Drivers bombarded with phone calls, e-mails and other distractions are more likely to make mistakes. That's no big surprise, but it's been confirmed by an ORNL study in which several drivers missed turns, ran stop signs and sometimes crashed while using in-vehicle information systems and devices. Fo...
Air travel could become even safer in the future because of work being done by researchers at ORNL and the National Transportation Research Center. In one project, researchers are applying work done to make the nuclear industry safer to identifying precursors to airline accidents. By studying and co...
Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) could get a beneficial jolt because of an ORNL study that has produced some startling results. Researchers found that the direction and magnitude of the flow depends upon the frequency of the forcing function. During CPR, it's not known whether the heart acts as a...
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...
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...
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...
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 ...
With water heating consuming about 17 percent of the energy for a typical household, it's a good place to start when cutting costs. ORNL's Building Technology Center is assisting in developing a heat pump water heater as a "drop-in" replacement for a conventional 50- or 80-gallon water heater. It fe...
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 ...