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An illustration of the dopamine transporter in its outward- (left) and inward-opening (right) state. Note that the inward opening has brought about an outward closing and change in the number of water molecules (blue, pink spheres) inside and outside the

In an era of instant communication, perhaps no message-passing system is more underappreciated than the human body. Underlying each movement, each mood, each sight, sound, or smell, an army of specialized cells called neurons relays signals that register in the brain and connect us to our environment.

A simulation of combustion within two adjacent gas turbine combustors. GE researchers are incorporating advanced combustion modeling and simulation into product testing after developing a breakthrough methodology on the OLCF’s Titan supercomputer.

In the United States, the use of natural gas for electricity generation continues to grow. The driving forces behind this development? A boom in domestic natural gas production, historically low prices, and increased scrutiny over fossil fuels’ carbon emissions. Though coal still acco...

Department of Energy national lab researchers found strain dramatically influences low-temperature oxygen electrocatalysis on perovskite oxides, enhancing bifunctional activity essential for fuel cells and metal–air batteries.

Catalysts make chemical reactions more likely to occur. In most cases, a catalyst that’s good at driving chemical reactions in one direction is bad at driving reactions in the opposite direction. However, a research team led by the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory ...

ORNL carbon fiber processing technology co-invented by Felix Paulauskas (left) has been licensed to RMX Technologies, represented by vice president for research and development Truman Bonds.

RMX Technologies of Knoxville, Tenn., and the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have signed an exclusive licensing agreement for a new technology that dramatically reduces the time and energy needed in the production of carbon fiber. Lowering the ...

An ORNL-led research team found the key to fast ion conduction in a solid electrolyte. Tiny features maximize ion transport pathways, represented by red and green. Image credit: Oak Ridge National Laboratory, U.S. Dept. of Energy

In a rechargeable battery, the electrolyte transports lithium ions from the negative to the positive electrode during discharging. The path of ionic flow reverses during recharging. The organic liquid electrolytes in commercial lithium-ion batteries are flammable and su...

Discarded tires can provide material useful for lower-cost sodium-ion batteries for energy storage.
Hard carbon materials recycled from tires continue to show great promise as anodes in sodium-ion batteries for large-scale energy storage, according to an Oak Ridge National Laboratory study led by Yunchao Li. The carbons, captured by pyrolyzing, or baking in the absence of oxygen, tir...
A 3D-printed thermoplastic mold manufactured at ORNL withstood testing in an industrial autoclave.

A successful test of 3D-printed thermoplastic molds demonstrates the potential of additive manufacturing in the tooling industry. Researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Manufacturing Demonstration Facility collaborated with a team of industry partners to 3D-print and machine se...

Default image of ORNL entry sign

Four Oak Ridge National Laboratory researchers specializing in environmental, biological and computational science are among 49 recipients of Department of Energy's Office of Science Early Career Research Program awards. The Early Career Research Program, now in its ...

ORNL researchers discovered that water in beryl displays some unique and unexpected characteristics. (Photo by Jeff Scovil)
Neutron scattering and computational modeling have revealed unique and unexpected behavior of water molecules under extreme confinement that is unmatched by any known gas, liquid or solid states. In a paper published in Physical Review Letters, researchers at th...
Interpreting the results of collision induced dissociation (CID) experiments, simulations on Titan predict the formation of an unusually bonded uranium-nitrosyl molecule. Credit: J. Am. Chem. Society. DOI: 10.1021/jacs.5b02420
Radioactive materials have long been a part of American history—from the Manhattan Project to the development of nuclear power. The materials central to these innovations are actinides, or elements 89–103 on the periodic table that release large amounts of energy when atoms are spli...