![New research about the transfer of heat—fundamental to all materials—suggests that in thermal insulators, heat is conveyed by atomic vibrations and by random hopping of energy from atom to atom. New research about the transfer of heat—fundamental to all materials—suggests that in thermal insulators, heat is conveyed by atomic vibrations and by random hopping of energy from atom to atom.](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/news/images/ORNL_thermal_conductivity.png?itok=-VxM_2RH)
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![New research about the transfer of heat—fundamental to all materials—suggests that in thermal insulators, heat is conveyed by atomic vibrations and by random hopping of energy from atom to atom. New research about the transfer of heat—fundamental to all materials—suggests that in thermal insulators, heat is conveyed by atomic vibrations and by random hopping of energy from atom to atom.](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/news/images/ORNL_thermal_conductivity.png?itok=-VxM_2RH)
![ORNL’s Sergei Kalinin has been named a 2018 Blavatnik National Awards for Young Scientists laureate. ORNL’s Sergei Kalinin has been named a 2018 Blavatnik National Awards for Young Scientists laureate.](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/news/images/Kalinin200.jpg?itok=OB12WP_T)
![Chemist Zili Wu makes discoveries about catalysts using a suite of sophisticated tools, such as this adsorption microcalorimeter to probe catalytic sites. Image credit: Oak Ridge National Laboratory, U.S. Dept. of Energy; photographer Carlos Jones Chemist Zili Wu makes discoveries about catalysts using a suite of sophisticated tools, such as this adsorption microcalorimeter to probe catalytic sites. Image credit: Oak Ridge National Laboratory, U.S. Dept. of Energy; photographer Carlos Jones](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/news/images/2017-P06195.jpg?itok=rYGX3d7K)
Zili Wu of the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory grew up on a farm in China’s heartland. He chose to leave it to catalyze a career in chemistry.
![Computing building blocks of soft materials may someday directly interface with the brain, according to researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the University of Tennessee. Credit: Joseph Najem, Oak Ridge National Laboratory/U.S. Dept. of Energy Computing building blocks of soft materials may someday directly interface with the brain, according to researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the University of Tennessee. Credit: Joseph Najem, Oak Ridge National Laboratory/U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/news/images/Computing-Mimicking_neurons_preview.jpeg?itok=BBA-LMgA)
![Nanoscale spikes of carbon help catalyze a reaction that generates ammonia from nitrogen and water. Nanoscale spikes of carbon help catalyze a reaction that generates ammonia from nitrogen and water.](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/nanospikes%20NH3.png?itok=sI4gNuQf)
![Neutron interactions revealed the orthorhombic structure of the hybrid perovskite stabilized by the strong hydrogen bonds between the nitrogen substituent of the methylammonium cations and the bromides on the corner-linked PbBr6 octahedra. Neutron interactions revealed the orthorhombic structure of the hybrid perovskite stabilized by the strong hydrogen bonds between the nitrogen substituent of the methylammonium cations and the bromides on the corner-linked PbBr6 octahedra.](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/news/images/18-G00289_Wang_PR_proof1%5B1%5D.png?itok=hvANRH9J)
Scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory have conducted a series of breakthrough experimental and computational studies that cast doubt on a 40-year-old theory describing how polymers in plastic materials behave during processing.
![Eugene Dumitrescu, Ben Lawrie, Matthew Feldman, and Jordan Hachtel (from left) have conducted investigations aimed at controlling the dissipative nature of quantum systems and materials. The cathodoluminescence microscope used in their work appears at rig Eugene Dumitrescu, Ben Lawrie, Matthew Feldman, and Jordan Hachtel (from left) have conducted investigations aimed at controlling the dissipative nature of quantum systems and materials. The cathodoluminescence microscope used in their work appears at rig](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/Quantum%20physics%20main%20photo%5B1%5D_0.jpg?itok=Y67Yqnmc)
![From left, Andrew Lupini and Juan Carlos Idrobo use ORNL’s new monochromated, aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscope, a Nion HERMES to take the temperatures of materials at the nanoscale. Image credit: Oak Ridge National Laboratory From left, Andrew Lupini and Juan Carlos Idrobo use ORNL’s new monochromated, aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscope, a Nion HERMES to take the temperatures of materials at the nanoscale. Image credit: Oak Ridge National Laboratory](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/news/images/2018-P00413.jpg?itok=UKejk7r2)
A scientific team led by the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory has found a new way to take the local temperature of a material from an area about a billionth of a meter wide, or approximately 100,000 times thinner than a human hair.
![ORNL_graphene_substrate ORNL_graphene_substrate](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/ORNL_graphene_substrate_lrg.jpg?itok=iyFGI1Cb)
A new method to produce large, monolayer single-crystal-like graphene films more than a foot long relies on harnessing a “survival of the fittest” competition among crystals.