![Debjani Singh](/sites/default/files/styles/featured_square_large/public/2024-08/2024-P12408.jpg?h=8f9cfe54&itok=bP5F6U4Y)
Filter News
Area of Research
News Topics
- (-) Clean Water (31)
- (-) Molten Salt (8)
- (-) Partnerships (49)
- (-) Renewable Energy (2)
- 3-D Printing/Advanced Manufacturing (125)
- Advanced Reactors (34)
- Artificial Intelligence (97)
- Big Data (60)
- Bioenergy (92)
- Biology (100)
- Biomedical (60)
- Biotechnology (23)
- Buildings (61)
- Chemical Sciences (70)
- Climate Change (104)
- Composites (29)
- Computer Science (195)
- Coronavirus (46)
- Critical Materials (29)
- Cybersecurity (35)
- Decarbonization (82)
- Education (4)
- Element Discovery (1)
- Emergency (2)
- Energy Storage (112)
- Environment (198)
- Exascale Computing (40)
- Fossil Energy (6)
- Frontier (44)
- Fusion (57)
- Grid (66)
- High-Performance Computing (90)
- Hydropower (11)
- Irradiation (3)
- Isotopes (55)
- ITER (7)
- Machine Learning (49)
- Materials (145)
- Materials Science (145)
- Mathematics (9)
- Mercury (12)
- Microelectronics (4)
- Microscopy (51)
- Nanotechnology (60)
- National Security (71)
- Net Zero (14)
- Neutron Science (134)
- Nuclear Energy (110)
- Physics (63)
- Polymers (33)
- Quantum Computing (37)
- Quantum Science (71)
- Security (25)
- Simulation (49)
- Software (1)
- Space Exploration (25)
- Statistics (3)
- Summit (59)
- Sustainable Energy (130)
- Transformational Challenge Reactor (7)
- Transportation (97)
Media Contacts
![Researchers gained new insights into the mechanisms some methane-feeding bacteria called methanotrophs (pictured) use to break down the toxin methylmercury. Credit: Andy Sproles/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy; Jeremy Semrau/Univ. of Michigan](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2021-09/OB3b_5Cu_5a01.jpg?h=535a555c&itok=FLOo_uRv)
A team led by ORNL and the University of Michigan have discovered that certain bacteria can steal an essential compound from other microbes to break down methane and toxic methylmercury in the environment.
![The Oak Ridge National Environmental Research Park encompasses a 20,000 acre area that includes Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Credit: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2021-09/2019-P16158_0.jpg?h=036a71b7&itok=_6tQ24p4)
Anyone familiar with ORNL knows it’s a hub for world-class science. The nearly 33,000-acre space surrounding the lab is less known, but also unique.
![Researchers at Colorado State University and ORNL evaluated 14 urban megaregions to simulate the effects of climate change on water resources. Credit: CSU/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2021-09/hydrology_map03_Kao_0.png?h=06037b31&itok=y1CKG8fX)
Oak Ridge National Laboratory worked with Colorado State University to simulate how a warming climate may affect U.S. urban hydrological systems.
![As the leader of ORNL’s Biodiversity and Ecosystem Health Group, environmental scientist Teresa Mathews works to understand the impacts of energy generation on water and solve challenging problems, including mercury pollution. Credit: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2021-08/2021-P05311%5B10%5D%5B13%5D_0.jpg?h=f99713cc&itok=zd0wGqpx)
Moving to landlocked Tennessee isn’t an obvious choice for most scientists with new doctorate degrees in coastal oceanography.
![Urban climate modeling](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2021-03/urbanclimate_sized.jpeg?h=0d9d21a1&itok=-ICe9HqY)
Researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory have identified a statistical relationship between the growth of cities and the spread of paved surfaces like roads and sidewalks. These impervious surfaces impede the flow of water into the ground, affecting the water cycle and, by extension, the climate.
![Distinguished Inventors](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2020-12/inventors.jpg?h=4631f1c1&itok=xhAGY0kv)
Six scientists at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory were named Battelle Distinguished Inventors, in recognition of obtaining 14 or more patents during their careers at the lab.
![Water from local creeks now flows through these simulated streams in the Aquatic Ecology Laboratory, providing new opportunities to study mercury pollution and advance solutions. Credit: ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2020-10/img_3692.jpg?h=77bd3ecb&itok=dM1eszup)
New capabilities and equipment recently installed at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory are bringing a creek right into the lab to advance understanding of mercury pollution and accelerate solutions.
![Nuclear – Finally, a benchmark](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2020-05/67051_0.jpg?h=add82d74&itok=xR-EnPtz)
In the 1960s, Oak Ridge National Laboratory's four-year Molten Salt Reactor Experiment tested the viability of liquid fuel reactors for commercial power generation. Results from that historic experiment recently became the basis for the first-ever molten salt reactor benchmark.
![Researchers discovered the Tennessee cavesnail, Antrorbis tennesseensis, in caves near Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The snail measures in at less than 2 millimeters long. Credit: Nathaniel Shoobs and Matthew Niemiller](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2020-04/Cave_snailREV.jpg?h=c96bab7a&itok=6rjc3NQL)
Sometimes conducting big science means discovering a species not much larger than a grain of sand.
![Costas Tsouris portrait](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2019-12/2019-P16550_0.jpg?h=036a71b7&itok=0wysIPxo)
While Tsouris’ water research is diverse in scope, its fundamentals are based on basic science principles that remain largely unchanged, particularly in a mature field like chemical engineering.