Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Carbon fiber technology could revitalize manufacturing

(Oak Ridger) When it comes to carbon fiber technology, researchers are pursuing it because of two goals:

• Energy independence; and

• Revitalization of U.S. manufacturing.

Cliff Eberle, technology development manager for Polymer Matrix Composites at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and Lee McGetrick, director of the Carbon Fiber Technology Facility in the Horizon Center business park, spoke recently to the Friends of ORNL about carbon fiber and the new CFTF...1/30

Borla to partner with Oak Ridge Natl. Labs to create new technology

(Elizabethton Star) Carter County company has been selected to participate in a unique program with the Department of Energy and Oak Ridge National Laboratories. Borla Performance Industries is one of 36 companies to be selected to participate in the “America’s Next Top Energy Innovator Challenge.” The company, which operates in the former Texas Instruments and Siemens facility at the Okolona Road exit off Interstate 26, has been chosen to work with the Oak Ridge National Laboratory to manufacture a new type of exhaust technology...1/30

Previous ORNL Stories

DOE

Self-guided bullet prototype can hit target a mile away

(Physorg.com) A tiny light-emitting diode, or LED, attached to a self-guided bullet at Sandia National Laboratories shows a bright path during a nighttime field test that proved the battery and electronics could survive the bullet's launch...1/30

Tapping into Wave and Tidal Ocean Power: 15% Water Power by 2030

(Energy.gov) In the most rigorous analyses undertaken to date, two recently released resource assessments show that waves and tidal currents off the nation's coasts contain enough energy to provide a significant portion our nation’s total annual electricity usage...1/27

State & Regional

Gov. Bill Haslam's $31 billion budget abolishes government jobs, raises pay

(Knoxville News Sentinel) Under the theme "believe in better," Gov. Bill Haslam proposed Monday a $31 billion state budget for the coming year that provides a 2.5 percent pay raise for state employees while abolishing 1,166 government jobs...1/30

National

Longtime Allies, Egypt And U.S. Now Have Differences

(NPR) ...Egypt doesn't like the new conditions U.S. lawmakers have placed on American aid. And the U.S. is furious with the way Egypt has been treating U.S. groups that promote democracy. At least three Americans have taken shelter in the U.S. Embassy in Cairo...1/31

East Tennessee

Ed Westcott, famed Oak Ridge photographer, turns 90

(Knoxville News Sentinel) In 1942, Ed Westcott was among the first few dozen employees to arrive at the East Tennessee site for ultrasecret work on the first atomic bombs, and he was the only one authorized to use a camera. The rest, as they say, is history...1/31

energy & science policy

The biggest winners of Obama's natural gas push

(Fortune) The President's effort to make natural gas a viable alternative to gasoline and diesel fuel in cars and trucks could change the fate of the ailing industry...1/27

PCAST Briefed on Science and Technology Activities and a New Report on US Competitiveness

(AIP) Members of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology were briefed earlier this month on the science and technology activities at the State Department and were also given an overview of the activities of the US Chief Information Officer...1/30

science & technology

How To Find A New Nuclear Waste Site? Woo A Town

(NPR) A panel of experts Thursday set forth a plan for getting rid of thousands of tons of highly radioactive nuclear waste. Most of it is spent fuel from nuclear power reactors...1/26

Scholars Seek Better Ways to Track Impact Online

(Chronicle of Higher Education) ...An approach called altmetrics—short for alternative metrics—aims to measure Web-driven scholarly interactions, such as how often research is tweeted, blogged about, or bookmarked...1/29

High-Powered Plasma Turns Garbage Into Gas

(Wired) ...It uses plasma gasification, a technology that turns trash into a fuel without producing emissions. In other words: a guilt-free solution to our waste problems...1/31

Going paperless: The digital lab

(Nature News) ...Now that it's here, adopters say that a paperless laboratory seems to offer real advantages. Bench researchers say that digital notebooks help them track their experiments in more detail. Lab heads report being able to follow and focus projects more efficiently when documentation is tailored to their needs, accessible online and shared among colleagues...1/25

The Future of the Book Is the Stream

(The Atlantic) Cloud storage is paving the way for books that are sold not by title, but by time...1/30