News By Location

1-May-2018

Story tips from the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, May 2018

DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

ORNL studies how some trees respond and recover after heat waves; sensors collect data to uniquely identify vehicles; catalysis data calculations assist in overcoming limiting factor to break down olefins; ORNL tested NASA space probe instruments' ability to withstand sun's extreme heat; using neutrons, ORNL observed enzyme behavior to determine certain antibiotics' ineffectiveness.

Journal

Environmental Research Letters

Funder

Max Planck Institute, Defense Threat Reduction Agency, ORNL's Laboratory Directed Research and Development program, NASA, US Department of Energy's Office of Science

25-Apr-2018

Unusual magnetic structure may support next-generation technology

DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Researchers from Colorado State University are using neutrons to study a material with an unusual magnetic structure. This research could both enhance their team's fundamental understanding of frustrated magnetism and lead to improvements in digital information storage.

23-Apr-2018

Machine speak: Left to their own devices, computers can figure it out

DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Using novel machine learning techniques, a research team from Oak Ridge National Laboratory is teaching electronic devices how to speak for themselves.

23-Apr-2018

Neutrons provide insights into increased performance for hybrid perovskite solar cells

DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Neutron scattering at Oak Ridge National Laboratory has revealed, in real time, the fundamental mechanisms behind the conversion of sunlight into energy in hybrid perovskite materials. A better understanding of this behavior will enable manufacturers to design solar cells with significantly increased efficiency.

Journal

Advanced Materials

Funder

DOE/US Department of Energy, Basic Energy Sciences, DOE/US Department of Energy

18-Apr-2018

Spinach used in neutron studies could unearth secret to stronger plant growth

DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Researchers from Uppsala University are using neutrons to study RuBisCO, an abundant enzyme essential to life on earth. They hope to determine how plants and other organisms use this enzyme to catalyze a reaction called carbon fixation that converts carbon dioxide into useful organic compounds.

13-Apr-2018

Custom-designed alloy enhances nuclear safety

DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Business Announcement

A team led by researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory has developed a safer cladding for nuclear fuel rods.

2-Apr-2018

Story tips from the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, April 2018

DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

An ORNL-led team cultivated a novel oral microbe in adults with periodontitis; ORNL partnered with FCA US and Nemak to develop a new cast aluminum alloy for engine cylinder heads, which could lead to better fuel efficiency; ORNL studies cast doubt on 40-year-old theory describing how plastic polymers behave during processing.

Journal

mBio

Funder

DOE/US Department of Energy, National Institutes of Health

28-Mar-2018

Exceptionally efficient extraction may improve management of nuclear fuel

DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory

A team at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory has designed and synthesized a selective molecular trap that can separate the minor actinide element americium from a mixture of americium and the lanthanide elements, using europium as the model lanthanide in experiments. Whereas recovered americium could be burned in nuclear reactors, lanthanides are 'neutron poisons' and must be disposed of in a geologic repository to decay.

27-Mar-2018

Putting quantum scientists in the driver's seat

DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

An interdisciplinary, interdepartmental group of scientists at ORNL conducted fundamental physics studies at the nanoscale to support development of experimental platforms that will control dissipation in quantum systems and materials.

Journal

Physical Review B

Funder

DOE/US Department of Energy, Oak Ridge National Laboratory

26-Mar-2018

Underground neutrino experiment sets the stage for deep discovery about matter

DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

In a study published in Physical Review Letters, collaborators of the MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR, an experiment led by the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, have shown they can shield a sensitive, scalable 44-kilogram germanium detector array from background radioactivity. This accomplishment is critical to developing and proposing a much larger future experiment -- with approximately a ton of detectors -- to study the nature of neutrinos.

Journal

Physical Review Letters

Funder

DOE/US Department of Energy, Laboratory Directed Research and Development Programs, National Science Foundation, DOE/Los Alamos, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Russian Foundation for Basic Research