A carbon nanotube sponge that can soak up oil in water with unparalleled efficiency has been developed with help from computational simulations performed at the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
Techniques used by researchers from the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory to analyze a simple marine worm and its resident bacteria could accelerate efforts to understand more complex microbial communities such as those found in humans.
The Transformative Reductions in Operational Energy Consumption Program will target cooling and heating, shelters and structures, lighting, data center power management, electronics, and water heating and pumping systems. Tiny rod-like nanoparticles of gold or silver able to adsorb, transmit and reflect light at the nanoscale could hold the key to faster computers, higher-resolution microscopes, more efficient light-emitting diodes and a new generation of chemical and biological detectors. Millions of seashells off the coast of Japan may be able to play a role in cleaning up radioactive cesium.
Researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Yale University have developed a new concept for use in a high-speed genomic sequencing device that may have the potential to substantially drive down costs.
The boundary between electronics and biology is blurring with the first detection of ferroelectric properties in an amino acid called glycine.
Light of specific wavelengths can be used to boost an enzyme’s function by as much as 30 fold, potentially establishing a path to less expensive biofuels, detergents and a host of other products.
A team led by Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Jeremy Smith demonstrated how the combination of high-performance computer simulation and a type of neutron analysis called spin echo can be used to study certain motions in proteins. Preserving the integrity of air- or moisture-sensitive samples being transferred from a protective environment to a scanning electron microscope is now easier with a vacuum-tight transfer stage invented at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
Common material such as polyethylene used in plastic bags could be turned into something far more valuable through a process being developed at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
A new method to make better use of vast amounts of data related to global geography, population and climate may help determine the relative importance of population increases vs. climate change.
Identifying chemicals from a distance could take a step forward with the introduction of a two-laser system being developed at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
The Spallation Neutron Source’s Powder Diffractometer POWGEN has launched a rapid access sample mail-in system for users who use the flexible general-purpose instrument for a wide range of structural studies of novel materials. A neutron diffraction study at the Spallation Neutrons and Pressure Diffractometer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory has successfully mapped the structure of methane and water cages, known as clathrates, under more than half a million pounds of pressure per square inch. Casein micelles in milk, stabilized by molecules of κ-casein, are the building blocks of dairy products such as yogurt and cheese and the vehicle for delivering calcium phosphate to newborns.
Lessons about energy efficiency are hitting home through an online middle school pilot curriculum developed for students in Louisiana, Hawaii and Japan.
Determining with precision the carbon balance of North America is complicated, but researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory have devised a method that considerably advances the science.
Elevated carbon dioxide concentrations can increase carbon storage in the soil, according to results from a 12-year carbon dioxide-enrichment experiment at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
Consumers and the environment could ultimately be the beneficiaries of a high-efficiency CO2 heat pump water heater concept being researched by General Electric and Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Neutron scattering experiments performed on iron-based superconducting material at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Canada's Chalk River Laboratories have unveiled surprising changes in the materials' subatomic structural and magnetic properties when subjected to relatively low pressures. Neutron testing of the Japanese-made superconducting cable for the Central Solenoid magnetic system for U.S. ITER has been done at the Spallation Neturon Source’s VULCAN Engineering Materials Diffractometer.
Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Jaguar supercomputer has completed the first phase of an upgrade that will keep it among the most powerful scientific computing systems in the world.
A technology developed at ORNL could streamline and strengthen the process for siting power plants while potentially enhancing the nation’s energy security.
Researchers at the Bio-SANS instrument at the High Flux Isotope Reactor used contrast variation and small-angle neutron scattering to get a first insight into how macromolecules form single polyelectrolyte chains in synthetic complexes. The Sindbis virus, or SINV, is the prototype for viruses spread by insects, which cause some of the most devastating and widespread diseases among humans.
Solar cells, light emitting diodes, displays and other electronic devices could get a bump in performance because of a discovery at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory that establishes new boundaries for controlling band gaps.
Alejandro Lopez-Bezanilla used the computing power of Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Jaguar supercomputer, America’s fastest, to study the effects of adding oxygen, sulfur and hydrogen to nanoribbons made of boron nitride. An upgrade is transforming Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Jaguar supercomputer, America’s fastest, into Titan, a next-generation supercomputer that will employ the latest AMD Opteron central processing units as well as NVIDIA Tesla graphics processing units — energy-efficient processors that accelerate specific types of calculations in scientific application codes. A combination of advanced techniques at Oak Ridge National Laboratory helped researchers gain a better understanding of how some proteins attack bacteria. Colicins, a family of protein toxins, kill E. coli by crossing the bacterial membrane to exert their toxic effects.
Studies of bacteria first found in Yellowstone’s hot springs are furthering efforts at the Department of Energy’s BioEnergy Science Center toward commercially viable ethanol production from crops such as switchgrass.
