DOCSLIB.ORG

ORNL Is Fundamentally Strong

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
ORNL Is Fundamentally Strong Contents Editorial Focus on Neutrinos 1 . ORNL is fundamentally strong . Lab in a gold mine looks at matter– 14 antimatter imbalance To the Point ‘Mouse House’ inspires breakthrough Infographic . research, automation aids space fuel 16 . Why is there matter? 2 production, and nickel-78 is ‘doubly magic’ Focus on Data Fundamental Science at ORNL . Cancer research accelerates via 18 deep learning . Fundamentally strong: ORNL dives 6 into basic science Focus on Nuclear Oak Ridge Leadership Computing . ALICE experiment re-creates the 7 . Facility: Tackling big questions with 20 universe’s first split second computation . Superior supercomputer parallelism Center for Nanophase Materials 22 for subatomic particle research 9 . Sciences: Small worlds, big discoveries Focus on Physical Sciences ORNL’s Neutron Science User Quantum materials promise exciting 11 . Facilities: Neutrons unlock the 24 . technologies for energy and mysteries of materials electronics Focus on Neutrons Eugene Wigner Distinguished Lecturer Neutrons and quantum spin liquids: 26 . Yuri Tsolakovich Oganessian 12 . Exploring the next materials revolution Researcher Spotlight . Batteries and fertilizer: A conversation 28 with ORNL chemist Gabriel Veith Why Science? . Young researchers explain 30 Time Warp . Liane Russell, pioneer of fetal rad 32 safety On the Cover ORNL physicist David Radford is using the tiny neutrino to address big questions with an experiment housed at a retired gold mine in South Dakota. ORNL is fundamentally strong ORNL has always been a great place for people exploring big questions. Whether you’re a physicist, a chemist, a materials scientist or the kind of eclectic researcher who’s hard to nail down, the lab provides the resources and environment that encourage pursuit of important answers. In the first place, we value collaboration. Our team approach applies diverse expertise to science’s most difficult prob- lems, tapping assets across the lab and in academia and industry. ORNL offers an array of unique and powerful research tools, including two of the world’s leading neutron facilities (page 11), a diverse collection of microscopes and other instruments for analyzing material atom by atom (page 9), and the nation’s most powerful supercomputer (page 7). In this issue of ORNL Review, we focus on efforts to understand the workings of the universe, from its earliest moments to its tiniest particles. Occasionally this work takes our staff off-site. Physicist David Radford co-leads the Majorana Demonstrator, a lab nearly a mile deep in a retired gold mine in South Dakota that could help explain why the universe has more matter than anti- matter (page 14). In Europe, physicist Tom Cormier leads the American contribution to the ALICE experiment at the Large Hadron Collider. ALICE collides lead nuclei at nearly the speed of light to create quark-gluon plasmas, a state of matter largely unseen since a millionth of a second after the Big Bang (page 20). Quarks and gluons are held together by the strong force, one of the universe’s four fundamental forces. In this issue, you can read about efforts to use Titan to advance the study of the strong force, called quantum chromodynamics (page 22). Titan is also helping to analyze a mountain of cancer data to improve treatments (page 18). Quantum materials governed by the interactions amongst atoms and electrons can have astonishing—and astonishingly useful—properties. We look at ORNL research into these remarkable materials (page 24), including projects focused on specific materials such as superconductors (page 6) and quantum spin liquids (page 12). As always, this issue introduces you to noteworthy scientists, both established in their careers (pages 26 and 28) and just starting out (page 30). We also look back at a note- worthy chapter in our history—in this case the work of ORNL biologists Liane and William Russell, who created the first radiation exposure guidance for pregnant women or those likely to conceive (page 32). This will be my final issue of ORNL Review. After exactly 10 years as ORNL’s director, I am taking on a new role as senior vice president for laboratory opera- tions at Battelle, which operates ORNL in partnership with the University of Tennessee. It has been an honor to serve with the talented staff at ORNL and to have shared in celebrating many successes over the past decade. I look forward to many more accomplishments from this important institu- tion in the years to come. Thomas Mason Laboratory Director Vol. 50, No. 2, 2017 1 TO THE POINT Award-winning research Giant poplar dataset owes a debt to ORNL’s promising for biofuels ‘Mouse House’ ORNL researchers have released the ORNL's historic mouse colony had largest-ever single nucleotide polymor- a prominent role in groundbreaking phism dataset of genetic variations in autoimmune disease research recently poplar trees, information useful to plant recognized by the Royal Swedish scientists as well as researchers in the Academy of Sciences. fields of biofuels, materials science and secondary plant metabolism. The research brought this year’s pres- tigious Crafoord Prize in Polyarthritis to For nearly 10 years researchers with scientists in Japan and the United States DOE’s ORNL-led BioEnergy Science Center “for their discoveries relating to regula- have studied the genome of Populus—a fast- tory T-cells, which counteract harmful growing perennial tree recognized for its immune reactions in arthritis and other economic potential in biofuels production. autoimmune diseases.” ORNL’s Liane Russell played a key role in They released the