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An Oak Ridge National Laboratory-led research team used a sophisticated X-ray scattering technique to visualize and quantify the movement of water molecules in space and time, which provides new insights that may open pathways for liquid-based electronics
A novel approach to studying the viscosity of water has revealed new insights about the behavior of water molecules and may open pathways for liquid-based electronics.
Robert Wagner is director of the National Transportation Research Center at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Photo credit: Jason Richards, ORNL.

Some engineers are attracted to fuels and engine research out of a love of cars. For Robert Wagner, however, enthusiasm for combustion science and chaos theory drew him to this area of research at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. After years of delivering breakthroughs for cleane...

ORNL’s Xiaohan Yang led a team who identified a common set of genes that enable different drought-resistant plants to survive in semi-arid conditions. This finding could play a significant role in bioengineering energy crops tolerant to water deficits. Cr

Scientists at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have identified a common set of genes that enable different drought-resistant plants to survive in semi-arid conditions, which could play a significant role in bioengineering

ORNL’s Larry Allard used high-resolution aberration-corrected electron microscopy methods to image single atoms of rhodium in a zeolite catalyst material, which aided in the development of a breakthrough process that directly converts methane to methanol.
MEDFORD/SOMERVILLE – The direct oxidation of methane—found in natural gas—into methanol at low temperatures has long been a holy grail. Now, researchers at Tufts have found a breakthrough way to accomplish the feat using a heterogeneous catalyst and cheap molecular oxygen, according to a paper published today in the journal Nature by a team led by Tufts University chemical engineers.
Lianhong Gu is an environmental scientist in the Ecosystem Science Group at ORNL.
Photosynthesis is one of the most important processes on Earth. Without it the food chain would collapse, and we would lose a primary source of oxygen for all life. Yet it is a process that is still poorly understood outside the laboratory. With the help of an Oak Ridge Nation...
Scientists peer inside materials used to clean automotive exhaust to understand why one works better than the other. Red and blue dots represent positions of copper and aluminum atoms, respectively, for two zeolite catalysts (SSZ-13 and ZSM-5) used in a d

Diesel vehicles today emit far fewer pollutants than older vehicles, thanks to a zeolite (hydrous silicate) catalytic converter that was invented around 10 years ago to reduce pollutants that cause the formation of acid rain and smog. Although many groups have investigated t...

Inspired by the brain’s web of neurons, deep neural networks consist of thousands or millions of simple computational units.

Deep neural networks—a form of artificial intelligence—have demonstrated mastery of tasks once thought uniquely human. Their triumphs have ranged from identifying animals in images, to recognizing human speech, to winning complex strategy games, among other su...

Eugene Mamontov and the BASIS beam line at the Spallation Neutron Source at ORNL. Photo credit: Jason Richards, ORNL.
Eugene Mamontov’s background in both basic and applied science has made him a valued partner for scientists who come to the Spallation Neutron Source at ORNL in search of a better understanding of the water dynamics in their research—projects as diverse as studying plant cellulos...
Fidget spinner
One drop of liquid, a cutting-edge laser 3D-printer and a few hours are all it takes to make a fidget spinner smaller than the width of a human hair. The tiny whirligig was created by researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences to illustrate the facility’s unique resources and expertise available to scientists across the world.
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Five researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have been elected fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). AAAS, the world’s largest multidisciplinary scientific society