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Crystals and ceramics pale when compared to a material researchers discovered that has 10 times their piezoelectric effect, making it suitable for perhaps hundreds of everyday uses.

A team led by mechanical engineers Joseph Oefelein and Jacqueline Chen of Sandia National Laboratories simulates turbulent combustion at different scales. Chen and Oefelein were allocated 113 million hours on Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility's Jaguar supercomputer in 2008, 2009 and 2010 to simulate autoignition and injection processes with alternative fuels. For 2011 they received 60 million processor hours for high-fidelity simulations of combustion in advanced engines.

An ORNL invention able to quickly predict three-dimensional structure of protein could have huge implications for drug discovery and human health.

Batteries could get a boost from a discovery that increases power, energy density and safety while dramatically reducing charge time.

Dow Kokam and the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory are working together to enhance the Michigan-based company's capabilities to develop and commercialize advanced lithium ion batteries.

Information from major hurricanes such as Katrina is being put to good use by scientists striving to understand how hurricanes intensify. A research team led by Jon Reisner of Los Alamos National Laboratory is employing the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility's Jaguar supercomputer to use data from lightning detectors and even wind instruments mounted on planes flown into the eye of a hurricane to improve atmospheric models. These simulations may lead to more accurate prediction of hurricane intensities.

These story tips include "Conquering corrosion"; "Manufacturing -- stress relief"; "Thermal energy misconception"; "Magnet power"; "Cost-effective solar cells" and "Discoveries from simulations."

A research team led by William Tang of the Department of Energy's Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory is developing a clearer picture of plasma confinement properties in an experimental device that will pave the way to future commercial fusion power plants. Over the past three years using resources of the Argonne Leadership Computing Facility and Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility, Tang's team has made continual improvements to tools essential for computationally solving fusion problems.