Genome-Wide Asso- research that led to this year’s prestigious David Galas, who collaborated with ciation Study dataset earlier this year. The Crafoord Prize. Image credit: ORNL U.S. winner Fred Ramsdell, says ORNL’s dataset comprises more than 28 million mammalian genetics program provided latory T-cells and thereby regulates the single nucleotide polymorphisms, or the “crucial piece of evidence” for iden- body's immune responses. SNPs, derived from approximately 900 tifying a gene critical to regulating The Mouse House was initially estab- resequenced poplar genotypes. Each SNP immune responses. lished in the late 1940s to study the represents a variation in a single DNA In a letter applauding Ramsdell’s genetic effects of radiation exposure. The nucleotide, or building block, and can act win, Galas also praised ORNL’s William Russells were both National Academy of as a biological marker, helping scientists and Liane Russell for identifying the Science members and recipients of the locate genes associated with certain char- importance of and maintaining the Enrico Fermi Award for their ground- acteristics, conditions, or diseases. spontaneous mutant strain—called breaking mammalian genetics research, The data “gives us unprecedented “scurfy”—for decades. which included the development of occu- statistical power to link DNA changes to “With remarkable patience and fore- pational radiation dose limits (see “Liane phenotypes [physical traits],” said ORNL sight, they bred this strain for over 40 years. Russell, pioneer of fetal rad safety,” page plant geneticist Gerald Tuskan, who It is still unclear to me how they had the 32)—Bill Cabage presented the data at the Plant & Animal intuition to know that this was an impor- For more information: https:// Genome Conference in San Diego. The tant biological effect and therefore could go.usa.gov/xXcgf results of this analysis have been used to lead to an important gene,” Galas wrote. Gala's letter made its way to Liane Russell, now retired and living in Oak Ridge, and the researchers renewed their correspondence. As Galas noted, the mutation was identified in the early years of the ORNL mutant mouse colony—popularly known as the “Mouse House”—which operated from the late 1940s through 2009. In the more recent research, Galas, Ramsdell and their colleagues marshalled an effort that led to the mapping, cloning and iden- tification of a gene recognized as of critical importance in the future of immunology. Using the ORNL mutant strain, the research group identified the mutated gene in the scurfy mouse—the FOXP-3 Scientists gleaned data from Populus trees in an ORNL greenhouse as part of the largest-ever single gene—that controls the key genes of regu- nucleotide polymorphism dataset of the species' genetic variations. Image credit: ORNL 2 www.ornl.gov/ornlreview TO THE POINT seek genetic control of cell-wall recalci- quantum communication in modern trance—a natural characteristic of plant networking technology. And because the cell walls that prevents the release of team used conventional laboratory equip- sugars under microbial conversion and ment such as common fiber-optic cable inhibits biofuels production. and standard photon detectors, they have brought the technique one step closer to BESC scientists are also using the practical use.—Scott Jones dataset to identify the molecular mecha- nisms controlling deposition of lignin in For more information: https:// plant structures. Lignin, the polymer that go.usa.gov/xX5aH strengthens plant cell walls, acts as a Alan S. Icenhour Jess C. Gehin barrier to accessing cellulose and thereby prevents cellulose breakdown into simple Two elected fellows of As director of CASL, Gehin leads sugars for fermentation.—Stephanie Seay American Nuclear Society advanced modeling and simulation devel- For more information: https:// ORNL researchers Alan S. Icenhour opment focused on bridging the gap go.usa.gov/xX5CB and Jess C.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Friends Honoring Lee Russell (As Published in the Oak Ridger’S Historically Speaking Column the Week of August 19, 2019)
    Friends Honoring Lee Russell (As published in The Oak Ridger’s Historically Speaking column the week of August 19, 2019) Dr. Liane “Lee” Brauch Russell passed away on Saturday, July 20, 2019, at the age of 95. She continued to work on her passions, biology and conservation issues, until a few weeks before her death. Hers was a long and rewarding career into which she fit like a glove. Fleeing Nazi-controlled Austria as a teen, Lee immigrated to America where she earned her citizenship, her B.A. from Hunter College in New York City and her Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. She and her husband, Bill, came to Oak Ridge in 1947 to work for Dr. Alexander Hollaender, who was intent on creating a world-class biology division at the Clinton Laboratories, (which became known as the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in March, 1948). When Dr. Hollaender recruited Bill Russell to Oak Ridge, Bill agreed to come only if Lee were given a position, too. The rest is history. ORNL reported at her death: “Through Lee’s extensive research, she discovered radiation’s effects on developing embryos. This profound study lead to later developing X-ray health precaution guidelines for women of childbearing age to limit x-ray examinations that could possibly irradiate an early developing fetus. She also did extensive research in mice leading to her contributions to the understanding of the role of the Y chromosome, which is male-determining in mammals.” From this incredible breakthrough, Lee received in 1994 DOE’s Enrico Fermi Award, the agency’s highest scientific award.
