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Highly effective anti-virus programs for computers are providing the inspiration for a system to protect people from deadly genetically engineered biological bugs. While the National Cyber Security Division’s US-CERT provides cyber security updates and tools to safeguard computers within federal agencies, industry, state and local governments and the public, no such program exists to protect the public from harmful biological threats. That could change, however, with BioSITES, the vision of Department of Energy Oak Ridge National Laboratory researchers Robert Cottingham and Tom Brettin.

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By testing radiation detection equipment and helping establish national and international standards, a team of Oak Ridge National Laboratory researchers protects the people who keep the nation safe. The Graduated Rad/Nuc Detector Evaluation and Reporting program fulfills a Congressional mandate to set capability standards and establish a test and evaluation program for radiation and nuclear detectors.

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What does it take to withstand the conditions of ITER, the world’s largest fusion energy reactor? Neutron scattering is one way to find out. The Spallation Neutron Source at Oak Ridge National Laboratory offers fusion researchers with the U.S. ITER Project Office at ORNL, the Japanese Atomic Energy Agency and the ITER Organization a unique resource for improving the performance of superconducting cables.

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Neutron scattering analysis of two families of iron-based materials suggests that the magnetic interactions thought responsible for high-temperature superconductivity may lie "two doors down": The key magnetic exchange pairings occur in a next-nearest-neighbor ordering of atoms, rather than adjacent atoms.

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UT-Battelle announced today that Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s approximately 5,000 employees and subcontractors recently passed a historic safety milestone by working 4 million hours without a serious injury.

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Researchers at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory have developed a biohybrid photoconversion system -- based on the interaction of photosynthetic plant proteins with synthetic polymers -- that can convert visible light into hydrogen fuel.

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Two teams from the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have won awards for excellence in technology transfer from the Federal Laboratory Consortium.

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Policy makers, industry, researchers and the public have a new way to gain and share information about biofuels with the Bioenergy Knowledge Discovery Framework, or KDF, developed by a team at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and sponsored by the Department of Energy.

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Nature has a bit of a Jekyll and Hyde relationship with mercury, but researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have made a discovery that ultimately could help explain the split personality.

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1) FORENSICS -- The telltale bone; 2) ELECTRICITY -- Eye on the grid; 3) BATTERIES -- Nanoscale mapping; 4) SUPERCOMPUTING -- Pairing up in a nucleus.

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Four researchers from the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have been elected to fellowship in the American Physical Society.

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A quicker and cheaper technique to scan molecular databases developed at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory could put scientists on the fast track to developing new drug treatments.

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Governor Phil Bredesen today joined officials from the University of Tennessee and the Department of Energy in dedicating a new state-funded research facility at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

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1) BIODIESEL -- Ultrasonic remedy; 2) TRANSPORTATION -- Single-wides save fuel; 3) DATA -- Finding feelings . . . BIOMETRICS -- ID from afar.

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Luiz Leal and Lance Snead from the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have been elected to the American Nuclear Society’s Class of 2010 Fellows.

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A systematic study of phase changes in vanadium dioxide has solved a mystery that has puzzled scientists for decades, according to researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

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Sheng Dai, a researcher in the Chemical Sciences Division of the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, has earned the UT-Battelle Director's Award for Outstanding Individual Accomplishment in Science and Technology.

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Three ORNL researchers are among 13 Department of Energy scientists to receive the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, or PECASE. The winners will receive DOE funding for up to five years to advance their research.

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A prototype charging system for electric and hybrid vehicles is helping demonstrate a technology that could one day play a key role in the electrification of America’s highways. Sapphire nanowires grow using an unexpectedly complicated reaction with oxygen atoms changing between partners in vapor, liquid and solid phases. When Fuels, Engines and Emissions Research Center researchers at ORNL achieved a 45 percent brake thermal efficiency in a multi-cylinder engine, they demonstrated a new potential for passenger-size diesel engines.

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Tin may seem like the most unassuming of elements, but experiments performed at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory are yielding surprising properties in extremely short-lived isotopes near tin-100's "doubly magic" nucleus.

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The Cold Triple Axis spectrometer, a new addition to Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s High Flux Isotope Reactor and a complementary tool to other neutron scattering instruments at ORNL, has entered its commissioning phase.

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Theoretical work done at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory has provided a key to understanding an unexpected magnetism between two dissimilar materials.

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UT-Battelle has contributed more than $1 million to the United Way campaign for the third consecutive year.

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With the transition to a smart grid comes new opportunities for hackers, but researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory are working to stay at least one step ahead.

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Low-income families under stress from high utility bills can find relief through a new energy savings program supported by UT-Battelle.

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By installing wireless sensors and replacing faulty traps along the 12 miles of steam lines at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, officials expect to save as much as $675,000 per year.

