![White car (Porsche Taycan) with the hood popped is inside the building with an american flag on the wall.](/sites/default/files/styles/featured_square_large/public/2024-06/2024-P09317.jpg?h=8f9cfe54&itok=m6sQhZRq)
Filter News
Area of Research
News Topics
- (-) Big Data (10)
- (-) Bioenergy (22)
- (-) Composites (6)
- (-) Microscopy (7)
- (-) Molten Salt (1)
- (-) Physics (14)
- (-) Summit (9)
- 3-D Printing/Advanced Manufacturing (20)
- Advanced Reactors (3)
- Artificial Intelligence (26)
- Biology (29)
- Biomedical (7)
- Biotechnology (6)
- Buildings (14)
- Chemical Sciences (24)
- Clean Water (5)
- Climate Change (31)
- Computer Science (23)
- Coronavirus (4)
- Critical Materials (6)
- Cybersecurity (9)
- Decarbonization (30)
- Education (3)
- Emergency (1)
- Energy Storage (21)
- Environment (43)
- Exascale Computing (15)
- Fossil Energy (2)
- Frontier (19)
- Fusion (9)
- Grid (16)
- High-Performance Computing (33)
- Hydropower (3)
- Irradiation (2)
- Isotopes (11)
- Machine Learning (15)
- Materials (59)
- Materials Science (16)
- Mathematics (2)
- Mercury (2)
- Microelectronics (2)
- Nanotechnology (7)
- National Security (21)
- Net Zero (5)
- Neutron Science (32)
- Nuclear Energy (21)
- Partnerships (24)
- Polymers (4)
- Quantum Computing (12)
- Quantum Science (9)
- Renewable Energy (2)
- Security (3)
- Simulation (29)
- Software (1)
- Space Exploration (4)
- Sustainable Energy (17)
- Transportation (18)
Media Contacts
![ORNL’s Fernanda Santos examines a soil sample at an NGEE Arctic field site in the Alaskan tundra in June 2022. Credit: Amy Breen, University of Alaska Fairbanks.](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2023-08/Fernanda_Nome_June2022.jpg?h=06de31ac&itok=VGxKV_uY)
Wildfires are an ancient force shaping the environment, but they have grown in frequency, range and intensity in response to a changing climate. At ORNL, scientists are working on several fronts to better understand and predict these events and what they mean for the carbon cycle and biodiversity.
![Clouds of gray smoke in the lower left are funneled northward from wildfires in Western Canada, reaching the edge of the sea ice covering the Arctic Ocean. A second path of thick smoke is visible at the top center of the image, emanating from wildfires in the boreal areas of Russia’s Far East, in this image captured on July 13, 2023. Credit: NASA MODIS](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2023-07/NASA%20Arctic%20Circle%20wildfire%20smoke_image07182023_1km_1.jpg?h=dbdc3f84&itok=oHQVs6Bn)
Wildfires have shaped the environment for millennia, but they are increasing in frequency, range and intensity in response to a hotter climate. The phenomenon is being incorporated into high-resolution simulations of the Earth’s climate by scientists at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, with a mission to better understand and predict environmental change.
![top view of cicada wing](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2023-07/top_cs_0.png?h=436b82d4&itok=6o7AvyrV)
Over the past decade, teams of engineers, chemists and biologists have analyzed the physical and chemical properties of cicada wings, hoping to unlock the secret of their ability to kill microbes on contact. If this function of nature can be replicated by science, it may lead to products with inherently antibacterial surfaces that are more effective than current chemical treatments.
![Illustration of a laser-based analytical method to accelerate understanding of critical plant and soil properties with the aim of co-optimizing bioenergy plant growth and soil carbon storage](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2023-06/soilPlantCube02_0.jpg?h=b044a8f9&itok=dPD5kVSg)
Oak Ridge National Laboratory researchers recently demonstrated use of a laser-based analytical method to accelerate understanding of critical plant and soil properties that affect bioenergy plant growth and soil carbon storage.
![3D supernova simulations](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2023-06/Supernova%20square_0.png?h=8a7fc05e&itok=nltq-f5M)
As a result of largescale 3D supernova simulations conducted on the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility’s Summit supercomputer by researchers from the University of Tennessee and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, astrophysicists now have the most complete picture yet of what gravitational waves from exploding stars look like.
![TIP graphic](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2023-06/TIPbg_1200.png?h=da33fe38&itok=y7ggwHLV)
Scientist-inventors from ORNL will present seven new technologies during the Technology Innovation Showcase on Friday, July 14, from 8 a.m.–4 p.m. at the Joint Institute for Computational Sciences on ORNL’s campus.
![Simulations performed on Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Summit supercomputer generated one of the most detailed portraits to date of how turbulence disperses heat through ocean water under realistic conditions. Credit: Miles Couchman](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2023-06/Prandtl2_0.png?h=ae114f5c&itok=yd4B_sEF)
Simulations performed on the Summit supercomputer at ORNL revealed new insights into the role of turbulence in mixing fluids and could open new possibilities for projecting climate change and studying fluid dynamics.
![ORNL researchers, from left, Yang Liu, Xiaohan Yang and Torik Islam, collaborated on the development of a new capability to insert multiple genes simultaneously for fast, efficient transformation of plants into better bioenergy feedstocks. Credit: Genevieve Martin/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2023-06/Gene%20stacking%202023-P03111_0.jpg?h=c6980913&itok=RSUZXZ8U)
In a discovery aimed at accelerating the development of process-advantaged crops for jet biofuels, scientists at ORNL developed a capability to insert multiple genes into plants in a single step.
![Jerry Parks leads the Molecular Biophysics group at ORNL, leveraging his expertise in computational chemistry and bioinformatics to unlock the inner workings of proteins—molecules that govern cellular structure and function and are essential to life. Credit: Genevieve Martin, ORNL/U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2023-05/2023-P06611.jpg?h=036a71b7&itok=qZ5p6Pq8)
When reading the novel Jurassic Park as a teenager, Jerry Parks found the passages about gene sequencing and supercomputers fascinating, but never imagined he might someday pursue such futuristic-sounding science.
![ORNL researchers Michael Smith, Steven Pain and Kelly Chipps use JENSA, a unique gas jet system, for laboratory studies of nuclear reactions that also occur in neutron stars in binary systems. Credit: Steven Pain/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2023-05/20160213_182909aa.jpg?h=5c7e1372&itok=p13IVvRC)
Led by Kelly Chipps of ORNL, scientists working in the lab have produced a signature nuclear reaction that occurs on the surface of a neutron star gobbling mass from a companion star. Their achievement improves understanding of stellar processes generating diverse nuclear isotopes.