    [Show full text]
  • W in Ter '08/'09
    ’08/’09 Winter www.hunter.cuny.edu Infinite Light: Public art installation aglow at Hunter Page 6 10 14 16 Joel Katz and Abbe Raven Hunter Alumni Thrive in Hunter Becomes PhD- Honored at Inaugural Gala Elite Graduate Programs Granting Institution In This Issue: Hunter Launches New Playwriting MFA 3 Public Health School Rita & Burton Goldberg to Focus on Cities 4 Former ‘AIDS Czar’ Now at Hunter 5 Establish an MFA in Playwriting Neon Art Installation Lights Up Campus 6 The President’s Giving Journalism Perspective ven though her major was social Tisch School of the Arts. But Hunter’s in the theatre department have long grandchildren, the Goldbergs may yet Students an Edge 8 work, Hunter alumna Rita Gold- will be the first program they have dreamed of offering an MFA. carve themselves new careers in the berg (’46) always found herself started from scratch, and they could “After all, here we are, an eminent theatre. Inaugural Gala Held E ver since its founding in 1870 as one of the first institutions of higher learning taking electives in the theatre and lit- not be more excited. public institution smack in the middle At a recent event celebrating their at the Plaza 10 erature departments. Now, more than “NYU has been a very positive of the most vital theatre town in the donation and the dedication of a new Happenings at Hunter 12 in America dedicated to the education of women, Hunter College has been an 60 years after graduating, Goldberg experience, and we love the personal and her equally arts-smitten husband involvement,” said Mrs.
    [Show full text]
  • Oak Ridge Na Tional Labora Tory Re Vie W , V Ol. 51, No. 3, 2018 • 75 Years of Scienc E and T Echnology
    Oak Ridge National Laboratory Review, Vol. 51, No. 3, 2018 • 75 Years of Science and Technology Contents Editorial Infographic 1 . Science with a mission 34 . 11 ORNL neutron achievements The wartime lab New challenges/ORNL diversifies 2 . The top-secret laboratory 36 . New challenges 7 . Wigner’s influence at ORNL 39 . Where no one has gone before 9 . Enrico Fermi and the Chicago Pile 41 . Plugged into battery safety . Zachary Taylor’s deadly snack . ORNL and the University 47 11 of Chicago 49 . Pioneering mass spectrometry 13 . Making the most of neutrons 51 . Beads on a string: Discovering the 15 . Radiation and you nucleosome Infographic Infographic 18 . ORNL’s 13 nuclear reactors . 14 achievements in leadership 52 computing at ORNL Peacetime progress/nuclear lab 20 . A nuclear lab in peacetime ORNL now . 21 . Weinberg saves ORNL 54 ORNL in the 21st century and beyond . Oak Ridge spreads the nuclear 57 The growth of computing at ORNL 23 knowledge . ORNL hosts VIP visitors 63 . A successful project never gets off 67 . Materials for nuclear environments 25 the ground 71. Neutrons and quantum materials A swimming pool reactor in . UT-ORNL partnerships benefit 29 Geneva . 75 students 31 . The house the Russells built . Skilled tradespeople keep ORNL 77 running . Microscopy and computing 79 for futuristic materials . 81 Materials for the world . Billion-dollar impacts from ORNL 83 innovations On the Cover Pioneering ORNL geneticist Liane Russell. DOE photo by Ed Westcott Science with a mission his special edition marks the 75th birthday of Oak Ridge National Laboratory, providing a survey of the lab’s origin T in a time of global crisis, its evolution in the decades that followed, and its leadership today.
    [Show full text]
  • Good PROSPECT
    Number 23 February 2001 Good PROSPECT ORNL group’s software unravels protein structure puzzle Life Sciences Division group has placed plus and minus charges and other factors, such Ahigh in an international competition to as how its amino acids react to water. The predict, through computer modeling, one of folding problem then becomes a mathematical the most complex puzzles nature presents to problem: We solve for the folded state with a scientists—how a protein will fold itself into a minimal energy because the protein will convoluted yet meaningful tangle. naturally fold in a way that minimizes the Predicting those protein structures is the key potential energy.” to understanding gene function and putting to The Life Sciences group has work the vast body of knowledge attained developed a computer program called from the mapping of the human genome. PROSPECT. The PROtein Life Sciences’ Computational Protein Structure Prediction and Structure group—Dong Xu, Oakley Crawford, Evaluation Computer Toolkit Phil LoCascio and Ying Xu—placed sixth out enables them to predict in three of 123 teams that entered the Fourth Critical dimensions what shape a protein Assessment of Techniques for Protein sequence—the strand of protein Structure Prediction Experiment, called represented by the line of CASP. The competition tests researchers’ letters—will assume. Proteins fold A ability to predict how a strand of complex into complex shapes, creating predicted protein, which is represented by a long “active areas” or sites that enable the protein sequence of letters representing amino acids, folded proteins to interact with other structure the will fold itself into a shape that often re- proteins.
