Feature Articles

PNNL has developed seaweed-based inks and materials for 2-D and 3-D printing that can be used for a multitude of applications in the art, medical, STEM, and other fields.

Sandia National Laboratories’ solar researchers and librarians have spent the past few years collecting, digitizing and cataloging a host of reports, memos, blueprints, photos and more on concentrating solar power, a kind of renewable energy produced by using large mirrors to reflect and concentrate sunlight onto a receiver on a tower to generate electricity. These historical research documents are now in a publicly accessible digital archive for other concentrating solar power researchers, historians, corporations and citizens to view.

Some devastating diseases, like Alzheimer's and autoimmune conditions, are hard to diagnose correctly because doctors don’t yet know what genes or molecules to look for. But this new technique inspired by the Star Trek tricorder can spot disease without the clues, using infrared light and machine learning.

Marilyn Brown of the Georgia Institute of Technology recently began a joint faculty appointment, or JFA, with the Climate Change Science Institute at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory. As an internationally recognized leader in climate solutions and energy policy, Brown will collaborate with ORNL to apply insights from global climate science to inform regional strategies that reduce carbon emissions and equitably address impacts on communities.

On Sept. 28, U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm joined leadership and top scientists and engineers online at Oak Ridge National Laboratory for a two-hour whirlwind tour. At 14 stops, researchers highlighted the lab’s world-class facilities and projects that enable leading-edge scientific discoveries and innovations that address some of the nation’s most compelling scientific and technical challenges.

A team of experts at Oak Ridge National Laboratory is taking aim at one of the biggest challenges facing the international ITER fusion facility: turning cold gas into wine-cork-sized, solid pellets to help keep ITER’s plasma in check.

A team led by the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the University of Michigan has discovered that certain bacteria can steal an essential compound from other microbes to break down methane and toxic methylmercury in the environment.

Department of Energy art contest entry illuminates how IDREAM scientists pivoted during pandemic to accomplish critical nuclear research.

Fast charging could recharge an electric vehicle battery in minutes rather than hours, but doing so can rapidly age a battery. The key word, though, is “can.” Batteries react differently to fast charging because of design, material and manufacturing variations. Early detection and classification of battery aging during fast charging would benefit researchers studying how to improve batteries, battery makers, and eventually the public by helping to ensure batteries last and improving battery safety. Now, a new technique developed by Idaho National Laboratory (INL) researchers makes it easier to spot possible battery troubles earlier than ever before.