An interdisciplinary, interdepartmental group of scientists at ORNL conducted fundamental physics studies at the nanoscale to support development of experimental platforms that will control dissipation in quantum systems and materials.
Collaborators of the MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR have shown they can shield a sensitive, scalable 44-kilogram germanium detector array from background radioactivity. This accomplishment is critical to developing and proposing a much larger future experiment to study neutrinos.
Using neutrons at ORNL, researchers identified a multiferroic material that exhibits a rare combination of magnetic and electrical properties. Studying these dual characteristics could lead to significant advances in information storage and power performance in new devices.
Researchers at DOE’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) have developed a novel method for more efficiently training large numbers of networks capable of solving complex science problems. Specifically, Mohammed Alawad, Hong-Jun Yoon, and Gina Tourassi of ORNL’s Computer Science and Engineering Division, have demonstrated that by converting deep learning neural networks (DNNs) to “deep spiking” neural networks (DSNNs) they can improve the efficiency of network design and training.
A scientific team led by the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory has found a new way to take the local temperature of a material from an area about a billionth of a meter wide, or approximately 100,000 times thinner than a human hair.
A new method to produce large, monolayer single-crystal-like graphene films more than a foot long relies on harnessing a “survival of the fittest” competition among crystals. The novel technique, developed by a team led by the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, may open new opportunities for growing the high-quality two-dimensional materials necessary for long-awaited practical applications.
University of Notre Dame researchers are using neutrons at ORNL to study how specialized molecules might improve petroleum production processes, as well as their potential uses in advanced photovoltaic technologies. Specifically, they want to know what effects functionalized molecules called petroporphyrins have on asphaltenes—darkly colored, high-molecular-weight molecules abundant in heavy crude oil.
ORNL model could better predict tiny methylmercury pockets lurking in creek algae; engines work smarter with new fuel innovation; making narrow metallic structures to advance tiny electronics, drug delivery; certain enzymes that try to break down antibiotics may inform better drug designs for fighting resistant bacteria; current software simulations for small modular reactors upscaled to run on future supercomputers.
A team of researchers from ORNL and the University of Alabama at Birmingham recently developed the antioxidant manganoporphyrin, a new polymer that could potentially improve drug delivery methods and other biomedical applications. Using neutrons, they studied the strength and efficiency of a compound made from this material and tannic acid, a natural antioxidant.
Researchers are using neutrons to study a battery material that could offer a safer alternative to the flammable liquid component found in most types of lithium-ion batteries.
The observation of an abnormal state of matter in a 2-D magnetic material is the latest development in the race to harness novel electronic properties for more robust and efficient next-generation devices. Neutron scattering at Oak Ridge National Laboratory helped researchers investigate a graphene-like strontium-manganese-antimony material that hosts what they suspect is a Weyl semimetal phase.
Four technologies developed at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory have earned 2018 Excellence in Technology Transfer Awards from the Federal Laboratory Consortium for Technology Transfer (FLC).
A team of researchers led by the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory has demonstrated a new method for splitting light beams into their frequency modes, work that could spur advancements in quantum information processing and distributed quantum computing.
A team of researchers from ORNL’s Energy and Transportation Science Division is using neutron imaging to study particulate filters that collect harmful emissions in vehicles. A better understanding of how heat treatments and oxidation methods can remove layers of soot and ash from these filters could lead to improved fuel-efficiency.
A team of researchers from ORNL’s Energy and Transportation Science Division is using neutron imaging to study particulate filters that collect harmful emissions in vehicles. A better understanding of how heat treatments and oxidation methods can remove layers of soot and ash from these filters could lead to improved fuel-efficiency.
Scientists of the Department of Energy’s Light Water Reactor Sustainability Program (LWRS) and partners from the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) have conducted the first weld tests to repair highly irradiated materials at DOE’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
Grover and GM colleagues Jian Gao, Venkatesh Gopalakrishnan, and Ramachandra Diwakar are using the Titan supercomputer at the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility to improve combustion models for diesel passenger car engines with an ultimate goal of accelerating innovative engine designs while meeting strict emissions standards.
