Carbon trapped in the top few meters of permafrost soils across nearly 19 million square kilometers of northern regions could be released at a rate of about two to five times greater than previous estimates. This is the conclusion of 41 international scientists who publish on various aspects of perm...
Superhydrophobic coatings developed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory could be the key to efficiently converting saltwater to freshwater. Small-scale tests have produced encouraging results, according to John Simpson, inventor of the material, which pins a layer of air on the coating's surface. This ...
Imagine an instrument that collects thousands of diffraction data points in days instead of months with the help of a cylindrical image plate detector and an intense polychromatic neutron beam. IMAGINE is the newest single crystal diffractometer being installed at the High Flux Isotope Reactor, and ...
New supercomputing simulations at Oak Ridge National Laboratory are tackling a major bottleneck to cost-effective biofuel production. Lignin, a major component of plant cell walls, forms problematic clumps during the high-temperature pretreatment of biomass. Until now, it has been unclear how and wh...
Of the top 10 fuel efficient vehicles made in 1984 to the present, half are available for sale in the 2012 model year, according to the latest ratings on https://www.fueleconomy.gov, a website developed and maintained by Oak Ridge National Laboratory for the Department of Energy and Environmental Pr...
Lignin-based carbon fiber for heat management of renewable energy systems offers excellent performance at a low cost and is the focus of a project between Oak Ridge National Laboratory and industry. A key challenge is whether the technology can be scaled to meet cost and production needs for industr...
Adaptive one-dimensional wires operating at 1 volt could eventually pave the way for oxide electronics, such as electronic devices that mimic human brain function. Using the piezoresponse force microscopy technique, researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory artificially arranged ferroelectric pol...
Carefully combining materials that shrink when heated with materials that expand creates a material unaffected by extreme temperature. Researchers can apply this concept to satellites that experience drastic temperature changes as they orbit the Earth but must also maintain precise data. Researchers...
Computer hackers could lose a huge advantage because of a system being developed by a team led by Justin Beaver of Oak Ridge National Laboratory. "As we have seen in recent months, attackers who breach a system's defense have a distinct advantage because their presence is difficult to detect, they h...
Something odd happens when you expose the element gadolinium to a strong magnetic field: Its temperature jumps up. Remove the field and the temperature drops below the starting point. This behavior, known as the magnetocaloric effect, is usually found in ferromagnets, materials that lose their magne...