Feature Articles

Biochemist David Baker — just announced as a recipient of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry — turned to the High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) for information he couldn’t get anywhere else. HFIR is the strongest reactor-based neutron source in the United States.  

On Thursday, Oct. 8, Downtown Island Airport (DKX) transformed into an inspiring runway for learning as Oak Ridge National Laboratory partnered with United Way and local community schools to host the "Soar into STEM" Traveling Science Fair. 

ORNL’s Traveling Science Fair celebrated its revitalized return after a hiatus during the COVID-19 pandemic, welcoming over 500 local 5th-grade students from underserved areas. The lab partnered with the general aviation airport, located just across the river from downtown Knoxville, to highlight its connection to aviation science. 

Lab exhibits and staff showcased ORNL's innovations in aviation fuels, quiet engine technology and advanced materials as well as expertise in modeling and simulation to optimize aircraft design and performance for greater sustainability.

Researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the National Energy Technology Laboratory have developed and 3D printed the lightest crack-free alloy capable of operating without melting at temperatures above 2400 degrees Fahrenheit. 

Operators of critical infrastructure are trained to respond to cyberattacks using scale models of water treatment plants, freight rail yards, and more.

Over two days in June, 29 graduate students, faculty members, and administrators from minority serving institutions (MSIs) across the country gathered at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory for the Faculty Outreach for Quantum-Invested UniversitieS (FOQUS) program.

Co-hosted by the Co-design Center for Quantum Advantage (C²QA) and Brookhaven Lab’s Office of Educational Programs, the program offered participants tours of several facilities supporting quantum innovation at Brookhaven Lab and opportunities to network with the researchers — and each other — to explore potential collaborations.

With the rise of chiplets,  Berkeley Lab's John Shalf identified an opportunity to collaborate with hyperscalers—like Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and others—through the Open Compute Project. This work could allow the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to leverage emerging trends in the tech industry to advance High Performance Computing (HPC).

To bridge the gap between experimental facilities and supercomputers, experts from SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory are teaming up with other Department of Energy national laboratories to build a new data streaming pipeline. The pipeline will allow researchers to send their data to the nation’s leading computing centers for analysis in real time even as their experiments are taking place.

Crews completed the first successful lift and lowering of a steel beam a mile underground for the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment at the Sanford Underground Research Facility in South Dakota.

Argonne researchers recently discovered a way to control electronic bonding in a semiconducting material using light and magnetic fields, paving the way toward new quantum devices.

Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory have designed and tested the world’s highest voltage polarized electron gun, a key piece of technology needed for building the world’s first fully polarized Electron-Ion Collider (EIC). The EIC, a state-of-the-art nuclear physics facility being built at Brookhaven in partnership with DOE’s Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (Jefferson Lab), will accelerate and collide polarized electrons with polarized protons and ions — atoms stripped of their electrons — so scientists can investigate the innermost building blocks of visible matter.