A first-ever dataset bridging molecular information about the poplar tree microbiome to ecosystem-level processes has been released by a team of DOE scientists led by ORNL. The project aims to inform research regarding how natural systems function, their vulnerability to a changing climate and ultimately how plants might be engineered for better performance as sources of bioenergy and natural carbon storage.
Alyssa Carrell started her science career studying the tallest inhabitants in the forest, but today is focused on some of its smallest — the microbial organisms that play an outsized role in plant health.
The United States could triple its current bioeconomy by producing more than 1 billion tons per year of plant-based biomass for renewable fuels, while meeting projected demands for food, feed, fiber, conventional forest products and exports, according to the DOE’s latest Billion-Ton Report led by ORNL.
In a win for chemistry, inventors at ORNL have designed a closed-loop path for synthesizing an exceptionally tough carbon-fiber-reinforced polymer, or CFRP, and later recovering all of its starting materials.
ORNL climate modeling expertise contributed to a project that assessed global emissions of ammonia from croplands now and in a warmer future, while also identifying solutions tuned to local growing conditions.
EPB, ORNL announce plans for research collaborative focused on energy resilience, quantum technology
EPB and ORNL marked 10 years of collaboration with the announcement of the new Collaborative for Energy Resilience and Quantum Science. The new joint research effort will focus on utilizing Chattanooga’s highly advanced and integrated energy and communications infrastructure to develop technologies and best practices for enhancing the resilience and security of the national power grid while accelerating the commercialization of quantum technologies.
From July 15 to 26, 2024, the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory will host the second U.S. Quantum Information Science, or QIS, Summer School.
New computational framework speeds discovery of fungal metabolites, key to plant health and used in drug therapies and for other uses.
ORNL’s successes in QIS and its forward-looking strategy were recently recognized in the form of three funding awards that will help ensure the laboratory remains a leader in advancing quantum computers and networks.
In summer 2023, ORNL's Prasanna Balaprakash was invited to speak at a roundtable discussion focused on the importance of academic artificial intelligence research and development hosted by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and the U.S. National Science Foundation.