Along shifting coastlines, scientists bring the future into focus

ORNL scientists are gathering and analyzing data about how water, soils, plants, and microbes are interacting and influencing the cycling of carbon and nutrients in coastal environments. They are sampling in biomes as varied as the coastal marshes of Louisiana, the mangrove swamps of Texas, and the coastal wetlands of the Chesapeake Bay. Their goal is to improve the nation’s premier Earth system simulations that help decision-makers prepare for the future. Read more

SCIENCE WATCH

Building energy around the changing climate—Researchers developed free data sets and a visualization tool to estimate how much energy any building in the contiguous U.S. will use in 2100. These data provide planners a way to anticipate future energy needs as the climate changes. The team analyzed energy use and weather records, identifying trends among them. They combined that data with future projections by the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change, including atmospheric warming levels and policy outcomes as well as population and economic growth. Read more

Sorting solvents with machine learning—ORNL scientists developed a machine learning method that accelerates the discovery of environmentally friendly solvents for such applications as carbon capture and biomass processing. The method facilitates the prediction of deep eutectic solvents’ viscosities and reduces the time spent on trial and error in the lab to develop chemicals with the right properties. Read more

Accelerating genotype to phenotype discovery with AI—Scientists at the Advanced Plant Phenotyping Laboratory are using artificial intelligence to analyze terabytes of data, accelerating identification of the genes underlying desirable plant traits for resilient bioenergy crops. Watch here

Griffiths shares greenhouse gas emissions research at DOE summit—Natalie Griffiths shared the state of the science in measuring greenhouse gas emissions from reservoirs at the Water Power Technologies Office Hydropower Environmental and Industry R&D Summit. Representatives from industry and the National Hydropower Association also presented, discussing the challenges of GHG quantification and how the science can inform hydropower operations. Read more

Celebrating 20 years of MOFLUX—A collaboration between the University of Missouri and ORNL, the Missouri Ozarks AmeriFlux site has captured data about forest respiration in Missouri’s Baskett Forest for the past 20 years. Funded through the BER Terrestrial Ecosystem Science Scientific Focus Area, MOFLUX was founded in 2004 under the leadership of Stan Wullschleger, Paul Hanson, and Lianhong Gu. Gu and Missouri’s Jeff Wood co-lead the ongoing project, that aims to enhance scientific understanding and prediction of plant function and responses to changing environmental conditions, including disturbances like drought. Read more

STAFF SPOTLIGHT

Uria-Martinez recognized with Hydrovision award—Rocio Uria-Martinez was named one of four “Women with Hydro Vision” by a committee of industry peers at the Hydrovision conference this month. The honor recognizes women who use their “unique talents and vision to improve and advance” the worldwide hydropower industry. Read more

Kao co-authors report for the National Academies—Shih-Chieh Kao contributed to a report published by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine titled Modernizing Probable Maximum Precipitation Estimation. The described new methods bring improved science and accuracy in modeling extreme events that could affect critical infrastructure. Read more

Murphy joins Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences editorial board—Bailey Murphy has been invited to join the editorial board of JGR: Biogeosciences as an early career fellow. The two-year appointment pairs fellows with associate editors to review manuscripts and gain editorial experience, including attending the journal’s annual editorial board meeting and other events.

IN THE COMMUNITY

Sharing ORNL science with regional teachers— Researchers led science teachers from around the region on tours through our labs, sharing the latest methods and technologies in synthetic biology, soil carbon storage, aquatic ecology, and advanced plant phenotyping during a two-day teacher development workshop in June.

Students tour BESSD facilities on Juneteenth—Students from the UUNIK Academy, a local non-profit providing educational opportunities to African American youth, toured the Advanced Plant Phenotyping Laboratory and the Aquatic Ecology Laboratory to learn about ORNL's science.

RESEARCHER PROFILE

Brian Sanders: Chemical solutions for environmental, human health

Brian Sanders is focused on impactful, multidisciplinary science at ORNL, developing solutions for everything from better ways to image soil plant–microbe interactions that influence ecosystem health, to advancing new treatments for cancer and viral infections.

Sanders leverages his knowledge of chemistry and biology to study complex biological systems and to design molecules and nanoparticles for specific functions. One of the first projects he collaborated on at ORNL was the design of a molecule that disrupts the infection mechanism of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, opening a new treatment pathway for COVID-19 and other viral diseases.

More recently, Sanders is working to design biological molecules that recognize defective cells to deliver a precise radioisotope payload for cancer treatment. One of the aims of the Accelerating Radiotherapeutics through Advanced Molecular Constructs, or ARM initiative , is to advance the development of constructs to deliver medical isotopes to specific tumor cells, while minimizing exposure to heathy tissue. The project integrates ORNL expertise in isotopes, chemistry, biology, materials science and modeling and simulation — the kind of cross-cutting work that Sanders finds especially motivating.

“ORNL has the unique ability to generate medically relevant radioisotopes, and now we’re building the infrastructure to design new, potential therapies for several kinds of cancer. Not everyone has a nuclear reactor in-house. The combination of these capabilities is very powerful.”

Sanders also recently won an award through ORNL’s Early Career Development Program to develop a non-destructive method of viewing belowground interactions between microbes and plants. He’s using Prussian blue nanoparticles — microscopic, blue-colored particles derived from a substance used in paint pigments — to create contrast probes that work with magnetic resonance imaging and neutron imaging, giving scientists better resolution to analyze intact, dark soil environments.?The method can help accelerate the development of more resilient plants as bioenergy crops.?Read more

UT-Battelle manages ORNL for DOE’s Office of Science, the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States. The Office of Science is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit energy.gov/science .