Archived Story Tips for 2009
For more information on ORNL and its research and development activities, please refer to the resources listed below or to one of our Media Contacts. If you have a general media-related question or comment, you can send it to news@ornl.gov.
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Solar—Bridging the gap . . .
Titanium dioxide, the same inexpensive white pigment that protects us from sunburns, can be converted into a material that absorbs sunlight and could greatly increase the efficiency of solar energy cells.
Nuclear Energy—Record fuel burn . . .
Coated particle fuel fabricated at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, in cooperation with Idaho National Laboratory, General Atomics, and the Babcock & Wilcox Company, has set a world record for advanced high temperature gas-cooled reactor fuel.
Physics—Exploiting strain fields . . .
Electronic devices of the future may benefit from a fundamental discovery that allows researchers to customize the electronic properties of complex materials such as single-crystal thin-film structures.
Transportation—Gone hybrid . . .
Fuel economy ratings for the new 2010 model year automobiles are now posted at the www.fueleconomy.gov web site, which Oak Ridge National Laboratory developed and maintains for the U.S.
Materials—Ferroelectric fury . . .
By discovering a technique to guide the ferroelectric switching process in bismuth ferrite, a team led by Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Nina Balke has moved one step closer to developing more rugged memory and logic devices.
Manufacturing—Holey truck frames . . .
Heavy trucks are a little less heavy but just as safe and rugged because of steel rail frames provided by Metalsa Roanoke, which enlisted the help of Cam Hubbard and the High Temperature Materials Laboratory User Program at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
Nanoscience—Using neural networks . . .
A new approach to crunching massive volumes of data uses neural networks, an architecture of multiple elements that is figuratively taught to pool imbedded information into results, like an artificial brain.
Materials—Graphene cleanup . . .
Graphene, a single-layer sheet of graphite, has potential as a remarkable material, particularly for electronics and composite applications.
Transportation—IntelligentFreight hits highway . . .
Information sharing technologies at the heart of Web 2.0 are being integrated into an Oak Ridge National Laboratory freight tracking system that could revolutionize the industry.
Neutron Sciences—TOPAZ beam line . . .
Construction and installation has been completed recently on the newest instrument at the Department of Energy's Spallation Neutron Source at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
Highways—Better barriers . . .
Advanced computer simulations could be a big hit for truckers and the people who design guardrails, protective barriers and roadway signs.
Commerce—Keeping truckers in line . . .
Specialized cameras at weigh stations in Kentucky are helping ensure that operators of commercial vehicles are abiding by all state and federal laws with the payoff expected to be safer highways and more money in the coffers of the Bluegrass State.
Transportation—Maximum capacity . . .
Oak Ridge National Laboratory is partnering with SBE Inc., a Barre, Vt., power and electronics firm, to help test and improve electric vehicle capacitors.
Carbon—Study gets personal . . .
Even the smallest detail has been included in an Oak Ridge National Laboratory study that examines the consumption and release of carbon by humans.
Mass Spectrometry—Mass compatibility . . .
Thin-layer chromatography, a lab technique for separating mixtures, produces high-resolution separations faster and at lower costs than other methods.
Neutron Science—Magnetic attraction . . .
One of Oak Ridge National Laboratory's international partners, Switzerland's Paul Scherrer Institute, is delivering a massive 16-Tesla magnet at the Department of Energy's Spallation Neutron Source to provide unique environmental conditions for sample analysis.
Communications—Warning system success . . .
A first-ever systematic study of the effectiveness of reverse 911 calls shows it worked like a charm and saved lives when fires consumed 368,340 acres and 1,600 structures in San Diego County in 2007.
Forensics—Nabbing child predators . . .
People producing child pornography and using the Internet to share their material could be living dangerously because of a technology developed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Y-12 National Security Complex.
Neutron Science—Power to the protons . . .
Researchers at the Department of Energy's Spallation Neutron Source at Oak Ridge National Laboratory set a new world record at the end of the most recent run by creating 155 trillion protons in a single pulse and delivering that pulse to the SNS mercury target.
Vehicles—Cool ride . . .
Electric vehicle technology is accelerating at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
Materials—Amazing alloys . . .
