Feature Articles

For decades, the Department of Energy’s annual Transportation Energy Data Book has tracked trends in U.S. transportation, serving as the definitive guide for industry, policymakers, researchers and consumers. The most recent version is now available online, marking the book’s 40th edition. Produced and maintained by Oak Ridge National Laboratory in collaboration with DOE’s Vehicle Technologies Office, the widely acknowledged book holds more than 1,000 citations in scholarly reports to date and its impact is felt internationally, too, as automakers use the information to support the engineering of energy-efficient vehicles.

Paul Benioff, an Argonne emeritus scientist, helped pave the way for the field of quantum computing that is now being intensely pursued throughout the world. He passed away on March 29, leaving a legacy of intellectual courage and collaboration.

It’s one of the most persistent questions in nuclear energy: What about the waste? A new collaboration between Idaho National Laboratory and the University of Utah hopes to answer that question by making fuel recycling a reality for advanced reactors.

Nestled 30 feet underground in Menlo Park, California, a half-mile-long stretch of tunnel is now colder than most of the universe. It houses a new superconducting particle accelerator, part of an upgrade project to the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) X-ray free-electron laser at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory.

Over the past decade, just as the invention of the silicon microchip revolutionized electronics, crystalline minerals called perovskites have helped researchers discover new, innovative electronics and energy technologies. Now, at Idaho National Laboratory, researchers are using perovskites for different energy applications: converting fuel into electricity or producing valuable chemicals such as ethylene, hydrogen or ammonia.

From simulating climate to creating more fuel-efficient vehicles, Argonne is home to many teams that tackle different aspects of climate change. Here are a few of those innovators.

ORNL researchers have developed and tested novel small-molecule antivirals in an effort to design new drugs to treat COVID-19. The so called hybrid inhibitor molecules are made from repurposed drugs used to treat hepatitis C and the original coronavirus outbreak in the early 2000s. The experimental research results show the molecules are similarly as effective as some of the leading drugs on the market today.

Large ion clusters known as aggregates are an important emerging topic for research on electrolytes in batteries. The research indicates that aggregates can affect electrolyte properties, including stability and ion transport.