![Prasanna Balaprakash](/sites/default/files/styles/featured_square_large/public/2024-08/2023-P02525.jpg?h=502e75fa&itok=ePVQC-A5)
Filter News
Area of Research
News Type
News Topics
- (-) Big Data (8)
- (-) Bioenergy (20)
- (-) Composites (6)
- (-) Environment (40)
- (-) Frontier (14)
- (-) Fusion (9)
- (-) Materials Science (13)
- (-) Physics (12)
- 3-D Printing/Advanced Manufacturing (14)
- Advanced Reactors (2)
- Artificial Intelligence (16)
- Biology (23)
- Biomedical (4)
- Biotechnology (3)
- Buildings (11)
- Chemical Sciences (16)
- Clean Water (5)
- Climate Change (19)
- Computer Science (20)
- Coronavirus (2)
- Critical Materials (5)
- Cybersecurity (7)
- Decarbonization (21)
- Emergency (1)
- Energy Storage (14)
- Exascale Computing (13)
- Fossil Energy (2)
- Grid (13)
- High-Performance Computing (22)
- Hydropower (3)
- Irradiation (2)
- Isotopes (9)
- Machine Learning (10)
- Materials (42)
- Mathematics (2)
- Mercury (3)
- Microelectronics (2)
- Microscopy (6)
- Nanotechnology (5)
- National Security (15)
- Net Zero (3)
- Neutron Science (25)
- Nuclear Energy (17)
- Partnerships (8)
- Polymers (4)
- Quantum Computing (9)
- Quantum Science (5)
- Renewable Energy (1)
- Security (2)
- Simulation (23)
- Software (1)
- Space Exploration (4)
- Summit (7)
- Sustainable Energy (15)
- Transportation (14)
Media Contacts
![Frances Pleasonton seals a vacuum chamber in 1951.](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2023-03/Pleasonton20616_16x9_1678989753589_0.jpg?h=d1cb525d&itok=s-itGaqM)
The old photos show her casually writing data in a logbook with stacks of lead bricks nearby, or sealing a vacuum chamber with a wrench. ORNL researcher Frances Pleasonton was instrumental in some of the earliest explorations of the properties of the neutron as the X-10 Site was finding its postwar footing as a research lab.
![Researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory developed an eco-friendly foam insulation for improved building efficiency. Credit: Chad Malone/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2023-03/foam_thumbnail.png?h=b6717701&itok=O0z-knmD)
Scientists at ORNL developed a competitive, eco-friendly alternative made without harmful blowing agents.
![Leadership from Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the National Energy Technology Laboratory signed a memorandum of understanding to jointly explore carbon management strategies in the Appalachian region. Credit: NETL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2023-03/mou-signing2_1.png?h=fa1c963e&itok=K2-vQvVo)
ORNL is teaming with the National Energy Technology Laboratory to jointly explore a range of technology innovations for carbon management and strategies for economic development and sustainable energy transitions in the Appalachian region.
![One of the proteins identified through a new ORNL-developed approach could be key to communications between poplar trees and beneficial microbes that can help boost poplar trees’ growth, carbon storage and climate resilience. Credit: Andy Sproles/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2023-03/Kalluri%20story%20tip%20March%202023_0.png?h=0c488664&itok=qs9pgkW3)
ORNL researchers have identified specific proteins and amino acids that could control bioenergy plants’ ability to identify beneficial microbes that can enhance plant growth and storage of carbon in soils.
![The next generation of the Center for Bioenergy Innovation will pursue an accelerated feedstock-to-fuels approach for the efficient, economic production of sustainable jet fuel. Credit: ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2023-03/jetswitchgrass.png?h=37039f64&itok=UGACTvHE)
The Center for Bioenergy Innovation has been renewed by the Department of Energy as one of four bioenergy research centers across the nation to advance robust, economical production of plant-based fuels and chemicals.
The Autonomous Systems group at ORNL is in high demand as it incorporates remote sensing into projects needing a bird’s-eye perspective.
![ORNL’s Adam Guss began adapting the SAGE gene editing tool to modify microbes in graduate school. Today, SAGE is rapidly accelerating the design of custom microbes for a variety of applications. Credit: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2023-03/GussPetri_2021-P05223_0.png?h=82f92a78&itok=tqHo8Y9C)
A DNA editing tool adapted by Oak Ridge National Laboratory scientists makes engineering microbes for everything from bioenergy production to plastics recycling easier and faster.
![Vincente Guiseppe, co-spokesperson of the Majorana Collaboration and a research staff member at ORNL, in front of the Majorana Demonstrator shield on the 4850 Level of SURF. Credit: Nick Hubbard/Sanford Underground Research Facility](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2023-03/2-MJD-Guiseppe%20in%20front%20of%20shield_4.jpeg?h=a141e9ea&itok=URbl8Trd)
For nearly six years, the Majorana Demonstrator quietly listened to the universe. Nearly a mile underground at the Sanford Underground Research Facility, or SURF, in Lead, South Dakota, the experiment collected data that could answer one of the most perplexing questions in physics: Why is the universe filled with something instead of nothing?
![From left are UWindsor students Isabelle Dib, Dominik Dziura, Stuart Castillo and Maksymilian Dziura at ORNL’s Neutron Spin Echo spectrometer. Their work advances studies on a natural cancer treatment. Credit: Genevieve Martin/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2023-03/2022-P14758_0.jpg?h=c6980913&itok=YJLFDsPp)
A scientific instrument at ORNL could help create a noninvasive cancer treatment derived from a common tropical plant.
![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.