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Researchers at ORNL have achieved a friction-stir technology milestone. By applying the magnetic properties of iron nanodots to materials, a research team has overcome an obstacle to getting ultra-thin films to perform on par. An application and algorithm tweaked by ORNL researchers to dramatically increase a supercomputer’s functionality is providing researchers with the potential to solve problems faster. A study published in Advanced Functional Materials has revealed several mechanisms behind ferroelectric relaxors behavior.

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With the creation of a 3-D nanocone-based solar cell platform, a team led by Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Jun Xu has boosted the light-to-power conversion efficiency of photovoltaics by nearly 80 percent.

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Novel properties of ferroelectric materials discovered at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory are moving scientists one step closer to realizing a new paradigm of electronic memory storage.

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A newly sequenced bacterial genome from a team led by the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory could contain clues as to how microorganisms produce a highly toxic form of mercury.

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Metal alloy manufacturer Carpenter Technology Corp. has licensed an alumina-forming austenitic stainless steel alloy developed at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

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MILITARY -- H2O from diesel; ELECTRONICS -- Plasmonic sensors; SENSORS -- Thwarting tax evaders; CLIMATE -- Extreme cold still in forecast; ELECTRONICS -- Phase transitions breakthrough; VEHICLES -- “Just in time” .

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TextOre’s licensing of Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Piranha is enabling the Virginia-based company to introduce a powerful search and mining tool capable of processing large amounts of text data from the Internet.

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Four manufacturers of solar energy components are working with the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory to address some of their biggest challenges.

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Stephen Pennycook of the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory has been elected to the class of 2011 fellows of the Materials Research Society.

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New clues about plant structure are helping researchers from the DOE’s BioEnergy Science Center narrow down a large collection of poplar tree candidates and identify winners for future use in biofuel production.

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Structural studies of some of nature’s most efficient light-harvesting systems are lighting the way for new generations of biologically inspired solar cell devices.

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Tracking and protecting information stored on an organization’s network could be more secure with a system developed by a team led by Justin Beaver of ORNL’s Computational Sciences and Engineering Division. Electricity generated by the ocean is gaining steam with a demonstration plant off the coast of Kona, Hawaii. Making the most of biomedical imaging data will be a huge focus for dozens of professionals participating in the 3rd Annual Biomedical Science and Engineering Conference March 15-17.

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In the quest for inexpensive biofuels, cellulose proved no match for a bioprocessing strategy and genetically engineered microbe developed by researchers at the Department of Energy’s BioEnergy Science Center.

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A project called the Scalable, Efficient, and Accurate Community Ice Sheet Model, or SEACISM, aims to use state-of-the-art simulation to predict the behavior of ice sheets under a changing climate. A process called gasification can turn carbonaceous fuels into syngas, a cleaner-burning fuel mix of carbon monoxide and hydrogen. Alerts from an early warning system developed in part by DOE's ORNL could help protect forests across the U.S. from the threats of insects, disease and wildfire.

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A theoretical technique developed at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory is bringing supercomputer simulations and experimental results closer together by identifying common “fingerprints.”

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Bioethanol from new lines of native perennial prairie grass could become less costly because of plant engineering by The Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation and fermentation research at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

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A BMI Corp. SmartTruck technology that could save 1.5 billion gallons of diesel fuel and $5 billion in fuel costs per year has hit the road in record time in part because of simulations performed on the nation’s most powerful supercomputer at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

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Proposals to install hydrokinetic turbines – like underwater windmills – in rivers across the U.S. are prompting questions about the environmental impacts of this new hydropower energy source.

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Highly effective anti-virus programs for computers are providing the inspiration for a system to protect people from deadly genetically engineered biological bugs. While the National Cyber Security Division’s US-CERT provides cyber security updates and tools to safeguard computers within federal agencies, industry, state and local governments and the public, no such program exists to protect the public from harmful biological threats. That could change, however, with BioSITES, the vision of Department of Energy Oak Ridge National Laboratory researchers Robert Cottingham and Tom Brettin.

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By testing radiation detection equipment and helping establish national and international standards, a team of Oak Ridge National Laboratory researchers protects the people who keep the nation safe. The Graduated Rad/Nuc Detector Evaluation and Reporting program fulfills a Congressional mandate to set capability standards and establish a test and evaluation program for radiation and nuclear detectors.

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What does it take to withstand the conditions of ITER, the world’s largest fusion energy reactor? Neutron scattering is one way to find out. The Spallation Neutron Source at Oak Ridge National Laboratory offers fusion researchers with the U.S. ITER Project Office at ORNL, the Japanese Atomic Energy Agency and the ITER Organization a unique resource for improving the performance of superconducting cables.

