP hide caption
Secretary of Energy Rick Perry testifies during a House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 12. Perry's proposed rule to benefit nuclear and coal power plants has been rejected by a federal regulatory commission. Drew Angerer/Getty Images hide caption
Belinda Batten of Oregon State University stands in front of a wave energy generator prototype. Jeff Brady/NPR hide caption
Former Texas governor Rick Perry had his confirmation hearing Thursday as President-elect Donald Trump's pick for secretary of energy. He said he no longer wants to get rid of the agency. Aaron P. Bernstein/Getty Images hide caption
NuScale power wants to build modular nuclear reactors small enough to fit on the back of a truck. NuScale hide caption
Scientists rally Tuesday in conjunction with the American Geophysical Union's fall meeting Tuesday in San Francisco. Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP hide caption
Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry leaves after a meeting with President-elect Donald Trump at Trump Tower on Monday in New York City. Kena Betancur/AFP/Getty Images hide caption
Donald Trump's transition team circulated a survey asking for names of Department of Energy employees who attended climate change conferences. Legal experts question the new administration's motives. Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP hide caption
A participant visits the Africa pavilion Nov. 9 at a UN climate conference, in Marrakech, Morocco. President-elect Donald Trump's transition team has asked the Department of Energy to provide the names of all employees who attended such conferences. Mosa'ab Elshamy/AP hide caption
A waxing crescent moon is seen behind a streetlight with a newly installed LED fixture in 2011 in Las Vegas. The city was replacing 6,600 existing lights with the energy-efficient LEDs. It has since replaced tens of thousands more. Ethan Miller/Getty Images hide caption
Beacon Power President and CEO Barry Brits, at the company's plant in Hazle Township, Pa. He says a loan from the Department of Energy made it possible for his company to develop its flywheel energy storage technology. Jeff Brady/NPR hide caption