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Academic researchers look to Argonne’s Mira supercomputer to better understand boiling phenomena, bubble formation and two-phase bubbly flow inside nuclear reactors. Credit: Igor Bolotnov/North Carolina State University

The intrinsic beauty of bubbles—those thin watery spheres filled with air or other gases—has long captured the imagination of children and adults alike. But bubbles are also a linchpin of nuclear engineering, helping to explain the natural world, predict safety issues and improve the...

Vincent Paquit

Leveraging his expertise in image processing, sensors, and machine learning, Vincent Paquit is devising a control system for additive manufacturing to produce 3D-printed parts that function as well as conventionally produced objects. Paquit’s research sits at the junction of manufacturing technol...

ORNL Director Thomas Zacharia (center, seated) visited Robertsville Middle School to present a check in support of the school’s CubeSat efforts.

Last November a team of students and educators from Robertsville Middle School in Oak Ridge and scientists from Oak Ridge National Laboratory submitted a proposal to NASA for their Cube Satellite Launch Initiative in hopes of sending a student-designed nanosatellite named RamSat into...

Shown as green spheres, microcapsules containing the polymer manganoporphyrin, a newly developed antioxidant (green), the natural antioxidant tannic acid (yellow), and a binding material (blue), can be analyzed for stability and efficiency with neutrons.
Many natural and synthetic antioxidants help defend the body against oxidative stress—a biochemical imbalance that can damage cells and lead to illnesses such as diabetes, Alzheimer’s and cancer. However, these materials can become unstable and less effective over time. A new ...
Researcher Rob Schmidt and his team are using neutrons at HFIR’s CG-1D imaging instrument to study the development of dendrites with hope of improving the design of next-generation lithium ion batteries. Dendrites are thin microscopic fibers that can carr
Researchers are using neutrons to study a battery material that could offer a safer alternative to the flammable liquid component found in most types of lithium-ion batteries. Rob Schmidt, a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, a...
The Weyl semimetal state is induced when the opposing motions of the electrons cause the Dirac cones to split in two (illustrated on the left by outward facing electrons, opposite the inward facing electrons on the right).
The observation of an abnormal state of matter in a two-dimensional magnetic material is the latest development in the race to harness novel electronic properties for more robust and efficient next-generation devices. Neutron scattering at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge ...
ORNL researchers Todd Toops, Charles Finney, and Melanie DeBusk (left to right) hold an example of a particulate filter used to collect harmful emissions in vehicles.

Researchers are looking to neutrons for new ways to save fuel during the operation of filters that clean the soot, or carbon and ash-based particulate matter, emitted by vehicles. A team of researchers from the Energy and Transportation Science Division at the Department of En...

Yarom Polsky

Yarom Polsky’s diverse background in private and public-sector research has given him a knack for recognizing opportunities to advance the state-of-the-art, and he parlays that knowledge into successful innovation as an engineer, group leader, and 

Lianhong Gu is an environmental scientist in the Ecosystem Science Group at ORNL.
Photosynthesis is one of the most important processes on Earth. Without it the food chain would collapse, and we would lose a primary source of oxygen for all life. Yet it is a process that is still poorly understood outside the laboratory. With the help of an Oak Ridge Nation...
Chlorite dismutase - Journal cover art reprinted with permission from ACS Catalysis, vol. 7, issue 11, November 3, 2017. Further permissions related to the material excerpted should be directed to the ACS.

A new study sheds light on a unique enzyme that could provide an eco-friendly treatment for chlorite-contaminated water supplies and improve water quality worldwide. An international team of researchers led by Christian Obinger from the University of Vienna used neutron analys...