On April 5, 2018, physicist Michael Berry delivered the Eugene P. Wigner Distinguished Lecture on the topic “Making Light of Mathematics.” His talk reflected on Wigner’s 1960 paper, “The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences.” This is an edited transcript of our conversation following his lecture.

While V-J Day in August 1945 heralded the end of World War II for most of the country, it brought uncertainty to many of the men and women of the Manhattan Project.

For the past six years, some 140 scientists from five institutions have traveled to the Arctic Circle and beyond to gather field data as part of the DOE-sponsored Next-Generation Ecosystem Experiments Arctic or NGEE Arctic project. We talk with the project's director, ORNL's Stan Wullschleger, about the discoveries and challenges of the NGEE Arctic project.

ORNL’s Building Envelope & Urban Systems Research Group may have found the answer to self-healing buildings by creating a novel multilayered barrier film with self-healing properties for vacuum insulation panels.

ORNL researchers developed models for better grid protection, analyzed options for new generation sources, and deployed sensors to monitor and evaluate Puerto Rico's grid and inform decisions by the island’s utility.

While ionizing radiation can cause cancer or even death, it can also save lives. Among other uses, ionizing radiation can destroy cancer cells, giving many sufferers the hope of relief from the painful effects of cancer.

NASA uses the isotope plutonium-238 to power its space explorations. The car-sized Mars 2020 rover will contain plutonium produced at ORNL.