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ORNL, Yale take steps toward fast, low-cost DNA sequencing device

DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

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.

Journal: Small

ORNL microscopy yields first proof of ferroelectricity in simplest amino acid

DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

The boundary between electronics and biology is blurring with the first detection of ferroelectric properties in an amino acid called glycine.

Journal: Advanced Functional Materials

ORNL process improves catalytic rate of enzymes by 3,000 percent

DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

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.

ORNL microscopy inspires flexoelectric theory behind 'material on the brink'

DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Electron microscopy, conducted as part of the Shared Research Equipment User Program at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, has led to a new theory to explain intriguing properties in a material with potential applications in capacitors and actuators.

Journal: Nature Communications

Carbon dioxide caused global warming at ice age's end, pioneering simulation shows

DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Climate science has an equivalent to the "what came first -- the chicken or the egg?" question: what came first, greenhouse gases or global warming? A multi-institutional team led by researchers at Harvard, Oregon State University, and the University of Wisconsin used a global dataset of paleoclimate records and the Jaguar supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory to find the answer. The results, published in the April 5 issue of Nature, analyze 15,000 years of climate history.

April 2012 story tips

DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

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.

Neutrons uncover new density waves in fermion liquids

DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Scientists working at the Institut Laue-Langevin, one of the world's leading centers for neutron science, have carried out the first investigation of two-dimensional fermion liquids using neutron scattering, and discovered a new type of very short wave-length density wave.

Journal: Nature

ORNL process converts polyethylene into carbon fiber

DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

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.

Journal: Advanced Materials
Funder: DOE/US Department of Energy

New ORNL tool developed to assess global freshwater stress

DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

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.

Standoff sensing enters new realm with dual-laser technique

DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

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.