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People who pack their cars and drive like Clark Griswold in National Lampoon’s “Vacation” pay a steep penalty when it comes to fuel economy.

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1) Bridge failure warning. 2) Simulations on Titan could help automobile manufacturers meet fuel economy and emissions standards. 3) New system enables decision-makers to respond swiftly to major power disruptions. 4) Refrigerators featuring 20 percent greater efficiency.

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1) Lighter, stronger engines. 2) Safeguarding cyberspace. 3) Climate Change Science Institute annual report now available. 4) Collaborative innovation. 5) New superhydrophobic glass.

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Vertimass LLC has licensed an ORNL technology that directly converts ethanol into a hydrocarbon blend-stock for use in transportation fuels.

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Using a new microscopy method, researchers can image and measure electrochemical processes in batteries in real time and at nanoscale resolution.

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Scientists and engineers developing more accurate approaches to analyzing nuclear power reactors have successfully tested a new suite of computer codes that closely model “neutronics” — the behavior of neutrons in a reactor core.

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Oak Ridge National Laboratory partnering with Cincinnati Incorporated to develop a large-scale polymer additive manufacturing (3-D printing) system.

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1) LEDs to light UT arena. 2) Self-cleaning solar panel. 3) Bioenergy researchers defeat lignin. 4) New tool for first responders.

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Oak Ridge National Laboratory is developing a low-cost, transparent, anti-soiling coating for solar reflectors to optimize energy efficiency while lowering operating and maintenance costs and avoiding negative environmental impacts.

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Nearly 30 years after the discovery of high-temperature superconductivity, many questions remain, but an Oak Ridge National Laboratory team is providing insight that could lead to better superconductors.

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Researchers have pioneered a new technique for forming a two-dimensional, single-atom sheet of two different materials with a seamless boundary.

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1) The road to efficiency. 2) Zero Energy Ready Homes. 3) Cross-disciplinary research is yielding new insight into the carbon cycle, contaminated soils and soil fertility.

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If scientists can control cellular functions such as movement and development, they can cripple cells and pathogens that are causing disease in the body.

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By controlling the temperature of silica rods as they grow, researchers at the DOE’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory could be setting the stage for advances in anti-reflective solar cells, computer monitors, TV screens, eye glasses and more.

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With the goal of expanding opportunities for early career researchers, the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory has established a research award in the name of its most acclaimed woman scientist.

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1. Technology that lets inspectors of containers of nuclear material know whether an intruder has tampered with a seal. 2. Thwarting cyber attacks with just minor changes in infrastructure. 3. Nuclear forensics in spotlight. 4. Improving welds of heavy and light armored fighting vehicles.

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Unexpected behavior in ferroelectric materials explored by researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory supports a new approach to information storage and processing.

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The U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science announced 59 projects, promising to accelerate scientific discovery and innovation, that will share nearly 6 billion core hours on two of America’s fastest supercomputers dedicated to open science.

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Researchers studying more effective ways to convert woody plant matter into biofuels have identified fundamental forces that change plant structures during pretreatment processes used in the production of bioenergy.

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ENGINES – Miniature maximization. MATERIALS – Transient doping success. BIG DATA – Powerful pattern discovery. VEHICLES – ORNL inverter a boost for EVs.

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Gas and oil deposits in shale have no place to hide from an Oak Ridge National Laboratory technique that provides an inside look at pores and reveals structural information potentially vital to the nation’s energy needs.

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Materials - Improving panel performance. Metallurgy - Better magnetic materials. Transportation - Energy-saving lubricant additives.

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Jack D. Fellows, who oversaw a $110 billion federal science portfolio under two U.S. presidents and co-founded the U.S. Global Change Research Program integrating all federal Earth system science research programs, has been appointed director of the Climate Change Science Institute at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Martin Keller and Jeff Nichols, leaders of the Energy & Environmental Sciences Directorate and the Computing & Computational Sciences Directorate respectively, announced Fellows’ appointment.

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Microbes that live in rice paddies, northern peat bogs and other previously unexpected environments are among the bacteria that can generate highly toxic methylmercury, researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center have learned.

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FORENSICS – Mass grave detection; BIOENERGY – Super microbe; CLIMATE – Mapping where trees survive, thrive; HELIUM – Selective sieving membrane; MEDICAL – Improving drug design.

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Scientists at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have developed a new oxygen “sponge” that can easily absorb or shed oxygen atoms at low temperatures. Materials with these novel characteristics would be useful in devices such as rechargeable batteries, sensors, gas converters and fuel cells.