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Supercomputer simulations at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory are helping scientists unravel how nucleic acids could have contributed to the origins of life.

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Instead of the conventional long piece of metal or dipole antenna, electronic devices of tomorrow could incorporate an antenna no bigger than a gnat. Wireless sensors that alert steel mill operators to abnormal temperatures and vibrations that foretell wasted energy and imminent failure are expected to pay big dividends. Expressed as raw data, a simulation performed on a supercomputer would appear as a formless sea of trillion-floating-operations-per-second calculations.

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Four East Tennessee homes completed this month showcase how scientific research can make dramatic changes in the cost of heating and cooling our homes.

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As a member of the recently announced clean vehicles consortium, part of the U.S.-China Clean Energy Research Center, Oak Ridge National Laboratory researchers are focusing on a suite of technologies to put more electric and hybrid vehicles on the road.

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New insight into the structure of switchgrass and poplars is fueling discussions that could result in more efficient methods to turn biomass into biofuel.

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As industries and consumers increasingly seek improved battery power sources, cutting-edge microscopy performed at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory is providing an unprecedented perspective on how lithium-ion batteries function.

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Exemplary efforts to “go green” at Oak Ridge National Laboratory have resulted in a 2010 Federal Energy & Water Management Award and a 2010 Department of Energy Management Award in recognition of the lab’s Sustainable Campus Initiative.

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1) Using neutron scattering to examine rock formations, researchers are gaining insight into little-understood geologic processes; 2) LandScan’s latest edition features improved spatial refinement, especially within urban settings; 3) Four of six teams competing for the top honor among scientific computing applications ran on ORNL’s Jaguar supercomputer, the world’s most powerful; 4) Wind energy is an important player in efforts to replace fossil energy with renewable-energy sources.

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Technology developed at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory that extends the life of light-emitting diode lamps has been licensed to LED North America.

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Nanoscale simulations and theoretical research performed at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory are bringing scientists closer to realizing graphene’s potential in electronic applications.

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Buried in mountains of meteorological and hydrological data are likely clues that could help in predicting floods, hurricanes and other extreme weather events.

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Martin Peng, a researcher in the Fusion Energy Division of Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, has been selected by the Fusion Power Associates board of directors to receive a 2010 FPA Leadership Award.

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Superconducting materials, which transmit power resistance-free, are found to perform optimally when high- and low-charge density varies on the nanoscale level, according to research performed at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

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Thin layers of oxide materials and their interfaces have been observed in atomic resolution during growth for the first time by researchers at the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, providing new insight into the complicated link between their structure and properties.

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A collaboration between ORNL and software toolmaker Allinea Software has produced a formidable weapon in the fight against software application bugs. Data from DOE's ORNL on neutron interactions with isotopes of platinum contradict a basic assumption underpinning random matrix theory, nuclear physics models and quantum chaos. Ivaylo Ivanov of Georgia State University and colleagues used Jaguar, a Cray XT high-performance computing system at ORNL, to elucidate the mechanism by which accessory proteins called sliding clamps are loaded onto DNA strands and coordinate enzymes that enable gene repair or replication.

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Final edits to a video that will help people with disabilities better prepare for emergencies are being made this month, according to Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s John Sorensen, co-writer and producer of the project.

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UT-Battelle has appointed Michael K. Miller of the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory a UT-Battelle Corporate Fellow. The honor is reserved as the highest level of recognition for career achievements in science and technology, performance and leadership.

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Michelle Buchanan, Associate Laboratory Director in Physical Sciences at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, has been elected to the 2010 class of fellows of the American Chemical Society.

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Tomorrow’s television and computer screens could be brighter, clearer and more energy-efficient as a result of a process developed by a team of researchers from Canada and the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

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Researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory have been honored with eight awards in the annual R&D 100 Awards by R&D Magazine. Sometimes referred to as the “Academy Awards of Science,” the magazine selected winners for development of “one of the 100 most technologically significant new products of 2010.”

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Using ever-growing genome data, scientists with the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the University of Tennessee are tracing the evolution of the bacterial regulatory system that controls cellular motility, potentially giving researchers a method for predicting important cellular functions that will impact both medical and biotechnology research.

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People recovering from injuries could from a gait analysis technology being developed by a team at ORNL. A National Academies Keck Futures Initiative award of $100,000 will help researchers from ORNL and State University NY to produce biofuels. Visiting scientists working at SNS and CNMS at ORNL often conduct experiments that run day and night. By applying advanced data mining techniques a researcher at ORNL envisions the creation of tools that can provide insights into climate science.

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Scientists at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory are planning a large-scale, long-term ecosystem experiment to test the effects of global warming on the icy layers of arctic permafrost.

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With the signing of a memorandum of agreement, the Oak Ridge Reservation officially becomes one of 20 planned core ecological observatory sites that will provide valuable information to help scientists better understand how the ecosystem breathes.