Individual atoms can make or break electronic properties in one of the world’s smallest known conductors—quantum nanowires.
Steven J. Zinkle, a senior materials researcher at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, has been elected to the National Academy of Engineering (NAE).
Envirofit International, the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Colorado State University have won a Federal Laboratory Consortium award for excellence in technology transfer for a clean-burning cookstove designed for the developing world.
Atomic-level defects in graphene could be a path forward to smaller and faster electronic devices.
By using a novel technique to better understand mineral growth and dissolution, researchers are improving predictions of mineral reactions and laying the groundwork for applications ranging from keeping oil pipes clear to sequestering radium.
Carbon trapped in permafrost soils could be released a lot faster than previously thought; Coast Guard going green; Tracking cell death protein.
To better understand the fundamental behavior of molecules at surfaces, researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory are combining the powers of neutron scattering with chemical analysis.
The prospect of electronics at the nanoscale may be even more promising with the first observation of metallic conductance in ferroelectric nanodomains by researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
Armed with a new ability to find retinal anomalies at the cellular level, neurobiologists at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital have made a discovery they hope will ultimately lead to a treatment for cancer of the retina.
Using statistical analysis methods to examine rainfall extremes in India, a team of researchers has made a discovery that resolves an ongoing debate in published findings and offers new insights.
Supercomputer simulations are giving scientists unprecedented access to a key class of proteins involved in drug detoxification.
The sharp decrease in global carbon dioxide emissions attributed to the worldwide financial crisis in 2009 quickly rebounded in 2010.
1) Computer hackers could lose a huge advantage. 2) Solar and wind energy could become more viable. 3) Something odd happens when you expose the element gadolinium to a strong magnetic field. 4) Carefully combining materials that shrink when heated with materials that expand creates a material unaffected by extreme temperature.
1) Computer hackers could lose a huge advantage because of a system being developed at ORNL. 2) Solar and wind energy could become more viable because of an innovation that produces a hydrogen stream of greater than 99 percent purity. 3) Something odd happens when you expose the element gadolinium to a strong magnetic field. 4) Carefully combining materials that shrink when heated with materials that expand creates a material unaffected by extreme temperature.
A tree outside researcher Pratul Agarwal’s office window provided the inspiration for a discovery that may ultimately lead to drugs with fewer side effects.
Taking a cue from Mother Nature, researchers at DOE’s BioEnergy Science Center have undertaken a first-of-its-kind study of a naturally occurring phenomenon in trees to spur the development of more efficient bioenergy crops. Tension wood, which forms naturally in hardwood trees in response to bending stress, is known to possess unique features that render it desirable as a bioenergy feedstock.
A method of monitoring roots rarely used in wetlands will help researchers effectively study the response of a high-carbon ecosystem to elevated temperatures and levels of carbon dioxide.
The Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory has awarded a contract to Cray Inc. to increase the Jaguar supercomputer’s science impact and energy efficiency.
The US ITER Project Office at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Oak Ridge National Laboratory has awarded a $13.2 million task order to AREVA Federal Services for fabrication of five drain tanks for the ITER tokamak cooling water system. The international ITER project aims to demonstrate the scientific and technical feasibility of fusion energy for the commercial power grid. To date, US ITER has awarded more than $260 million in contracts to US industry, laboratories and universities in 38 states and the District of Columbia.
1) Getting to the finish line quickest with the least environmental impact. 2) A new instrument able to detect chemical residues from a distance. 3) BitTorrent tracker 4) Cybersecurity 5) Neutrons pierce polymers 6) Researchers are studying how to build coatings in which polymer layering will hold until drugs reach that part of the body for which they are intended.
Molecular motion in proteins comes in three distinct classes, according to a collaboration by researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the University of Tennessee, in research reported in Physical Review Letters.
Crystals and ceramics pale when compared to a material researchers discovered that has 10 times their piezoelectric effect, making it suitable for perhaps hundreds of everyday uses.
An ORNL invention able to quickly predict three-dimensional structure of protein could have huge implications for drug discovery and human health.
Batteries could get a boost from a discovery that increases power, energy density and safety while dramatically reducing charge time.
Neutron scattering studies of “cobalt blue,” a compound prized by artists for its lustrous blue hue, are revealing unique magnetic characteristics that could answer questions about mysterious properties in other materials.
Dow Kokam and the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory are working together to enhance the Michigan-based company’s capabilities to develop and commercialize advanced lithium ion batteries.
1) Conquering corrosion. 2) Manufacturing - stress relief. 3) Thermal energy misconception. 4) Magnet power. 5) Cost-effective solar cells. 6) Discoveries from simulations.
Five of the world's most advanced instruments for neutron scattering research are serving the neutron science community following the completion of the $68.5 million SING project at Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Spallation Neutron Source (SNS).
A novel microscopy method is helping scientists probe the reactions that limit widespread deployment of fuel cell technologies.
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