NCDC looks to hook into supercomputer at Oak Ridge

(Asheville Citizen-Times) A new supercomputer just over the state line could help tidy up the archives of data streamed down from satellites circling the globe and stored in Asheville. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is installing a new climate research supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee to help researchers model and understand changes to the Earth's climate...1/8

UT Architecture Professor Receives College’s First ORNL-UT Joint Appointment

(Tennessee Today) Professor Edgar Stach is the first faculty member of the College of Architecture and Design at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, to receive a joint appointment with the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the university...1/6

Fuel for fusion

(PhysOrg) Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Fusion Pellet Fueling Lab has been at the center of design and testing of plasma fueling systems for tokamak research applications for decades...1/6

Dow carbon fiber

(ICIS) Widespread use of carbon fiber for high-volume automobile production will require significant reduction in the carbon fiber composites processing costs in addition to the carbon fiber cost," says a company official at US-based Dow Chemical...To that end, Dow has development partnerships with Turkey-based AKSA, a world-leading acrylics fiber maker; and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL)...1/9

Previous ORNL Stories

DOE

DOE employees give generously

(Knoxville News Sentinel) Department of Energy employees in Oak Ridge raised $66,551 for the Combined Federal Campaign in 2011. The federal campaign supports more than 25,000 local, national and international non-profit organizations...1/6

Dept. of Energy Denies $730M Severstal Loan

(Dearborn Patch) A $730 million loan expected to be granted to Severstal North America has been denied, the U.S. Department of Energy confirmed Friday...1/6

State & Regional

Nissan delivers boost to Decherd engine plant

(Tennessean) Nissan’s engine assembly plant in Decherd, Tenn., got a major boost Sunday that could mean more jobs via a joint project with Mercedes-Benz to make engines for new compact sedans each company plans to introduce within two years...1/8

National

Iran sentences alleged U.S. spy to death

(CBS News) An Iranian court has convicted an American man of working for the CIA and sentenced him to death, state radio reported Monday, in a case adding to the accelerating tension between the United States and Iran...1/9

U.S. debt is now equal to economy

(USA Today) The soaring national debt has reached a symbolic tipping point: It's now as big as the entire U.S. economy. The amount of money the federal government owes to its creditors, combined with IOUs to government retirement and other programs, now tops $15.23 trillion...1/9

East Tennessee

Knoxville's pension problems up for discussion

(Knoxville News Sentinel) The conundrum known as the city’s employee pension shortfall may be put before voters in November. The Great Recession left the pension with $460 million in funding, not enough to sustain future benefits the city has promised to its employees...1/8

energy & science policy

2011 in Review: Policy and Budget Highlights from FYI

(AIP) The following are selected highlights from FYI (dated as they were distributed), see archive for full issue...1/6

science & technology

First Hint of the Higgs Boson Particle

(Science Daily) The answer to one of the most exciting questions in particle physics seems almost close enough to touch: Scientists at the Geneva research center CERN have observed first signs of the Higgs boson and now believe that they will soon be able to prove the existence of the elementary particle they have been trying so hard to isolate...1/6

Indian science in need of overhaul

(Nature News) India is falling behind in the race to become a global leader in science, the country's prime minister has said. Speaking at the 99th Indian Science Congress in Bhubaneswar on 3 January, prime minister Manmohan Singh told delegates that despite increased funding, "over the past few decades, India's relative position in the world of science had been declining and we have been overtaken by countries like China"...1/6

You Built What?! A Wearable LED Television

(Popular Science) David Forbes was on his way home to Tucson, Arizona, after a family trip last summer when a policeman stopped him in the Detroit airport. The officer said he had received 50 panicked phone calls since Forbes had entered the building, and now his entire family had been marked for extra screening...1/2

Out there

Fish Mimics Mimic Octopus That Mimics Fish

(National Geographic) The mimic octopus can take on the forms of a lionfish, a jellyfish, a shrimp, a crab, and more than ten other animals. But now a jawfish in Indonesia has been filmed one-upping the marine master of disguise—it mimics the mimic octopus. "We've never seen anything like that before," scientist says...1/5