Neutrons at ORNL

Get to know the High Flux Isotope Reactor at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the strongest reactor-based neutron source in the United States. The thermal and cold #neutrons produced by HFIR are used to study #physics, #chemistry, #materialsscience, #engineering, and #biology. Go inside the High Flux Isotope Reactor in VR using the link below! 👇

"It looks like a topographic map of a group of mountains with a bunch of rings going outward. If you were to walk along a ring, all spins would point in the same direction. But if you walk outward and cross different rings, you’re going to see those spins begin to rotate about their axes. That’s the spiral.” In #quantum materials, electron spins can behave collectively and exotically. If one spin moves, all react – an entangled state Einstein called “spooky action at a distance.” Last summer, scientists used #neutrons Oak Ridge National Laboratory to make a new discovery about them. Watch a video: https://bit.ly/3XbTvuK Read the article: https://bit.ly/3zlWg2J

Fall is here in East Tennessee! The change of colors has to do with seasonal timing. Kinda like SNS/HFIR proposal calls. Learn more here: https://lnkd.in/gFNTwJv2

Join us on a journey through our state-of-the-art facilities at Oak Ridge National Laboratory where high temperatures and extreme pressures are not just challenges, but opportunities for breakthroughs. From handling atomic-scale samples to those spanning meters, our capabilities are as diverse as the research questions we help answer. #Innovation #SNS https://bit.ly/47wpyuH

#ICYMI Neutrons are far out. 🪐 A team of scientists from nine institutions in government, academia and industry discovered that many kinds of glass, including ones that could be developed for next-generation optical devices, have similar atomic structure and arrangements and can successfully be made in space. Check out the story! NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration JAXA: Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Oak Ridge National Laboratory Argonne National Laboratory Materials Development, Inc ISIS Neutron and Muon Source Alfred University U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science Advanced Photon Source https://lnkd.in/eJb4fQPr

Biochemist David Baker — recently announced as a recipient of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry — turned to the High Flux Isotope Reactor at ORNL for information he couldn’t get anywhere else. During a June workshop organized by the lab's Neutron Sciences Directorate, Linna An, a senior postdoctoral researcher from Baker’s lab, presented the lab’s vision for the future of computational structural biology and impacts in the field. The team's next goal is enzyme design. "Proton transfer is absolutely necessary information if we want to design enzymes, and neutron scattering is one of the key technologies to actually provide us this information," An said. https://lnkd.in/e2SRENjV

#Facts Friday: You might know about the incredible power of #neutrons to help scientists make discoveries that advance #technology. But did you know neutrons are essential because they can see how atoms move within matter? https://lnkd.in/e4MHNixC

We were honored to host this year's collaboration meeting for EPICS and welcome colleagues from all over the world. We were equally proud to help strengthen the global community devoted to neutron scattering, a research technique that can solve problems no other technique can. EPICS, or Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System, is a set of open-source software tools, libraries and applications used in control systems for particle accelerators, telescopes, experiment beam lines and other large scientific experiments. This meeting gave EPICS users an opportunity to see what other labs are doing and review plans for new tools or enhancements to existing tools.

ICYMI: Big news for drug design. In just two neutron experiments, scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory settled a long-standing debate about an enzyme necessary for cell division. “Neutrons allow us to see hydrogen atoms, and hydrogen drives chemistry,” said ORNL’s Victoria Drago, the lead author and a biochemist working in collaboration with Andrey Kovalevsky, a distinguished R&D scientist at ORNL, who uses neutron diffraction to illuminate protein structures. “This paper is a good example of how quickly neutrons can produce information that has been the subject of debate for a very long time. Studies on SHMT function and its catalytic mechanism date back to the early 1980s,” Drago said. The work took place at these U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) user facilities: Spallation Neutron Source, High Flux Isotope Reactor, Advanced Photon Source https://bit.ly/3zOZn7h

Discover the fascinating world of #neutronscattering Oak Ridge National Laboratory and its applications in the biological sciences! 🔬 From investigating the intricate structure-dynamics-function relationship to addressing complex questions, this JoVE editorial offers a broad-stroke picture of methods neutron scientists use to help unravel the behaviors of biological systems. Learn more here: https://bit.ly/3YNExxk #neutrons #BiologicalSciences #research