In the United States, the use of natural gas for electricity generation continues to grow. The driving forces behind this development? A boom in domestic natural gas production, historically low prices, and increased scrutiny over fossil fuels’ carbon emissions. Though coal still acco...
Four Oak Ridge National Laboratory researchers specializing in environmental, biological and computational science are among 49 recipients of Department of Energy's Office of Science Early Career Research Program awards. The Early Career Research Program, now in its ...
Radioactive materials have long been a part of American history—from the Manhattan Project to the development of nuclear power. The materials central to these innovations are actinides, or elements 89–103 on the periodic table that release large amounts of energy when atoms are spli...
Lipid molecules have split personalities—one part loves water, whereas the other avoids it at all costs. Lipids make up cell membranes, the frontline defense in preventing cellular access to bacterial and viral invaders.
Many researchers believe that the membrane is not just a scaf...
Breaking down cellulosic biomass for biofuel is a costly and complex process, requiring lots of acid, water, and heat. Experimental pretreatments, however, hold the promise of driving down these costs by making more biomass available to enzymes for fermentation. To gain a better...
The Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory will support four new industry projects announced today as part of DOE’s High Performance Computing for Manufacturing (HPC4Mfg) Program. The program pairs selected companies with national labs, including ORNL...
Ask a biofuel researcher to name the single greatest technical barrier to cost-effective ethanol, and you’re likely to receive a one-word response: lignin.
Cellulosic ethanol—fuel derived from woody plants and waste biomass—has the potential to become an affordable, renew...
When the Ford Motor Company’s first automobile, the Model T, debuted in 1908, it ran on a corn-derived biofuel called ethanol, a substance Henry Ford dubbed “the fuel of the future.”
Since lasers were first produced in the early 1960s, researchers have worked to apply laser technology from welding metal to surgeries, with laser technology advancing quickly through the last 50 years. Surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy all play important roles...