    [Show full text]
  • Local Heroes: Remembering Two Oak Ridgers We Lost in 2019 but Will
    Local Heroes: Remembering two Oak Ridgers we lost in 2019 but will never forget (As published in The Oak Ridger’s Historically Speaking column the week of December 30, 2019) Oak Ridge welcomes in the promise of a new year, 2020, filled with renewed ambitions and even more innovation than ever that is guaranteed to come out of our region. As we look ahead, let us also reflect on two Oak Ridgers who have left us but have not departed from our hearts and minds. We will long remember them both! This year, Oak Ridge lost two iconic heroes that helped put our Secret City on the map. Ed Westcott, a renowned photographer, died on March 29, 2019 at the age of 97. Ed joined his wife Esther Seigenthaler Westcott, and left behind an incredible visual history of the top-secret Manhattan Project for Oak Ridgers and the world to appreciate for generations to come. And Dr. Liane “Lee” Russell, a genetics pioneer and legacy researcher, passed away on July 20, 2019 at the age of 95. She was reunited in death with her husband Dr. William “Bill” Russell. Lee’s contributions to science helped create X-ray health guidelines for pregnant women that are still practiced today. These two incredible people were thrown into a time in history where war was tearing at the world at every corner. They each ended up at Oak Ridge by chance to accomplish things that had never been done before. While we celebrate the upcoming new decade in Oak Ridge, we must take time to remember these two exceptional individuals.
    [Show full text]
  • Liane Russell
    Liane Russell – Oak Ridge icon, world renowned biologist and lover of wilderness (As published in The Oak Ridger’s Historically Speaking column on September 30, 2008) The Atomic Energy Commission, on January 1, 1947, officially took responsibility for the nation’s atomic energy program from the Manhattan Project’s General Groves and Colonel Nichols. This change resulted in Oak Ridge being changed from the central location for managing the entire atomic energy programs to being a smaller field office. Yet, Oak Ridge remained central to nuclear energy research. However, the momentum built up in Oak Ridge while helping to win World War II was slowing. Many of the scientific staff members were leaving. A small group of University of Tennessee professors and Oak Ridge scientists were attempting to keep the scientific brain trust at the Clinton Laboratories built during that amazing world changing period. While working to establish increased credibility by creating a national laboratory in Oak Ridge, the leaders of Clinton Laboratories were expanding into new and exciting fields of study. The first major accomplishment came from the medical isotope program that was a collaboration of the calutrons at Y- 12’s Building 9731 Pilot Facility and the Graphite Reactor at the Clinton Laboratories. One of the next major advances came when Bill and Liane Russell were convinced by Alexander Hollaender to come to Oak Ridge and start a research project that resulted in one of the world’s most prestigious mouse-genetics programs. Ultimately, a census of some 250,000 mice was maintained at the “Mouse House” at Y-12.
    [Show full text]
  • It Is January 18Th, 2007, and I'm Andrea Maestrejuan with Liane Brauch Russell for Her Interview for the UCLA Human Genetics Oral History Project
    January 18, 2007 I. Early and Family Life; Leaving Austria for England and the United States Q: It is January 18th, 2007, and I'm Andrea Maestrejuan with Liane Brauch Russell for her interview for the UCLA Human Genetics Oral History Project. We are at her office at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory1. I'll start at the very beginning and ask you when and where you were born. A: I was born in Vienna, Austria in August 1923 and lived there until March of 1938. So, I spent my first almost fifteen years in Vienna. Q: Tell me a little bit about your parents. Were they Austrians as well? A: Yes, they were. My father was a chemist. I think he was more what we would now call a chemical engineer, but he was a chemist. By the time I really became conscious of what he was doing, he was mostly at that time representing a bunch of chemical companies, non-Austrian companies. He was their representative in Austria, particularly ICI -- Imperial Chemical Industries -- I remember was one of the companies he represented. Q: That was a British firm? A: That was a British firm. That had something to do with my subsequent life too. My mother was not a professional, she was a housewife. A little later, she had a strong interest in music. She sang and took singing lessons. And a little later in life, after we left Austria, she studied to be a speech therapist, but she never really, I think, did it professionally. So she was essentially not a professional person.
    [Show full text]