News

The Tennessee Valley Authority has identified a 28-acre site at Horizon Center in west Oak Ridge as a potential data center site, a designation that will help Oak Ridge recruit companies, an official said.

Read more: Oak Ridge site promoted for future data center

In April, National Geographic News published a story about the letter in which scientist Francis Crick described DNA to his 12-year-old son. In 1962, Crick was awarded a Nobel Prize for discovering the structure of DNA, along with fellow scientists James Watson and Maurice Wilkins. Several people posted comments about our story that noted one name was missing from the Nobel roster: Rosalind Franklin, a British biophysicist who also studied DNA. Her data were critical to Crick and Watson's work. But it turns out that Franklin would not have been eligible for the prize—she had passed away four years before Watson, Crick, and Wilkins received the prize, and the Nobel is never awarded posthumously.

Read more: Women's role in science is larger than told

The Subcommittee on Environment held an April 25 hearing to discuss climate policy issues. The hearing highlighted the political divide on issues including whether there are "consensus" climate models and how to address our understanding of future climate trends. Subcommittee Chairman Chris Stewart (R-UT) opened the partisan hearing using a quote taken from Neils Bohr and later restated by Yogi Berra, "prediction is very difficult, especially if it's about the future." This set the tone of his argument that "modeling predictions are not infallible" and that "when we encounter those who claim to know precisely what our future climate will look like, and then attack any who may disagree with them, we have stepped out of the arena of science and into the arena of politics and ideology." In his view, "once the scientific analysis is complete, we must then make value judgments and economic decisions based on a real understanding of the costs and benefits of any proposed actions. It is through this lens that we should review the President's forthcoming executive actions and proposed regulations."

Read more: House Science Committee shows divide on climate policy

If you want to get a sense of how impatient some of President Obama's most loyal supporters are getting when it comes to climate change, consider this: They're planning to conduct protests at meetings of the grassroots advocacy organization run by his former top campaign aides. Environmentalists have become increasingly frustrated that Organizing for Action, the non-profit 501(c)(4) group that conducts issue advocacy on behalf of the president's agenda, isn't doing more to press for executive action on global warming. So these grassroots groups — including CREDO Action, the political arm of the company CREDO Mobile, 350.org and others, intend to demonstrate at events OFA will conduct in the weeks ahead.

Climate change remains on the White House's agenda – along with immigration and entitlement reform (and a few topics not of the president's choosing, such as his administration's handling of the Internal Revenue Service and Benghazi). And President Obama has made it clear he plans to use his executive authority to tackle global warming this term, but he has yet to unveil any specific measures on it so far this year.

Read more: Climate change back on the agenda

LIMA — The Ohio Energy & Advanced Manufacturing Center had a chance this week to return the favor of hosting.
Officials with the Department of Energy's National Laboratory in Oak Ridge, Tenn., visited Lima, meeting with the group from the OEAMC, Husky Lima Refinery, Ford Lima Engine Plant, Trinity Motor Sports' carbon fiber lab, General Dynamics and Joint Systems Manufacturing Center, the American Trim manufacturing plant in Sidney and the American Trim Product Center and research and development labs in Lima.
A delegation from the OEAMC and Lima had visited Oak Ridge in March to learn about the technology there and explore partnerships between the two. During the two-day tour of Lima, representatives of both facilities discussed potential joint venture opportunities between the organizations, said Judith Cowan, president of the OEAMC. The group from the energy laboratory included Dr. Craig A. Blue, director of energy materials; Dr. Alan L. Liby, deputy director of the Energy Materials Program; and Dr. William H. Peter, of the Material Processing & Titanium Division of the Oak Ridge labs.

Read more: ORNL staff visits Ohio energy center

The budget deals of the past two years and a recovering economy are rapidly mopping up the tide of red ink that swept over Washington after the 2007 recession.

Read more: CBO: Budget deficits plummetting

Aimée Classen, 40, knows it's a cliché for scientists to say their childhoods spent outside, exploring their backyards, led them to their current careers.

Read more: Exploring Knoxville's ecology

Imagine driving from Chicago to New Orleans, or Atlanta, or New York City, on a single tank of gas. Imagine driving 900 miles with your traditional, gas-powered engine. Tessa Baughman, the energy engineer for the Chevy Cruze diesel, did that on her Cruze Turbo Diesel.

Read more: Making your car more efficient

A UT professor whose research on neutron imaging could improve medical imaging and high-mileage electric vehicles has received the US Department of Energy's Early Career Research Award. Jason Hayward, UCOR Faculty Fellow in Nuclear Engineering, will receive $750,000 over five years starting in July.

Read more: UT's UCOR Professor wins DOE early career award

Despite dominating Washington's attention, voters say the issues of gun control and immigration reform should take a back seat to efforts to bolster the economy and create jobs, according to a new poll.

Read more: Poll: Voters Want Attention on Economy and Jobs