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Andrea Delgado, Distinguished Staff Fellow at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, uses quantum computing to help elucidate the fundamental particles of the universe. Credit: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

Andrea Delgado is looking for elementary particles that seem so abstract, there appears to be no obvious short-term benefit to her research.

The yellow breasted chat is one of more than 200 bird species found on the Oak Ridge Reservation. Credit: Lee Smalley

The public is invited to six nature walks designed to highlight not only the rich flora and fauna diversity of the Oak Ridge Reservation, but also to demonstrate the work being done to sustainably manage and conserve this valuable resource.

Jeff Foster, Distinguished Staff Fellow at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, is looking for ways to control polymer sequencing for a variety of uses. Credit: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

Chemist Jeff Foster is looking for ways to control sequencing in polymers that could result in designer molecules to benefit a variety of industries, including medicine and energy.

Frances Pleasonton seals a vacuum chamber in 1951.

The old photos show her casually writing data in a logbook with stacks of lead bricks nearby, or sealing a vacuum chamber with a wrench. ORNL researcher Frances Pleasonton was instrumental in some of the earliest explorations of the properties of the neutron as the X-10 Site was finding its postwar footing as a research lab.

 Leadership from Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the National Energy Technology Laboratory signed a memorandum of understanding to jointly explore carbon management strategies in the Appalachian region. Credit: NETL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

ORNL is teaming with the National Energy Technology Laboratory to jointly explore a range of technology innovations for carbon management and strategies for economic development and sustainable energy transitions in the Appalachian region.

The next generation of the Center for Bioenergy Innovation will pursue an accelerated feedstock-to-fuels approach for the efficient, economic production of sustainable jet fuel. Credit: ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

The Center for Bioenergy Innovation has been renewed by the Department of Energy as one of four bioenergy research centers across the nation to advance robust, economical production of plant-based fuels and chemicals.

Samantha Peters co-designed and conducted experiments using ORNL’s high-performance mass spectrometry techniques to prove that bacteriophages deploy genetic code-switching to overwhelm and destroy host bacteria. Credit: Genevieve Martin, ORNL/U.S. Dept. of Energy

Scientists at ORNL have confirmed that bacteria-killing viruses called bacteriophages deploy a sneaky tactic when targeting their hosts: They use a standard genetic code when invading bacteria, then switch to an alternate code at later stages of

Vincente Guiseppe, co-spokesperson of the Majorana Collaboration and a research staff member at ORNL, in front of the Majorana Demonstrator shield on the 4850 Level of SURF. Credit: Nick Hubbard/Sanford Underground Research Facility

For nearly six years, the Majorana Demonstrator quietly listened to the universe. Nearly a mile underground at the Sanford Underground Research Facility, or SURF, in Lead, South Dakota, the experiment collected data that could answer one of the most perplexing questions in physics: Why is the universe filled with something instead of nothing?

From left are UWindsor students Isabelle Dib, Dominik Dziura, Stuart Castillo and Maksymilian Dziura at ORNL’s Neutron Spin Echo spectrometer. Their work advances studies on a natural cancer treatment. Credit: Genevieve Martin/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

A scientific instrument at ORNL could help create a noninvasive cancer treatment derived from a common tropical plant.

Fungal geneticist Joanna Tannous is gaining a better understanding of the genetic processes behind fungal life to both combat plant disease and encourage beneficial processes like soil carbon storage. Credit: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

Joanna Tannous has found the perfect organism to study to satisfy her deeply curious nature, her skills in biochemistry and genetics, and a drive to create solutions for a better world. The organism is a poorly understood life form that greatly influences its environment and is unique enough to deserve its own biological kingdom: fungi.