Feature Articles

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory physicists Christian Bauer, Marat Freytsis, and Benjamin Nachman have leveraged an IBM Q quantum computer through the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility’s Quantum Computing User Program to capture part of a calculation of two protons colliding. The calculation can show the probability that an outgoing particle will emit additional particles.

Oak Ridge National Laboratory scientists used protoplast fusion to create enough genetically disparate Bacillus strains to facilitate mapping of the bacterial genome, which advances the efficient engineering of microbes for efficient biofuel processing.

The rapid pace of global climate change has added urgency to developing technologies that reduce the carbon footprint of transportation technologies, especially in sectors that are difficult to electrify. In response, researchers collaborating through the Center for Bioenergy Innovation make the case that scientific advances support a hybrid approach using biological and catalytic methods for producing cellulosic biofuel for use in airplanes, ships and long-haul trucks.

Participants in the Early Career Development program at the Center for Bioenergy Innovation at Oak Ridge National Laboratory relate their experience as both scientists and mentees, learning how to manage a multi-institutional, interdisciplinary research project.

A team of researchers working with the Center for Bioenergy Innovation (CBI) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory has discovered a pathway to encourage a type of lignin formation in plants that could make the processing of crops grown for products such as sustainable jet fuels easier and less costly.

Oak Ridge National Laboratory scientist Amy Elliott is one of 120 women featured in a new exhibit, IfThenSheCan, at the Smithsonian to commemorate Women's History Month. A life-size 3D printed statue of Elliott, a manufacturing scientist, is now on display in the Smithsonian Castle in Washington, D.C., through March 27.

To determine how these daily mobility patterns affect energy usage, researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory partnered with the Smart City Division within the City of Chattanooga’s Department of Information Technology. Benefits from this work could ultimately include more efficient heating and cooling of buildings based on their populations and faster, better informed responses in emergency scenarios.

A team led by Rao Kotamarthi at the US Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory is using supercomputers at DOE’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory to study how aerosol viral particles are distributed in a ventilated classroom as part of COVID-19 research.

A team of scientists from LanzaTech, Northwestern University and the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have developed carbon capture technology that harnesses emissions from industrial processes to produce acetone and isopropanol, known as IPA. These widely used chemicals serve as the basis of thousands of products, from fuels and solvents to acrylic glass and fabrics.

Diagnostics experts at Oak Ridge National Laboratory played a key role in this month's fusion milestone at the Joint European Torus (JET) by measuring what was happening inside the plasma.