ORNL News
Sun Apr 24 04:38:45 EDT 2011
Home: http://www.ornl.gov/info/press_releases/newsroom.cfm
Feed: http://www.ornl.gov/ornlhome/rss/ornl_news.xml

Nature still sets standard for nanoscience revolution - By striving for control and perfection in everything from computer chips to commercial jets, scientists and engineers actually exclude a fundamental force that allows nature to outperform even their best efforts.

ORNL rifle sighting system uses sensors to score bull's-eye - Military and police marksmen could see their rifle sights catch up with the 21st century with a fiber-optic laser-based sensor system that automatically corrects for even tiny barrel disruptions.

Venerable early Jaguar system retires - ORNL lost a computing powerhouse with the March retirement of the Jaguar XT4 supercomputer.

Jaguar supercomputer harnesses heat for fusion energy - University of California-Irvine researcher Zhihong Lin is using the Jaguar supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory to study fusion reactions, which produce helium from hydrogen and release energy in the process, in hopes of igniting ITER, an experimental fusion reactor being built in southern France.

Bacterial genome may hold answers to mercury mystery - A newly sequenced bacterial genome from a team led by the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory could contain clues as to how microorganisms produce a highly toxic form of mercury.

ORNL's alumina-forming austenitic alloy licensed to Carpenter Technology Corp. - Metal alloy manufacturer Carpenter Technology Corp. has licensed an alumina-forming austenitic stainless steel alloy developed at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Six nature walks scheduled this spring - Six free nature walks are scheduled this spring in various areas of the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge Reservation.

TextOre license puts ORNL's Piranha in its tank - TextOre's licensing of Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Piranha is enabling the Virginia-based company to introduce a powerful search and mining tool capable of processing large amounts of text data from the Internet.

ORNL's Pennycook named Materials Research Society Fellow - Stephen Pennycook of the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory has been elected to the class of 2011 fellows of the Materials Research Society.

ORNL, industry collaboration puts spotlight on solar - Four manufacturers of solar energy components are working with the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory to address some of their biggest challenges.

Thermoelectric materials: recycling energy - For some years now, NASA has been using what are called thermoelectric materials to power its space probes. The probes travel such great distances from our sun that solar panels are no longer an efficient source of power. So NASA imbeds a nuclear material in a radioisotope thermal generator, where it decays, producing heat energy. That energy is then converted by thermoelectric materials into the electricity that powers the space probe. The same technology is now being explored for more earthly applications, for example, to capture heat lost in the exhaust of automobiles to produce electricity for the vehicle.

Startup America - As part of the Obama Administration's , U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu today announced the "America's Next Top Energy Innovator" challenge, which will give start-up companies the opportunity to obtain option agreements to license groundbreaking technologies developed by the National Laboratories for $1,000 and build successful businesses.

Key plant traits yield more sugar for biofuels - OAK RIDGE, Tenn, March 29, 2011 - New clues about plant structure are helping researchers from the Department of Energy's BioEnergy Science Center narrow down a large collection of poplar tree candidates and identify winners for future use in biofuel production.

UT-Battelle names top small business subcontractors - UT-Battelle, LLC, management and operating contractor for the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, has announced its top small business subcontractors for 2011.

Japan earthquake, tsunami spell need for preparedness - Perhaps lost in the recent debates related to the earthquake and tsunami in Japan is that natural disasters and not nuclear energy should be the focus, says Oak Ridge National Laboratory's John Sorensen, an emergency preparedness expert.

SNS user finds 'perfect instrument' for materials research - Stress, fatigue and heavy loads aren't always negative elements of work - in fact, they are what attracted Jennifer Forrester to the Spallation Neutron Source at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Neutron analysis yields insight into bacteria for solar energy - Structural studies of some of nature's most efficient light-harvesting systems are lighting the way for new generations of biologically inspired solar cell devices.

April 2011 Story Tips - Story ideas from the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The latest tips include: "Military - H2O from diesel ," "Electronics - Plasmonic sensors ," "Sensors - Thwarting tax evaders ," "Climate - Extreme cold still in forecast ," "Electronics - Phase transitions breakthrough "