Feature Articles

Oak Ridge National Laboratory

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Updates every hour. Last Updated: 20-Oct-2025 07:11 ET (20-Oct-2025 11:11 GMT/UTC)

ORNL experts help measure new world record for fusion energy

DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory

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.

Supercomputing for swift protein modeling

DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory

A team at Arizona State University used the nation's fastest supercomputer, Summit at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, to simulate millions of structures and gain new insights into how proteins transition to different shapes.

Journal: Matter
Funder: Advanced Scientific Computing Research, U.S. National Science Foundation, U.S. National Science Foundation, U.S. National Science Foundation, NIH/National Institutes of Health, NIH/National Institutes of Health, U.S. National Science Foundation, U.S. National Science Foundation, U.S. National Science Foundation, Purdue Institute for Drug Discovery, NIH/National Institutes of Health

Supercomputing exposes potential pathways for inhibiting COVID-19

DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory

To explore the inner workings of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, or SARS-CoV-2, researchers from the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory developed a novel technique.

Funder: DOE/US Department of Energy

Polymer upcycling of common plastic adds toughness, recyclability to structural adhesives

DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory used polymer chemistry to transform a common household plastic into a reusable adhesive with a rare combination of strength and ductility, making it one of the toughest materials ever reported.

Taking on decarbonization in the ag sector: ORNL summit highlights focus areas

DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Energy and sustainability experts from Oak Ridge National Laboratory, industry, universities and the federal government recently identified key focus areas to meet the challenge of successfully decarbonizing the agriculture sector, as well as scientific resources that the U.S. Department of Energy’s national laboratories can bring to the table.

Artificially altered material could accelerate neuromorphic device development

DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Neuromorphic devices — which emulate the decision-making processes of the human brain — show great promise for solving pressing scientific problems, but building physical systems to realize this potential presents researchers with a significant challenge. An international team has gained additional insights into a material compound called vanadium oxide, or VO2, that might be the missing ingredient needed to complete a reliable neuromorphic recipe.

Journal: Physical Review B
Funder: DOE/US Department of Energy, National Research Foundation of Korea

Scientists use Summit supercomputer, deep learning to predict protein functions at genome scale

DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory

A team of scientists led by the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Georgia Institute of Technology is using supercomputing and revolutionary deep learning tools to predict the structures and roles of thousands of proteins with unknown functions.

Funder: DOE/US Department of Energy

Oak Ridge National Laboratory supercomputers support Nobel Prize–winning research

DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory

In October, a scientist whose research was supported by modeling and simulation efforts on supercomputers at the US Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2021.

Journal: Science

Closing In on Fusion

DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory

A team used the Summit supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory to model plasma turbulence in a nuclear fusion device to capture energy loss in fusion plasmas. The team’s simulations will help inform the design of next-generation tokamaks like ITER with optimum confinement properties.

Journal: Physics of Plasmas

Superheavy science: ORNL’s actinide abilities enable the discovery of new elements

DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory

This feature provides an overview of the science behind the discovery of superheavy elements and outlines ORNL's crucial role in supplying actinide target materials.

Funder: DOE/US Department of Energy

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