Intelligent agent-based software to be showcased at Smithsonian; Supercomputer speeding design, deployment of lightweight powertrain materials; ORNL process produces hydrogen from switchgrass; Sampling probe system identifies bioactive compounds in fungi; ORNL technique could accelerate advances in materials science
A team led by Klaus Schulten of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign used the OLCF’s Titan to achieve a milestone in the field of biomolecular simulation, modeling a complete photosynthetic organelle of the bacteria Rhodobacter sphaeroides in atomic detail. The project, a 100-million atom spherical chromatophore, is the first of its kind, giving scientists a system-level understanding of a fundamental biological process based on all-atom precision.
With U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission support, researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have devised a system that will help facilitate safe transportation of spent nuclear fuel.
For the first time, researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have produced arrays of semiconductor junctions in arbitrary patterns within a single, nanometer-thick semiconductor crystal.
ORNL study demonstrates economic value of variable flow heat pumps; New catalyst provides potential solution to meet emissions challenges; ORNL, UK researchers working to develop cleaner crude oil; New climate data easily accessed at Data.gov
Small companies in the advanced manufacturing, transportation and building sectors have a new opportunity to partner with the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
Groundbreaking work at two Department of Energy national laboratories has confirmed plutonium’s magnetism, which scientists have long theorized but have never been able to experimentally observe.
In an effort to further the commercial viability of cellulosic ethanol, a team led by ORNL’s Jeremy Smith used the Titan supercomputer to model the interaction of lignin and hemicellulose in the plant cell wall of a genetically modified aspen tree. The team’s conclusion—that hydrophobic, or water repelling, lignin binds less with hydrophilic, or water attracting, hemicellulose—points researchers toward a promising way to engineer better plants for biofuel. Published in the November 2014 edition of Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, the results add context to experiments conducted by researchers at DOE’s BioEnergy Science Center, who demonstrated that genetic modification of lignin can boost the amount of biofuel derived from plant material without compromising the structural integrity of the plant.
Robert Edwards, a researcher and senior staff member at the Jefferson Lab (JLAB), is the principal investigator for a team researching the energy spectrum of exotic meson resonances. The main goal of Edwards’ ALCC project is give theoretical underpinnings to the 12-GeV upgrade project and Glue-X photon detector set to open in JLAB’s new HallD.
Nancy J. Dudney, Lonnie J. Love and David C. Radford have been named Corporate Fellows at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The Corporate Fellow designation recognizes the researchers' significant accomplishments and continuing leadership in their scientific, engineering and technological fields.
Building technology researchers at DOE’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory collaborated with Dow to evaluate a new product invented by Dow that significantly reduces air leakage and helps to make residential and commercial buildings more energy efficient.
Researchers have developed a new method to manipulate a wide range of materials and their behavior using only a handful of helium ions.
It took marine sponges millions of years to perfect their spike-like structures, but research mimicking these formations may soon alter how industrial coatings and 3-D printed to additively manufactured objects are produced.
Surgeons could know while their patients are still on the operating table if a tissue is cancerous, according to researchers from the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School.
The Oak Ridge National Laboratory will open its doors July 14-15 for its “Explore ORNL” conference designed to introduce the region’s business community to the lab’s world-class R&D facilities and expertise.
Hyundai Motor Company and the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have signed an agreement intended to strengthen the automaker’s U.S. research and development portfolio.
Biofuels pioneer Mascoma LLC and the Department of Energy's BioEnergy Science Center have developed a revolutionary strain of yeast that could help significantly accelerate the development of biofuels from nonfood plant matter.
Scientists at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider started recording data from the highest-energy particle collisions achieved on Earth. This new data will enable an international collaboration to study the Higgs boson, search for dark matter and develop a more complete understanding of the laws of nature. Oak Ridge National Laboratory led an equipment upgrade for LHC’s A Large Ion Collider Experiment (ALICE), which aims to learn more about conditions of the early universe.
1) Suitability mapping. 2) Safer landings. 3) Rooftop A/C retrofit. 4) Clothes dryers that could use vibrations instead of heat.
An international team of researchers from Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Macquarie University, the University of Western Sydney and the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry set out to assess how two Free-Air CO2 Enrichment (FACE) projects compared to eleven vegetation models that simulate various ecological processes. Instead of only benchmarking whether or not an individual model matched the experimental data, the researchers developed an “assumption-centered” approach to evaluate why certain models performed better than others.
Researchers from Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Washington State University and the University of Idaho have developed a process to make a thermoset that can be reshaped and reused. The new plastic is a shape-memory polymer, so named because the material can “remember” its original shape and return to it after being deformed with heat or other forces.
Cameron Roberts, a recent High Flux Isotope Reactor visiting research user, stands out from the usual queue of university academics, industry R&D staff, and DOE scientists—this user is a junior in high school.
One of the barriers to using graphene at a commercial scale could be overcome using a method demonstrated by researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
Supercomputing resources at Oak Ridge National Laboratory will support a new initiative designed to advance how scientists digitally reconstruct and analyze individual neurons in the human brain.
Run-2 for the Large Hadron Collider—the world’s largest and most powerful particle collider—began April 5 at CERN. In preparation, Thomas M. Cormier, who leads the LHC Heavy Ion group at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, led an upgrade of the electromagnetic calorimeter used for LHC’s experiment called ALICE (for A Large Ion Collider Experiment). This detector measures the energies of high-energy electrons and gamma rays emitted from the quark–gluon plasma.