Nuclear physicists are using the nation’s most powerful supercomputer, Titan, at the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF) to study particle interactions important to energy production in the Sun and stars and to propel the search for new physics discoveries. The research team using Titan, including principal investigator William Detmold of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), is calculating proton-proton fusion—a process that powers the Sun and other stars in which two protons fuse to form a deuteron—and double beta decay, a rare process which occurs when an unstable nucleus decays by emitting two electrons with or without neutrinos (subatomic particles with near-zero mass).
• ORNL research says quantum computers will use much less energy than current supercomputers, a potential cost benefit to equipment manufacturers and data centers
• ORNL creates supertough renewable plastic with improved manufacturability.
• A new ORNL system will help builders and home designers select the best construction materials for long-term moisture durability.
A team led by the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory has uncovered how certain soil microbes cope in a phosphorus-poor environment to survive in a tropical ecosystem. Their novel approach could be applied in other ecosystems to study various nutrient limitations and inform agriculture and terrestrial biosphere modeling.
Using Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Titan supercomputer, a team led by Brown University’s George Karniadakis devised a multiscale model of sickle cell disease that captures what happens inside a red blood cell affected by the disease.
For deep learning to be effective, existing neural networks to be modified, or novel networks designed and then "trained" so that they know precisely what to look for and can produce valid results. This is a time-consuming and difficult task, but one that a team of ORNL researchers recently demonstrated can be dramatically expedited with a capable computing system.
A team of researchers from the University of South Carolina is using neutrons at Oak Ridge National Laboratory to develop more durable and efficient materials called waste forms for safely storing hazardous substances.
Study identifies microbes to diagnose endometriosis without surgery; brain-inspired device can quickly classify data; neutrons “see” how water flows through fractured rock; new method could help with demand for electric vehicle charging stations; bio-based, shape-memory material could replace today’s conductors; novel approach for studying material’s magnetic behavior could boost quantum computing
An Oak Ridge National Laboratory-led research team used a sophisticated X-ray scattering technique to visualize and quantify the movement of water molecules in space and time, which provides new insights that may open pathways for liquid-based electronics.
A research team including Georgia Institute of Technology professor Martin Mourigal used neutron scattering at Oak Ridge National Laboratory to study copper elpasolite, a mineral that can be driven to an exotic magnetic state when subjected to very low temperatures and a high magnetic field.
U.S. cities could save billions with ORNL’s precise approach to de-icing wintry roads; discovery of overlooked function of certain microbes could boost environmental clean-up strategies; novel tools can “see” atomic structures of aluminum-cerium alloys for automotive and aerospace applications.
Scientists at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have identified a common set of genes that enable different drought-resistant plants to survive in semi-arid conditions, which could play a significant role in bioengineering and creating energy crops that are tolerant to water deficits.
Using the Titan supercomputer, a research team at Oak Ridge National Laboratory has developed an evolutionary algorithm capable of generating custom neural networks that match or exceed the performance of handcrafted artificial intelligence systems.
One drop of liquid, a cutting-edge laser 3D-printer and a few hours are all it takes to make a fidget spinner smaller than the width of a human hair. The tiny whirligig was created by researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences to illustrate the facility’s unique resources and expertise available to scientists across the world. The microscale fidget spinner measures only 100 microns wide, or one tenth of a millimeter, but the capabilities it represents are enormous.
Researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have received nine R&D 100 Awards in recognition of their significant advancements in science and technology.
Researchers from Washington University in St. Louis and ORNL are using neutrons to study what happens when cyanobacteria cell samples are starved for nitrogen. They are especially interested in how this process affects phycobilisomes, large antenna protein complexes in the cells that harvest light for photosynthesis.
An international researcher team used neutron analysis at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, x-ray crystallography and other techniques to study chlorite dismutase, an enzyme that breaks down the environmental pollutant chlorite into harmless byproducts. The results shed light on the catalytic process and open possibilities for bioremediation.
