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3-D visualization of chemically-ordered phases in an iron-platinum (FePt) nanoparticle.

Barely wider than a strand of human DNA, magnetic nanoparticles—such as those made from iron and platinum atoms—are promising materials for next-generation recording and storage devices like hard drives. Building these devices from nanoparticles should increase storage capaci...

A nuclear density map of the bacterial enzyme HpMTAN’s active site reveals the locations of the hydrogen atoms, including the unexpected observation of a hydrogen ion positioned midway between adenine and D198 residue.
Neutron analysis at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory is helping researchers better understand a key enzyme found in a bacterium known to cause stomach cancer. Understanding the details of this enzyme, and thus the Helicobacter pylori bacteria’s metabolis...
The_Shape_of_Melting_in_Two_Dimensions_on_Vimeo.jpg

Snow falls in winter and melts in spring, but what drives the phase change in between?

Contrasting solvation strategies in conventional electrolytes (top-left) and a new class of Lewis-acidic polymer electrolytes (bottom-left).
Ever since Italian physicist Alessandro Volta invented the first battery out of a stack of copper and zinc disks separated by moistened cardboard, scientists have been searching for better battery materials.
Ramakrishnan “Ramki” Kannan loves the excitement and challenge of working at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, home to Titan.

Supercomputers like Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Titan are advancing science at a frenetic pace and helping researchers make sense of data that could have easily been missed, says Ramakrishnan “Ramki” Kannan. Kannan, a computer scientist who came to ORNL in March 2016 after ...

ORNL researchers have discovered a new type of quantum critical point, a new way in which materials change from one state of matter to another. Featured here are researchers Lekh Poudel (left), Andrew Christianson and Andrew May.
When matter changes from solids to liquids to vapors, the changes are called phase transitions. Among the most interesting types are more exotic changes—quantum phase transitions—where the strange properties of quantum mechanics can bring about extraordinary changes in curious way...