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Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Neutron Sciences Directorate (NScD), home organization for the Department of Energy's Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) and High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR), has filled two high-level administrative positions with leaders in the neutron scattering field.

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The ability to control nanoscale imperfections in superconducting wires results in materials with unparalleled and customized performance, according to a new study from the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

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ENERGY – Green battery. PROSTHETICS – Better fit, function. MATERIALS – Best of both worlds.

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Witold Nazarewicz, Bobby Sumpter and Stan Wullschleger of the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have been selected as 2013 UT-Battelle Corporate Fellows.

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Companies interested in testing the latest in low-cost carbon fiber have a new opportunity to partner with the Department of Energy’s Carbon Fiber Technology Facility.

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Today, the Consortium for Advanced Simulation of Light Water Reactors (CASL) announced that its scientists have successfully completed the first full-scale simulation of an operating nuclear reactor. CASL is modeling nuclear reactors on supercomputers to help researchers better understand reactor performance with much higher reliability than previously available methods, with the goal of ultimately increasing power output, extending reactor life, and reducing waste.

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Researchers at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory have received six R&D 100 awards, presented each year by R&D Magazine in recognition of the year's most significant technological innovations.

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ENERGY -- Big voltage, little package. METALLURGY -- Graphite foam expansion. ENERGY -- CoNNECT promotes savings. MATERIALS -- Safer batteries. CLIMATE -- Blogging from the Arctic.

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ORNL's Titan supercomputer has completed rigorous acceptance testing to ensure the functionality, performance and stability of the machine, one of the world’s most powerful supercomputing systems for open science.

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Scientists at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have designed and tested an all-solid lithium-sulfur battery with approximately four times the energy density of conventional lithium-ion technologies that power today’s electronics.

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TRANSPORTATION – Better, cleaner engines. BIOSURVEILLANCE – Biodetection symposium. BATTERIES – Manufacturing breakthrough. NANOSCIENCE - Chip harnesses mysterious force. ENERGY – Safer lithium-ion batteries. CLMATE - Bogs and forests as ecosystem labs.

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The Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory has begun delivery of germanium-76 detectors to an underground laboratory in South Dakota in a team research effort that might explain the puzzling imbalance between matter and antimatter generated by the Big Bang.

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Materials science and physics research led by early career Oak Ridge National Laboratory scientists received a boost this week from the Department of Energy’s Office of Science Early Career Research Program.

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POWER GRID – Preparing for natural disasters. COMPUTING – Spotlight on super machines. PLASMONICS – Revolutionary sensors. BIOMEDICAL – Bridging the gap. CLIMATE -- Model improvements.

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Once they’ve finished powering electric vehicles for hundreds of thousands of miles, it may not be the end of the road for automotive batteries, which researchers believe can provide continued benefits for consumers, automakers and the environment.

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A technology being developed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory promises to provide clear images of the brains of children, the elderly and people with Parkinson’s and other diseases without the use of uncomfortable or intrusive restraints.

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Jumping silicon atoms are the stars of an atomic scale ballet featured in a new Nature Communications study from the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

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Analytics—Device has ORNL pedigree, Climate—Going small with big computers, Transportation—Highway to green, Energy—Extending reactor life, Environment—Seeing through soil.

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Microbes from the human mouth are telling Oak Ridge National Laboratory scientists something about periodontitis and more after they cracked the genetic code of bacteria linked to the condition.

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Senior materials researcher and Corporate Fellow Steven Zinkle of the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory has been named a 2013 Fellow of the Materials Research Society (MRS).

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Energy - Reducing biorefinery waste. Health - Faster vitamin analysis. Climate - Recreating the past. Lighting - Brighter future for LEDs. Environment - Better hydrogen trap.

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By identifying two genes required for transforming inorganic into organic mercury, which is far more toxic, scientists today have taken a significant step toward protecting human health.

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More precise optical imaging is vital for better diagnosis of breast cancer, which strikes one in eight women in the United States during their lifetime. In the race to make graphene available for flexible touch screens, smart phones, flat-panel displays, solar panels and more, researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and New Mexico State University have produced a graphene sheet 40 inches in diagonal. By studying the effects of climate change on the Gulf Coastal region’s economy, agriculture and energy production, ORNL researchers are addressing key questions posed by the Department of Energy while designing a tool that the scientific community can use to predict how climate change will impact small localized areas elsewhere.

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Researchers seeking to improve production of ethanol from woody crops have a new resource in the form of an extensive molecular map of poplar tree proteins.