The U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science announced 55 projects with high potential for accelerating discovery through its Innovative and Novel Computational Impact on Theory and Experiment (INCITE) program. The projects will share 5.95 billion core-hours on three of America’s most powerful supercomputers dedicated to capability-limited open science and support a broad range of large-scale research campaigns from infectious disease treatment to next-generation materials development.
Researchers from ORNL’s Neutron Sciences Directorate are conducting a series of experiments to better understand how resistant bacteria use enzymes called beta-lactamases to break down the beta-lactam class of antibiotics.
Scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and their collaborators discovered that a workhorse catalyst of vehicle exhaust systems—an “oxygen sponge” that can soak up oxygen from air and store it for later use in oxidation reactions—may also be a “hydrogen sponge.”
ORNL story tips, November 2017: Fast-learning computing technique supports hurricane damage assessments; neutrons unlock liquid flow mystery; “puckering” 2D material creates tunable energy gap; window air conditioning prototype allows safe use of propane refrigerant; graphene nanoribbons become semiconductors through precise electrical contacts.
Two researchers from the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have been elected fellows of the American Nuclear Society, a professional society that promotes the advancement and awareness of nuclear science and technology.
Georgia Tourassi of Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Computing and Computational Sciences Directorate has received the ORNL Director’s Award for Outstanding Individual Accomplishment in Science and Technology.
Researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory are partnering with the city of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, to develop UrbanSense, a comprehensive sensor network and real-time visualization platform that helps cities evaluate trends in urban activity. The platform collects open-source population, traffic and environmental data in cities and delivers real-time dynamics to users via an online dashboard.
Massive offshore structures like oil rigs and wind turbines are designed to withstand the myriad punishments oceans tend to mete out. However, over time, just the saltwater itself can significantly decrease the durability of a structure’s welds. That’s why researchers are using neutron analysis at ORNL's HFIR to validate a more advanced method of welding involving high-power lasers.
Paige Kelley, a postdoctoral researcher with a joint appointment at the University of Tennessee and the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, is using neutrons to study specific crystal properties that could lead to the realization of a quantum spin liquid, a novel state of matter that may form the basis of future quantum computing technologies.
DOE's Office of Science has awarded two research teams, each headed by a member of ORNL’s Quantum Information Science Group, more than $10 million over 5 years to both assess the feasibility of quantum architectures in addressing big science problems and to develop algorithms capable of harnessing the massive power predicted of quantum computing systems. The two projects are intended to work in concert to ensure synergy across DOE’s quantum computing research spectrum and maximize mutual benefits.
For some crystalline catalysts, what you see on the surface is not always what you get in the bulk, according to two studies led by the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
SimPath has licensed a novel cloning system developed by the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory that generates and assembles the biological building blocks necessary to synthetically bioengineer new medicines and fuels.
Scientists at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have performed neutron structural analysis of a vitamin B6-dependent protein, potentially opening avenues for new antibiotics and drugs to battle diseases such as drug-resistant tuberculosis, malaria and diabetes. Specifically, the team used neutron crystallography to study the location of hydrogen atoms in aspartate aminotransferase, or AAT, an enzyme vital to the metabolism of certain amino acids.
A new method that precisely measures the mysterious behavior and magnetic properties of electrons flowing across the surface of quantum materials could open a path to next-generation electronics. A team of scientists has developed an innovative microscopy technique to detect the spin of electrons in topological insulators, a new kind of quantum material that could be used in applications such as spintronics and quantum computing.
Ohio-based Strangpresse has exclusively licensed additive manufacturing-related extruder technology from the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory that can quickly print hundreds of pounds of polymer material.
Oak Ridge National Laboratory nuclear physicists and their partners are using America’s most powerful supercomputers to characterize behavior of objects, from subatomic neutrons to neutron stars, that differ dramatically in size yet are closely connected by physics.
A method developed by Oak Ridge National Laboratory could protect connected and autonomous vehicles from possible network intrusion. A new ORNL technique makes ultrafast measurements using atomic force microscopy.