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Brenda Pracheil and Bryan Chakoumakos examine the structure of an otolith under a microscope.
Scientific discovery can come from anywhere, but few researchers can say the answers to their questions would come from the pea-sized bones in the head of a six-foot-long, 200-pound prehistoric freshwater fish. In a unique pairing of biology and neutron science, researchers from...
Adam Makhluf from the University of California, Los Angeles is using neutrons at Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Spallation Neutron Source to study the fundamental role carbon dioxide plays in Earth’s carbon cycle.
Carbon dioxide is a key component in the carbon cycle of Earth, both in the atmosphere and in the mantle, or hot layer under Earth’s crust. Studies of high pressure, high temperature phases of solid carbon dioxide are important to understand the forms that carbon may adopt at the e...
ORNL bioscience researcher Jerry Tuskan had an early interest in plant genetics.

It’s been 10 years since the Department of Energy first established a BioEnergy Science Center (BESC) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and researcher Gerald “Jerry” Tuskan has used that time and the lab’s and center’s resources and tools to make good on his college dreams of usi...

SPRUCE experiment enclosure

Deep stores of carbon in northern peatlands may remain stable despite rising temperatures, according to a team of researchers from several U.S.-based institutions. And that is good news for now, the researchers said. Florida State University ...

This image shows an artist’s depiction of the team’s QCD multigrid method.
Scientists are only beginning to understand the laws that govern the atomic world. Before the 1950s the electrons, neutrons, and protons comprising atoms were the smallest confirmed units of matter.
ORNL’s Udaya Kalluri brings lab resources together for studies of plants.
Udaya Kalluri brings considerable energy to her plant research at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory—a trait colleagues describe as “contagious enthusiasm.” Kalluri’s zeal was evident even in her postdoc days at ORNL, when she won lab-directed research fun...
Omar Abdelaziz in ORNL’s Maximum Building Energy Efficiency Research Laboratory (MAXLAB). Photo credit: Jason Richards

As a graduate student at the University of Maryland, Omar Abdelaziz took a class in an unfamiliar topic: sustainable energy. It was a choice that would change the path of his life and career. Ten years later, Abdelaziz’ passion for healthy ecosystems and his hands-on work around ...

Magnetic suspension test bed.

When it comes to a challenging application for embedded instrumentation and control, none quite beats an environment of molten salt at 700 degrees Celsius. But that is just the application chosen by scientists at the US Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory...

Madhu Chinthavali

While trying to decide on an area of technical study as an undergraduate, Madhu Chinthavali visited labs at his college in India. One particular lab where an electrical engineer had devised various motor controls caught his eye. "It wasn't the motor that drew my attention," Ma...

Pressure Synthesis
Unexpected results from a neutron scattering experiment at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory could open a new pathway for the synthesis of novel materials and also help explain the formation of complex organic structures observed in interstellar space. I...