Monday, February 6, 2012

Removing risks in the heart of Oak Ridge National Lab

(Oak Ridger) The Oak Ridge National Laboratory is widely considered one of the Department of Energy's premier research facilities, with world-leading programs in neutron sciences, materials, biology, and computational sciences. Due to the historic growth of the past decade, many of the new programs and facilities lie in close proximity to radiological legacies left from research activities conducted in the 1950s and 1960s in the lab's older central campus...2/3

Gerald A. Tuskan named Forest Biotechnologist of the Year

(ORNL News Release) Jerry Tuskan, Oak Ridge National Laboratory Distinguished Scientist in the BioSciences Division, has been named Forest Biotechnologist of the Year by the Institute of Forest Biotechnology (IFB)...2/5

ORNL Director Mason talks about the future of the High Flux Isotope Reactor

(Knoxville News Sentinel) Last week, I talked to Oak Ridge National Laboratory Director Thom Mason and asked him about the status of the High Flux Isotope Reactor, which was shut down last month -- unplanned -- because of an electrical problem...2/5

Previous ORNL Stories

DOE

Watchdog finds cybersecurity 'shortcomings' with stimulus-backed power grid program

(Fox News) A multibillion-dollar stimulus push to modernize the nation's power grid is raising cybersecurity concerns, as the Department of Energy's official watchdog reports that dozens of grant recipients came to the table with inadequate security plans...2/4

Outsourcing raises eyebrows; overnight guests few

(Knoxville News Sentinel) By Department of Energy standards, it was a relatively small contract, valued at about $15.8 million over five years, but the recently awarded contract was of interest because it involved the outsourcing of uranium work from the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant in Oak Ridge...2/6

State & Regional

Reshuffling follows complaints from businesses about TDEC permits

(WBIR) The Haslam administration has shaken up the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, removing two top officials, combining several divisions and cutting more than 150 jobs. The heads of the divisions responsible for managing water quality and solid waste were fired this week. A third official has announced plans to retire at the end of the month, TDEC said in an email and statement released Friday afternoon...2/4

National

Egypt Defies U.S. by Setting Trial for 19 Americans on Criminal Charges

(New York Times) Egypt’s military-led government said Sunday that it would put 19 Americans and two dozen others on trial in a politically charged criminal investigation into the foreign financing of nonprofit groups that has shaken the 30-year alliance between the United States and Egypt...2/5

Private sector payrolls and jobs are up

(Christian Science Monitor) Today’s Employment Situation Report indicated that in January, net nonfarm payrolls increased with private nonfarm payrolls adding 257,000 jobs and the unemployment rate declining to 8.3% over the same period...2/5

East Tennessee

K-25 demolition continues, but history agreement holds key to finishing project

(Knoxville News Sentinel) K-25, the world's largest building at the time of its construction in World War II, is getting smaller by the day as workers — using an armada of bulldozers, cranes and other tools of demolition — take down the brawny facilities that once processed uranium for atomic bombs and nuclear reactors...2/6

energy & science policy

“Science and Engineering Indicators 2012” Released

(AIP) “This information clearly shows we must re-examine long-held assumptions about the global dominance of the American science and technology enterprise.” These comments by National Science Foundation Director Subra Suresh came on the day that the National Science Board released “Science and Engineering Indicators 2012,” a 575-page report measuring and characterizing R&D, education, workforce, academic, public attitudes and state data...2/3

science & technology

Why Do Cells Age? Discovery of Extremely Long-Lived Proteins May Provide Insight Into Cell Aging and Neurodegenerative Diseases

(Science Daily) One of the big mysteries in biology is why cells age. Now scientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies report that they have discovered a weakness in a component of brain cells that may explain how the aging process occurs in the brain...2/3

Two New Moons Found Orbiting Jupiter

(National Geographic) Two new moons have been found orbiting Jupiter, bringing the Jovian family count up to 66 natural satellites, astronomers revealed this week. Currently known as S/2011 J1 and S/2011 J2, the new moons were first identified in images acquired with the Magellan-Baade Telescope at the Las Campanas Observatory in Chile on September 27, 2011...2/2

Namibia sponge fossils are world's first animals: study

(PhysOrg) Scientists digging in a Namibian national park have uncovered sponge-like fossils they say are the first animals, a discovery that would push the emergence of animal life back millions of years...2/6

Out there

To Compare Human and Monkey Brains, Humans and Monkeys Watch a Clint Eastwood Film

(Popular Science) Scores of animals exist in scientific laboratories for the purpose of serving as our proxies, their cortices mapped and their flu responses studied so scientists can figure out how humans work. But in many cases, there’s little agreement between their functions and ours, and scientists need to figure out how to draw useful comparisons...2/5