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 (Knoxville News Sentinel) Disposing of dozens of sodium shields once used in reactor experiments at Oak Ridge National Laboratory is currently listed as an optional part of the upcoming EM contract. DOE spokesman John Shewairy said the disposition of the sodium and D&D of the storage facility, K-1313-F, is under option 7 (Contract Line Item No. 9)...5/12
(The A to Z of Materials) The revolutionary new Band Excitation (BE) technique, co-developed by Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and Asylum Research, has provided clues to the origins of unique properties of materials including spin and cluster glasses, phase-separated oxides, polycrystalline ferroelectrics, and ferromagnets, that are rooted in their highly disordered structures...5/13 |
 (TCE Today) RESEARCHERS at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in the US have developed an accurate, one-step device which tests for water contaminants in the field, rather than the laboratory.
Membrane-extraction ion mobility spectrometry (ME-IMS) was developed by a team led by chemical sciences researcher Jun Xu...5/12
 (HPC) The idea of using lithium-air batteries to power electric cars has been around since the 1990s, but the last few years has seen a big upsurge in interest for this technology. Oil supply concerns, global climate change, and a general discontent with the internal combustion engine are driving the search for more robust batteries, and lithium-air is at the top of the list...(scroll) a DOE INCITE award has allocated 24 million hours of elite supercomputing time to support lithium-air battery design. Argonne National Lab's half petaflop Blue Gene/P machine will supply 12 million of those hours, with the other 12 million coming from Oak Ridge National Laboratory's 1.7 petaflop "Jaguar" Cray XT...5/12
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DOE
(DOE Press Release) U.S. Department of Energy Under Secretary Kristina M. Johnson has been selected to receive the 2010 Women of Vision Leadership Award from the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology (ABI). ABI honors women making significant contributions to technology in the categories of leadership, innovation and social impact. The Women of Vision Awards ceremony will take place Wednesday, May 12th at the Mission City Ballroom in Santa Clara, CA...5/12
(DOE Press Release) At the request of the President, Secretary Chu and Secretary Salazar traveled to Houston today to participate in meetings with DOE and national lab staff, industry officials and other engineers and scientists involved in finding solutions to cap the flow of oil and contain the spill. Secretary Salazar and Secretary Chu conferred at the BP Command Center in Houston with teams of federal and industry scientists and engineers who are using cutting-edge technological resources and innovative ideas to find solutions to containing the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and protecting Gulf Coast communities...5/12
(ThaiIndian) The sensational discovery by an international team of palaeontologists, geochemists and physicists was made after carrying out state-of-the-art analysis of one of the world’s most important fossils - the half-dinosaur/half-bird species called Archaeopteryx.
The discovery could revolutionise the field of palaeontology says the team led by scientists at the University of Manchester and the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Lab in the US...5/11
State & Regional
(WBIR) For nearly 10 years, state-level immigration policy has been a growth industry. In the first three months of 2010 alone, lawmakers in 45 states introduced 1,180 bills related to immigration, according to data compiled by the National Conference of State Legislatures. Most of the bills attempt to restrict the lives of illegal immigrants or discourage illegal immigration altogether...5/12
(Tennessean) Gas prices are poised to fall as Memorial Day approaches, a welcome change for motorists who have gotten used to seeing increases cut into their summer vacation money.
Experts who had been predicting a national average of more than $3 per gallon by Memorial Day now say prices probably have peaked just beneath that threshold. Rising supplies and concerns about the global economy have helped send wholesale gasoline prices plummeting by 22 cents a gallon since last week...5/13 |
National
 (Washington Post) [Registration Required] A senior House Democrat said that the blowout preventer that failed to stop an oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico had a dead battery in its control pod, leaks in its hydraulic system, a "useless" test version of one of the devices that was supposed to close the flow of oil and a cutting tool that wasn't strong enough to shear through joints that made up 10 percent of the drill pipe...5/12
(Washington Post) [Registration Required] Efforts to block a key provision of the new health-care overhaul law are underway in 33 states, as a growing roster of mostly Republican officials have mounted legal and legislative challenges to an eventual requirement that virtually all Americans buy health insurance or pay a penalty tax...5/12
(New York Times) The long delayed and much amended Senate plan to deal with global warming and energy was unveiled on Wednesday to considerable fanfare but uncertain prospects...5/12
East Tennessee
(WBIR) Not all of the UT College of Engineering graduates, gathered in Thompson Boling Arena, waited the standard four years for the moment they shared Wednesday.
"It took me seven years, from the start of my degree until today," said SSgt. Peter Ditmer, who joined the US Army Reserves when he was 18-years-old...5/12
(Knoxville News Sentinel) The Tennessee Valley Authority is refusing to make public the salaries of its top-paid employees, information the agency has divulged in the past.
The decision, in response to a News Sentinel Freedom of Information Act request, has drawn fire from members of Congress and advocacy groups that promote openness in government...5/13
(Knoxville News Sentinel) A University of Tennessee board of trustees committee will select a presidential search firm to assist in the hunt for the university system's next leader at a meeting today in Nashville...5/13 |
(Wired) Microsoft's Newest Version of Office Dogpiles New Features, Fails to Rock Worlds.
Three years have passed since the last version of Office was released, so naturally it's time for Microsoft to convince you that you need a new one.
Office 2010 arrives, heralding more than 100 new and improved features. The suite on the whole is compelling but, in typical Office fashion, has more software than any sane person could possibly need. It also boasts integration with Microsoft's much-ballyhooed Web Apps, a potential Google Docs competitor that lets you create and edit documents using a free web-based interface...5/12