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Media Contacts
![Fungal geneticist Joanna Tannous is gaining a better understanding of the genetic processes behind fungal life to both combat plant disease and encourage beneficial processes like soil carbon storage. Credit: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2023-03/2023-P01579.jpg?h=fda684fd&itok=SgSyQYum)
Joanna Tannous has found the perfect organism to study to satisfy her deeply curious nature, her skills in biochemistry and genetics, and a drive to create solutions for a better world. The organism is a poorly understood life form that greatly influences its environment and is unique enough to deserve its own biological kingdom: fungi.
![Heat is typically carried through a material by vibrations known as phonons. In some crystals, however, different atomic motions — known as phasons — carry heat three times faster and farther. This illustration shows phasons made by rearranging atoms, shown by arrows. Credit: Jill Hemman/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2023-02/23-G01840_Phason_Manly_proof3_0.png?h=10d202d3&itok=3NpjriWi)
Warming a crystal of the mineral fresnoite, ORNL scientists discovered that excitations called phasons carried heat three times farther and faster than phonons, the excitations that usually carry heat through a material.
![Oak Ridge National Laboratory entrance sign](/themes/custom/ornl/images/default-thumbnail.jpg)
Zheng Gai, a senior staff scientist at ORNL’s Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences, has been selected as editor-in-chief of the Spin Crossover and Spintronics section of Magnetochemistry.
![Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Dave Weston works in a chamber at the DOE SPRUCE whole ecosystem experiment site in the peatlands of northern Minnesota. Credit: Kyle Pearson/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2023-02/WestonSpruceCropped.jpeg?h=29b91be4&itok=WRDR4xY9)
A quest to understand how Sphagnum mosses facilitate the storage of vast amounts of carbon in peatlands led scientists to a surprising discovery: the plants have sex-based differences that appear to impact the carbon-storing process.
![Computational systems biologists at ORNL worked with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and other institutions to identify 139 locations across the human genome tied to risk factors for varicose veins, marking a first step in the development of new treatments. Credit: Andy Sproles/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2023-01/vein06_0.jpg?h=d32448e0&itok=ItaGWCo5)
As part of a multi-institutional research project, scientists at ORNL leveraged their computational systems biology expertise and the largest, most diverse set of health data to date to explore the genetic basis of varicose veins.
![Anne Campbell](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2023-01/2022-P03479.jpg?h=8f9cfe54&itok=gtc6VRJ9)
Anne Campbell, an R&D associate in ORNL’s Materials Science and Technology Division since 2016, has been selected as an associate editor of the Journal of Nuclear Materials.
![The Center for Bioenergy Innovation at Oak Ridge National Laboratory has added three new members to its board of directors, from left: Deborah Crawford, vice chancellor for research at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville; Susan Hubbard, deputy for science and technology at ORNL; and Maureen McCann, director of the Biosciences Center at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Credit: UT Knoxville, ORNL and NREL.](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2023-01/cbi_DebSueMaureen01_0.jpg?h=d8871e17&itok=hgZWmY8P)
The Department of Energy’s Center for Bioenergy Innovation, led by Oak Ridge National Laboratory, recently added three new members to its board of directors: Deborah Crawford of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville; Susan Hubbard of ORNL; and Maureen McCann of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.
![Hybrid poplar trees such as these shown in an ORNL greenhouse were engineered with the REVEILLE1 gene to delay dormancy and produce more biomass. The research was led by the Center for Bioenergy Innovation at ORNL with the Joint Genome Institute, Brookhaven National Laboratory, the HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology, the University of Connecticut and other partners. Credit: Genevieve Martin/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2023-01/PopulusTrees_0.jpg?h=82f92a78&itok=sguDcjBI)
A team of scientists led by ORNL discovered the gene in agave that governs when the plant goes dormant and used it to create poplar trees that nearly doubled in size, increasing biomass yield for biofuels production
![Erica Prates is using her skills as a computational systems biologist to link the smallest molecules to their impact on large ecosystems. Credit: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2023-01/2022-P13865_0.jpg?h=c6980913&itok=1oqc1lrH)
Erica Prates has found a way to help speed the pursuit of healthier ecosystems by linking the function of the smallest molecules to their effects on large-scale processes, leveraging a combination of science, math and computing.
![Paul Langan will oversee ORNL's research directorate focused on biological and environmental systems science. Credit: ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2022-12/2019-P15617_0.jpg?h=bf9cb32e&itok=4n50VPVf)
Paul Langan will join ORNL in the spring as associate laboratory director for the Biological and Environmental Systems Science Directorate.