Using a combination of experimental and computational techniques, a team of researchers from Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the University of Tennessee has discovered a novel type of receptors in bacteria that sense changes in oxygen concentration and other redox parameters. Their work, which has...
World-class computing at Oak Ridge National Laboratory could be unleashed to save as much as $50 billion per year in fraud, waste and abuse in the nation's health care system. Under a proposal by Andy Loebl of the Computational Sciences and Engineering Division, ORNL would collect and analyze govern...
Scientists studying internal details of biological cells, semiconductors and virtually any material they don't want to destroy in the process may soon be able to use a new technique developed by researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The method, outlined in Nature Nanotechnology Letters, allo...
Thousands of cancer and heart patients will benefit from a new Oak Ridge National Laboratory program to make rhenium-188 generators more widely available and to streamline the distribution process. Rhenium-188, a radioisotope that has proven useful in treating various types of cancer and for a treat...
Nano-transistors 10 times smaller than conventional ones and being developed at ORNL could change the complexion of the electronics industry. Transistors, which can be used as amplifiers, detectors or switches, are integral parts of computers, telephones and virtually all electronic components. Trad...
Manure from the hundreds of millions of farm animals is a big problem, but it's one that, with some work, could become a strong renewable energy resource. As farm animal production has become more concentrated, handling the manure and run-off have become a serious problem. But animal manure, a valu...
In a project called Metaalicus, researchers at ORNL hope to learn once and for all what happens to fish mercury concentrations when there is a change in the levels of mercury released into the environment. Despite massive amounts of scientific information published on mercury contamination, there re...
Methane hydrate isn't a familiar term to most people, but it's gaining popularity in the energy sector. Researchers believe there may be enough of this resource, which is methane locked in ice-like crystals, to supply energy for perhaps hundreds of years. Methane hydrates, which form at low temperat...
An ORNL team will receive more than $1.1 million over the next three years to develop technology for reliable and automatic forewarning of failure in critical equipment at next-generation nuclear power plants. Such forewarning would allow timely maintenance to reduce unanticipated shutdown time and ...
Researchers at the Holifield Radioactive Ion Beam Facility recently chalked up a physics "first": the simultaneous emission of two protons from an atom's decaying nucleus. The finding, based on preliminary experiments with the Holifield Facility's unique fluorine-17 beam, also represents a new type ...