Feature Articles

Oak Ridge National Laboratory

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Updates every hour. Last Updated: 21-Aug-2025 18:11 ET (21-Aug-2025 22:11 GMT/UTC)

16-Sep-2022

Lab experiments support COVID-19 bradykinin storm theory

A new paper published in Nature Communications adds further evidence to the bradykinin storm theory of COVID-19’s viral pathogenesis — a theory that was posited two years ago by a team of researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Journal: Nature Communications
Funder: DOE/US Department of Energy, NIH/National Institutes of Health

27-Aug-2022

Libby Johnson: On the frontier for nuclear safety

DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Oak Ridge National Laboratory physicist Elizabeth “Libby” Johnson (1921-1996), one of the world’s first nuclear reactor operators, standardized the field of criticality safety with peers from ORNL and Los Alamos National Laboratory. Her work came on the heels of two incidents involving nuclear materials that took the lives of two government researchers at the end of the Manhattan Project.

23-Aug-2022

Unearthing the secrets of plant health, carbon storage with rhizosphere-on-a-chip

DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Scientists at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have created a miniaturized environment to study the ecosystem around poplar tree roots for insights into plant health and soil carbon sequestration.

Journal: Lab on a Chip
Funder: DOE/US Department of Energy

15-Aug-2022

Sensor research helps fight wildfires

DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory

As climate change leads to larger and more frequent wildfires, researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory are using sensors, drones and machine learning to both prevent fires and reduce their damage to the electric grid. Engineers are honing technology to remotely sense electrical arcing and faulty equipment, as well as the direction of spreading fires.

Funder: DOE/US Department of Energy, U.S. Forest Service

26-Jul-2022

Adsorbent material filters toxic chromium, arsenic from water supplies

DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory are tackling a global water challenge with a unique material designed to target not one, but two toxic, heavy metal pollutants for simultaneous removal.

9-Jun-2022

Microbes enhance resilience of carbon-rich peatlands to warming

DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Scientists at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory discovered that certain bacteria increase the climate resilience of Sphagnum moss, the tiny plant responsible for storing a third of the world’s soil carbon in peat bogs. Heat tolerant microbes transfer that protection to the plants, helping them survive climate warming.

Journal: New Phytologist
Funder: DOE/US Department of Energy

8-Jun-2022

Evasive quantum phenomenon makes debut in routine tabletop experiment

DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory

A Quantum Science Center-supported team has captured the first-ever appearance of a previously undetectable quantum excitation known as the axial Higgs mode.

Journal: Nature
Funder: DOE/US Department of Energy, Quantum Science Center, Office of Naval Research, Air Force Office of Scientific Research, U.S. National Science Foundation, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, David and Lucile Packard Foundation, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Swiss National Science Foundation

7-Jun-2022

International team visualizes properties of plant cell walls at nanoscale

DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory

To optimize biomaterials for reliable, cost-effective paper production, building construction, and biofuel development, researchers often study the structure of plant cells using techniques such as freezing plant samples or placing them in a vacuum. These methods provide valuable data but often cause permanent damage to the samples.

Journal: Communications Materials
Funder: National Centre for Scientific Research, Aix-Marseille University, BioEnergy Science Center, DOE/US Department of Energy

7-Jun-2022

ARM plans upgrades as it marks 30 years of collecting atmospheric data

DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory

As the Department of Energy’s Atmospheric Radiation Measurement user facility marks 30 years of collecting continuous measurements of the Earth’s atmosphere this year, the ARM Data Center at Oak Ridge National Laboratory is shepherding changes to its operations to make the treasure trove of data more easily accessible and useful to scientists studying Earth’s climate around the world.

Funder: DOE/US Department of Energy

7-Jun-2022

Experts chip away at corrosion for the future of fusion

DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Practical fusion energy is not just a dream at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Experts in fusion and material science are working together to develop solutions that will make a fusion pilot plant — and ultimately carbon-free, abundant fusion electricity — possible.