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ORNL scientists are combining their expertise in environmental science, physics, sensors and additive manufacturing to create model fish for use in testing of hydropower turbine design potential impacts on targeted species. The project supports healthy ecosystems and hydropower--the nation's largest renewable energy resource.

LSU researchers are using neutron scattering at ORNL to study crystallization-driven self-assembly, a technique for forming nanoscale solid materials from solutions to understand how the technique could be used to craft controlled-shape nanostructures from polymers known as polypeptoids.

Neutron scattering instruments at ORNL's HFIR and SNS are undergoing upgrades which will enable them to study magnetic phenomena previously not possible in the US. Incorporating a device for spherical neutron polarimetry enables the ability to characterize complex magnetic systems in new dimensions for materials that could be developed for enhanced data storage and quantum computing technologies.

ORNL's new portable diagnostic for fusion experiments built from off-the-shelf items will be tested and then taken to two or three experimental plasma devices elsewhere in the United States.

Scientists at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory have developed a new method to peer deep into the nanostructure of biomaterials without damaging the sample. This novel technique can confirm structural features in starch, a carbohydrate important in biofuel production.

Valentino ('Tino') Cooper of the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory uses theory, modeling and computation to improve fundamental understanding of advanced materials for next-generation energy and information technologies. 'I'm trying to understand how materials respond down to the level of atoms and electrons--their basic building blocks,' said Cooper, who leads ORNL's Condensed Matter Theory Group, which aims to understand complex electronic and magnetic behavior of solid systems of about 100 atoms.

Teeth damaged by trauma or disease require treatment to look and feel as good as new, but the restorative materials available to dentists don't always last and can be costly for patients. Researchers from the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center's College of Dentistry are using neutrons at ORNL's High Flux Isotope Reactor to change that.