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Neutron scattering analysis of two families of iron-based materials suggests that the magnetic interactions thought responsible for high-temperature superconductivity may lie "two doors down": The key magnetic exchange pairings occur in a next-nearest-neighbor ordering of atoms, rather than adjacent atoms.

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UT-Battelle announced today that Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s approximately 5,000 employees and subcontractors recently passed a historic safety milestone by working 4 million hours without a serious injury.

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Researchers at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory have developed a biohybrid photoconversion system -- based on the interaction of photosynthetic plant proteins with synthetic polymers -- that can convert visible light into hydrogen fuel.

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Two teams from the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have won awards for excellence in technology transfer from the Federal Laboratory Consortium.

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Policy makers, industry, researchers and the public have a new way to gain and share information about biofuels with the Bioenergy Knowledge Discovery Framework, or KDF, developed by a team at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and sponsored by the Department of Energy.

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Nature has a bit of a Jekyll and Hyde relationship with mercury, but researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have made a discovery that ultimately could help explain the split personality.

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1) FORENSICS -- The telltale bone; 2) ELECTRICITY -- Eye on the grid; 3) BATTERIES -- Nanoscale mapping; 4) SUPERCOMPUTING -- Pairing up in a nucleus.

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Four researchers from the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have been elected to fellowship in the American Physical Society.

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A quicker and cheaper technique to scan molecular databases developed at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory could put scientists on the fast track to developing new drug treatments.

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Governor Phil Bredesen today joined officials from the University of Tennessee and the Department of Energy in dedicating a new state-funded research facility at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

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1) BIODIESEL -- Ultrasonic remedy; 2) TRANSPORTATION -- Single-wides save fuel; 3) DATA -- Finding feelings . . . BIOMETRICS -- ID from afar.

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Luiz Leal and Lance Snead from the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have been elected to the American Nuclear Society’s Class of 2010 Fellows.

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A systematic study of phase changes in vanadium dioxide has solved a mystery that has puzzled scientists for decades, according to researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

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Sheng Dai, a researcher in the Chemical Sciences Division of the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, has earned the UT-Battelle Director's Award for Outstanding Individual Accomplishment in Science and Technology.

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Three ORNL researchers are among 13 Department of Energy scientists to receive the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, or PECASE. The winners will receive DOE funding for up to five years to advance their research.

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A prototype charging system for electric and hybrid vehicles is helping demonstrate a technology that could one day play a key role in the electrification of America’s highways. Sapphire nanowires grow using an unexpectedly complicated reaction with oxygen atoms changing between partners in vapor, liquid and solid phases. When Fuels, Engines and Emissions Research Center researchers at ORNL achieved a 45 percent brake thermal efficiency in a multi-cylinder engine, they demonstrated a new potential for passenger-size diesel engines.

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Tin may seem like the most unassuming of elements, but experiments performed at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory are yielding surprising properties in extremely short-lived isotopes near tin-100's "doubly magic" nucleus.

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The Cold Triple Axis spectrometer, a new addition to Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s High Flux Isotope Reactor and a complementary tool to other neutron scattering instruments at ORNL, has entered its commissioning phase.

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Theoretical work done at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory has provided a key to understanding an unexpected magnetism between two dissimilar materials.

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UT-Battelle has contributed more than $1 million to the United Way campaign for the third consecutive year.

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With the transition to a smart grid comes new opportunities for hackers, but researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory are working to stay at least one step ahead.

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Low-income families under stress from high utility bills can find relief through a new energy savings program supported by UT-Battelle.

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By installing wireless sensors and replacing faulty traps along the 12 miles of steam lines at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, officials expect to save as much as $675,000 per year.

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Supercomputer simulations at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory are helping scientists unravel how nucleic acids could have contributed to the origins of life.

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Instead of the conventional long piece of metal or dipole antenna, electronic devices of tomorrow could incorporate an antenna no bigger than a gnat. Wireless sensors that alert steel mill operators to abnormal temperatures and vibrations that foretell wasted energy and imminent failure are expected to pay big dividends. Expressed as raw data, a simulation performed on a supercomputer would appear as a formless sea of trillion-floating-operations-per-second calculations.

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Four East Tennessee homes completed this month showcase how scientific research can make dramatic changes in the cost of heating and cooling our homes.

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As a member of the recently announced clean vehicles consortium, part of the U.S.-China Clean Energy Research Center, Oak Ridge National Laboratory researchers are focusing on a suite of technologies to put more electric and hybrid vehicles on the road.

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New insight into the structure of switchgrass and poplars is fueling discussions that could result in more efficient methods to turn biomass into biofuel.

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As industries and consumers increasingly seek improved battery power sources, cutting-edge microscopy performed at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory is providing an unprecedented perspective on how lithium-ion batteries function.