Story ideas from ORNL. To arrange for an interview with any of these researchers, please call Ron Walli of Communications and Public Affairs at 423-576-0226.
COMPUTING -- Probe opens possibilities . . .
Managing the enormous amounts of data generated by researchers worldwide is a huge challenge. ORNL and the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center in Berkeley, Calif., are developing a distributed high-performance storage system test bed called Probe to help meet that challenge. Probe uses award-winning technology to support gigabyte-per-second throughput and the petabyte-scale capacity needed in global climate modeling, human genome mapping and high-energy physics. Probe, based at ORNL and NERSC, will be used to study ways to contain the cost of large storage systems, reduce long-distance network traffic and help scientists understand complex relationships by improving the performance of visualization applications. [Contact: Randy Burris]
BIOLOGY -- Person on a chip? . . .
It?s in its infancy, but the Virtual Human project could, for example, make it possible one day to model individual people and store the information. Physicians could take that information to simulate treatments customized to each patient?s illness and fast-forward the process to see the outcome. The project has many goals and will draw upon the expertise and skills from institutions and people around the world, says Clay Easterly of ORNL?s Life Sciences Division. Easterly envisions the Virtual Human being a research tool to examine the widest range of human biological and physical responses to stimuli, be they biological, chemical, physical or psychological. [Contact: Clay Easterly]
NANOTECHNOLOGY -- The direct approach . . .
Researchers at ORNL expect to make a quantum leap in science by developing nanosensors that reveal the workings of a single cell at the molecular level. Such a nanosystem would have major implications for diagnosis and treatment of disease, drug development and screening for diseases. With nanosensors, researchers would have a direct method of probing individual cells rather than looking at reactions using reagents and other indirect methods. Goals of this research include diagnosis and treatment with a minimum of invasiveness, high throughput screening for diseases and molecular gene therapy. [Contact: Tuan Vo-Dinh]
CLIMATE -- Fooling Mother Nature . . .
The effect on forests of five years of wet weather -- or drought, such as that experienced recently in the Eastern United States -- has been the subject of study by ORNL researchers. In the experiment, which gauges the effects abnormally dry or wet weather has on forests, some rainfall is diverted from one area representing a dry spell to another representing wet weather. The experiment addresses impacts that might result from predicted variations in rainfall due to global warming and other climate changes caused by increased greenhouse gases in the Earth?s atmosphere. ORNL researchers have documented the effects that six years of altering the "weather" has had on tree growth and the ecosystem, providing insights into what to expect if climates change. [Contact: Paul Hanson]