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A team of researchers from ORNL's Energy and Transportation Science Division is using neutron imaging to study particulate filters that collect harmful emissions in vehicles. A better understanding of how heat treatments and oxidation methods can remove layers of soot and ash from these filters could lead to improved fuel-efficiency.

Scientists of the Department of Energy's Light Water Reactor Sustainability Program (LWRS) and partners from the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) have conducted the first weld tests to repair highly irradiated materials at DOE's Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

ORNL research says quantum computers will use much less energy than current supercomputers, a potential cost benefit to equipment manufacturers and data centers. ORNL creates supertough renewable plastic with improved manufacturability. A new ORNL system will help builders and home designers select the best construction materials for long-term moisture durability.

A team led by the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory has uncovered how certain soil microbes cope in a phosphorus-poor environment to survive in a tropical ecosystem. Their novel approach could be applied in other ecosystems to study various nutrient limitations and inform agriculture and terrestrial biosphere modeling.

For deep learning to be effective, existing neural networks to be modified, or novel networks designed and then 'trained' so that they know precisely what to look for and can produce valid results. This is a time-consuming and difficult task, but one that a team of ORNL researchers recently demonstrated can be dramatically expedited with a capable computing system.

ORNL story tips, Jan. 2018: study identifies microbes to diagnose endometriosis without surgery; brain-inspired device can quickly classify data; neutrons 'see' how water flows through fractured rock; new method could help with demand for electric vehicle charging stations; bio-based, shape-memory material could replace today's conductors; novel approach for studying material's magnetic behavior could boost quantum computing.

A novel approach to studying the viscosity of water has revealed new insights about the behavior of water molecules and may open pathways for liquid-based electronics. Oak Ridge National Laboratory used a high-resolution inelastic X-ray scattering technique to measure the strong bond involving a hydrogen atom sandwiched between two oxygen atoms. This hydrogen bond is a quantum-mechanical phenomenon responsible for various properties of water, including viscosity, which determines a liquid's resistance to flow or to change shape.

Story tips from ORNL, Dec. 2017: US cities could save billions with Oak Ridge National Laboratory's precise approach to de-icing wintry roads; discovery of overlooked function of certain microbes could boost environmental clean-up strategies; novel tools can 'see' atomic structures of aluminum-cerium alloys for automotive and aerospace applications.