A moth’s eye and lotus leaf were the inspirations for an antireflective water-repelling, or superhydrophobic, glass coating that holds significant potential for solar panels, lenses, detectors, windows, weapons systems and many other products.
1) 3-D face analysis. 2) Turbine-associated fish injuries. 3) Imaging atoms for better batteries.
ORNL scientists combined atomic force microscopy and mass spectrometry into one instrument that can probe a polymer sample in three dimensions and overlay information about the topography of its surface, the atomic-scale mechanical behavior of the bulk sample, and subsurface chemistry. Their results are published in ACS Nano.
While experimenting with a heat treatment process he modified by eliminating a couple of steps, Klett made a discovery that caused quite a stir and prompted hundreds of inquiries from scientists, academia and industry.
A group of 13 Ph.D. students from 3 partnering universities gathered at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in April for an intensive course in how to apply neutron scattering to their studies of materials science and biological systems with hands-on use of instruments at ORNL’s Spallation Neutron Source and High Flux Isotope Reactor.
Researcher applies materials science techniques to the field of forensics, and some of her research has helped crime scene investigators rebuild fingerprints after they have faded over time.
For the first time, industry and policymakers have a comprehensive report detailing the U.S. hydropower fleet’s 2,198 plants that provide about 7 percent of the nation’s electricity.
Thermal imaging, microscopy and ultra-trace sensing could take a quantum leap with a technique developed by researchers at ORNL.
A major United Nations report on bioenergy and sustainability released Tuesday concludes the sustainable production of bioenergy can be an important tool for addressing climate change.
Summit, a high-performance computing system set to be delivered to Oak Ridge National Laboratory in 2017 and available to researchers in 2018, will support DOE’s Office of Science in its broad science and energy mission.
Scientists focused on producing biofuels more efficiently have a new powerful dataset to help them study the DNA of microbes that fuel bioconversion and other processes.
After two years of upgrades and repairs, proton beams once again circulate around the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. Oak Ridge National Laboratory has led an 8-year upgrade of the electromagnetic calorimeter used for LHC’s experiment called ALICE (for A Large Ion Collider Experiment). This detector measures the energies of high-energy electrons and gamma rays to learn more about the conditions of the early universe.
Computational framework for optimizing traffic flow could be the beginning of a road revolution.
Researchers from the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory will play key roles in an expansive new project that aims to bring the future of tropical forests and the climate system into much clearer focus by coupling field research with the development of a new ecosystem model.
To arrange for an interview with a researcher, please contact the Communications staff member identified at the end of each tip. For more information on ORNL and its research and development activities, please refer to one of our media contacts. If you have a general media-related question or comment, you can send it to [email protected].
A meeting to explore research collaborations between Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the University of Tennessee set the foundation for a company that provides accessible and remote health screenings for patients concerned about diabetic related eye diseases.
Desalination is an energy-intensive process, which concerns those wanting to expand its application. Now, a team of experimentalists led by the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory has demonstrated an energy-efficient desalination technology that uses a porous membrane made of strong, slim graphene—a carbon honeycomb one atom thick. The results are published in the March 23 advance online issue of Nature Nanotechnology.
A certain class of proteins has challenged researchers’ conventional notion that proteins have a static and well-defined structure.
In this Q&A Andrew Stack, a geochemist at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, advances understanding of the dynamics of minerals underground. Stack and his team make discoveries that will help to improve our understanding of a wide range of energy-related issues, such as geologic storage of carbon dioxide, oil and gas discovery and development, and remediation of toxic contaminants. His current research spans three disciplines—geology, chemistry and computing.
Representatives from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics are meeting at ORNL this week as part of an agreement between the two institutions to work together on the advancement of salt-cooled nuclear reactor technologies.
Graphene, a strong, lightweight carbon honeycombed structure, only one atom thick, holds great promise for energy research and development. Recently scientists with the Fluid Interface Reactions, Structures, and Transport Energy Frontier Research Center, led by the US Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, revealed graphene can serve as a proton-selective permeable membrane, providing a new basis for streamlined and more efficient energy technologies such as improved fuel cells.
1) Shielding against energy loss. 2) Innovations showcase. 3) GE Appliances, ORNL sign agreement.
Scientists have captured the first real-time nanoscale images of lithium dendrite structures known to degrade lithium-ion batteries.
In this Q&A Andrew Stack of the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory calls on expertise in geology, chemistry and computing to advance understanding of the dynamics of minerals underground. He investigates chemical processes that take place on mineral surfaces at scales ranging from individual atoms to entire rocks. These processes can trap contaminants, such as nuclear waste, carbon dioxide and toxic by-products from hydraulic fracturing.
ORNL’s infrared imaging system can help automakers quickly determine whether a weld is good or bad without damaging the part. The infrared check can be performed in a few seconds, offering industry a low-cost and non-destructive alternative to monitor welds in real time.
RSS
Medicine keyboard_arrow_right
Sciencekeyboard_arrow_right
Life keyboard_arrow_right
Business keyboard_arrow_right
Journal News keyboard_arrow_right
By Location keyboard_arrow_right
Meetings, Grants, and Events keyboard_arrow_right