Highly corrosive environments have met their match with a new family of alloys developed by a team led by Mike Brady of Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Materials Science and Technology Division.
Sensors—Detection from afar . . .
A new explosives detector with incredible sensitivity and a range of up to 100 meters could save lives and thwart the efforts of terrorists.
Materials—Over the top . . .
Homeowners seeking energy efficiency and savings could soon be making an environmentally friendly addition to their roofs.
Optics—Boost for biology . . .
Scientists examining cells to study diseases and potential cures could one day have a new tool that advances the field to a level previously only imagined.
Opthamology—New precision tools . . .
Surgeons treating patients with eye diseases could soon have in their arsenal three novel microfabricated surgical instruments developed through a partnership between Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the University of Tennessee Hamilton Eye Center in Memphis.
Research—Superconductor citations . . .
An independent analysis of the field of high-temperature superconductors conducted by ScienceWatch.com, which tracks global trends and performance in research, shows Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Amit Goyal ranks No.
Energy—Energy efficient jobs . . .
Hundreds of new jobs are expected to result from production of a super-efficient water heater developed under an Oak Ridge National Laboratory-General Electric partnership.
Materials—Soft-matter spectrometer . . .
The Spallation Neutron Source has added another instrument to its eventual suite of 25.
Transportation—Wider tires increase cargo load . . .
Wide tires on tractor-trailers can reduce the weight of a rig, enabling additional cargo to be added without compromising fuel efficiency.
Bioenergy—Nature at work . . .
In one of the largest experiments of its kind, thousands of cottonwood cuttings planted in common gardens in British Columbia, Oregon and California will help scientists determine which strains are best suited for cellulosic ethanol production.
Fusion—Computational confirmation . . .
Fusion energy took a small step forward with a successful simulation performed on Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Jaguar supercomputer.
Sensors—Math to the rescue . . .
Making sense of the enormous amounts of information delivered by all types of sensors is an incredible challenge, but it's being met head on with knowledge discovery techniques developed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
Cyber Security—Meeting of minds . . .
Materials—Entering a new domain . . .
Energy—Hydrogen shake . . .
Materials—Blown away . . .
Materials—Bulk metallic insight . . .
Microscopy—STEM in liquid . . .
Biology—Time-saving tool . . .
Cyberspace—Thwarting threats . . .
Computing—First petascale projects . . .
Transportation—Smarter freight . . .
Materials—Bumper crop . . .
Nanoscience—Defective circuits . . .
Dozens of the nation's authorities on cyber security will be participating in the Fifth Cyber Security and Information Intelligence Research Workshop April 13-15 (
With the aid of a one-of-a-kind instrument at Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences, scientists have made a series of discoveries that could open new pathways for nanoscale electronics.
Hydrogen for transportation may have received a boost with the discovery of an enzyme cocktail that converts cellulosic materials and water into hydrogen fuel.
An Oak Ridge National Laboratory study of structural damage from Hurricane Ike in 2008 shows that buildings with large openings such as garages and loading docks are more prone to hurricane damage -- even if the structure's construction meets local building codes.
A combination of neutron, X-ray and atom-probe analysis has given researchers previously inaccessible insight to the atomic structure of a new multicomponent bulk metallic glass.
Researchers at ORNL and Vanderbilt University have unveiled a new technique for imaging whole cells in liquid using a scanning transmission electron microscope.
Scientists studying human health, agriculture and the environment have a powerful new tool to help them better understand microbial processes and how they relate to ecosystems.
Colonies of cyber robots with unique missions can in near real time detect network intruders on computers that support U.S.
The National Center for Computational Sciences at Oak Ridge National Laboratory has granted early access to a number of projects to test Jaguar, which has peak performance of 1.6 petaflops and is the most powerful computer in the world for open science.
A project to speed and further safeguard the shipping of thousands of radioisotopes in the United States and afar hits the highway this year, but researchers expect the benefits to extend well beyond.
Assistance to Navistar in developing a new lightweight truck bumper that can save gasoline without compromising safety is being performed by a materials process team headed by Gail Ludtka of Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Materials Science and Technology Division.
Structural defects introduced into carbon nanotubes could lead the way to carbon nanotube circuits, research led by Vincent Meunier of Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Computer Science and Mathematics Division shows.
