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Fernanda Foertter
Fernanda Foertter, a user support specialist at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, considers herself a tinkerer. Foertter’s tinkering started when she was a child, but her innate inquisitiveness still influences her work at the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing...
An illustration of the dopamine transporter in its outward- (left) and inward-opening (right) state. Note that the inward opening has brought about an outward closing and change in the number of water molecules (blue, pink spheres) inside and outside the

In an era of instant communication, perhaps no message-passing system is more underappreciated than the human body. Underlying each movement, each mood, each sight, sound, or smell, an army of specialized cells called neurons relays signals that register in the brain and connect us to our environment.

Illustration shows the one dimensional Yb ion chain in the quantum magnet Yb2Pt2Pb. The Yb orbitals are depicted as the iso-surfaces, and the green arrows indicate the antiferromagnetically aligned Yb magnetic moments.
A new study by a multi-institutional team, led by researchers from Brookhaven National Laboratory and Stony Brook University, has revealed exotic magnetic properties in a rare-earth based intermetallic compound. Similar studies suggest a better understanding of those types of behavio...
Berkelium-249, contained in the greenish fluid in the tip of the vial, was crucial to the experiment that discovered element 117. It was made in the research reactor at DOE's Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) Inorganic Chemistry Division has published a Provisional Recommendation for the names and symbols of the recently discovered superheavy elements 113, 115, 117, and 118.

A simulation of combustion within two adjacent gas turbine combustors. GE researchers are incorporating advanced combustion modeling and simulation into product testing after developing a breakthrough methodology on the OLCF’s Titan supercomputer.

In the United States, the use of natural gas for electricity generation continues to grow. The driving forces behind this development? A boom in domestic natural gas production, historically low prices, and increased scrutiny over fossil fuels’ carbon emissions. Though coal still acco...

A 3D structure of the HIV-1 protease in cartoon representation with bound clinical drug darunavir (shown as sticks).
A team led by the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory used neutron analysis to better understand a protein implicated in the replication of HIV, the retrovirus that causes AIDS. The enzyme, known as HIV-1 protease, is a key drug target for HIV and AIDS therapies. &nbs...
Illustration showing structure of Bi2Se3-EuS bilayer film. (Image credit: ORNL/Jill Hemman)
A multi-institutional team of researchers has discovered novel magnetic behavior on the surface of a specialized material that holds promise for smaller, more efficient devices and other advanced technology. Researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Natio...
Default image of ORNL entry sign

Four Oak Ridge National Laboratory researchers specializing in environmental, biological and computational science are among 49 recipients of Department of Energy's Office of Science Early Career Research Program awards. The Early Career Research Program, now in its ...

Interpreting the results of collision induced dissociation (CID) experiments, simulations on Titan predict the formation of an unusually bonded uranium-nitrosyl molecule. Credit: J. Am. Chem. Society. DOI: 10.1021/jacs.5b02420
Radioactive materials have long been a part of American history—from the Manhattan Project to the development of nuclear power. The materials central to these innovations are actinides, or elements 89–103 on the periodic table that release large amounts of energy when atoms are spli...
This rendering illustrates the excitation of a spin liquid on a honeycomb lattice using neutrons.

Researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory used neutrons to uncover novel behavior in materials that holds promise for quantum computing. The findings, published in Nature Materials, provide evidence for long-sought phenomena in a two-dim...