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OLCF science articles.

FeaturedScience

Forging Fusion

The nuclear reactions that fuel the sun could soon be harnessed to generate electricity on Earth — with help from supercomputers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Type One Energy Group, a Knoxville-based startup, expects to build the world’s most advanced stellarator fusion device by 2030, with a pilot…
Matt Lakin
September 24, 2025
A person talking in a large room with many people sitting at long tables.FeaturedScienceTechnology

Users of Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility Gather for 21st Annual Meeting

The Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF) welcomed computational scientists from around the world to its 2025 OLCF User Meeting at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory from Aug. 5 – 6. The event offered attendees an opportunity to share accomplishments, discuss challenges, and explore the road ahead for high-performance computing…
Angela Gosnell
September 9, 2025
ORNL researchers proposed a software architecture that would integrate emerging quantum computers with the world’s fastest supercomputing systems, such as ORNL’s exascale machine Frontier. Credit: Jason Smith/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of EnergyFeaturedScience

ORNL Study Plans Quantum-HPC Software Stack

A new study by researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory traces a blueprint for a software architecture that would integrate emerging quantum computers with the world’s fastest supercomputing systems. Finding an effective approach to pair the two distinct computing platforms has become a prime focus for…
Matt Lakin
August 29, 2025
Dark background with splotches of light that look like connectivity waves through space.FeaturedScience

OLCF Upgrades Its Network Security Infrastructure

Cybersecurity at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility is under constant pressure from millions of unauthorized connection attempts each day. Now, a major upgrade to the facility’s monitoring system has strengthened defenses, reinforcing one of the nation’s most powerful computing resources against hidden threats. To address this…
Angela Gosnell
August 20, 2025
water moleculesFeaturedScience

Getting the Matrix of Life Right

More than a year ago, computational scientists at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory published a study in the Journal of Chemical Theory and Computation that raised a serious question about a long-standing methodology used by researchers who conduct molecular dynamics simulations involving water. What if using the standard…
Coury Turczyn
July 9, 2025
air-water interfaceFeaturedScience

Speeding Up Chemical Reactions

Using the now-decommissioned Summit supercomputer, researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory ran the largest and most accurate molecular dynamics simulations yet of the interface between water and air during a chemical reaction. The simulations have uncovered how water controls such chemical reactions by dynamically coupling with…
Coury Turczyn
June 17, 2025
neutron star simulation ORNLFeaturedScience

Journey to the Center of a Neutron Star

For astrophysicists, neutron stars stand out as objects of irresistible fascination — perhaps, in part, because of how difficult they are to decipher. But calculations conducted on the Frontier supercomputer, located at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, have revealed new clues about the inner workings of neutron…
Coury Turczyn
June 2, 2025
FeaturedScience

INCITE 2026 Call for Proposals

The Innovative and Novel Computational Impact on Theory and Experiment, or INICITE, program has announced the 2026 Call for Proposals, inviting researchers to apply for access to some of the world’s most powerful high-performance computing systems. The proposal submission window runs from April 11 to June 16, 2025, offering an…
Angela Gosnell
April 11, 2025
a blue and white wisp of air flowing between two silver pillarsFeaturedScience

Quantum Study Seeks to Solve Questions on Fluid Flow

Researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory tested a quantum computing approach to an old challenge: solving classical fluid dynamics problems. The study relied on support from the Quantum Computing User Program, or QCUP, part of ORNL’s Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility. The results highlight avenues for further study of quantum…
Matt Lakin
March 26, 2025
FeaturedIndustryScience

A Cleaner Vision

Anyone who’s ever lathered up knows the dilemma. The same qualities that make surfactants — the chemical compounds in soaps, shampoos and detergents that penetrate grease, dissolve stains and make those satisfying suds in the shower — so effective as cleaners can also act as irritants. When splashed in the…
Matt Lakin
January 13, 2025
FeaturedScience

Reining in Runaway Electrons

At temperatures hotter than the sun, even a small disruption can interfere with a fusion reaction. Scientists planning for the operations of ITER, an international fusion plant now under assembly, needed to solve the problem of runaway electrons, negatively charged particles in the soup of matter in the plasma within…
Matt Lakin
January 7, 2025
birds eye view of earth overlayed with wavy lines arstically representing gravity wavesFeaturedScience

Decoding Atmospheric Effects of Gravity Waves

Researchers at Stanford University, the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, or ECMWF, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory used the lab’s Summit supercomputer to better understand atmospheric gravity waves, which influence significant weather patterns that are difficult to forecast. First, the team conducted ultrahigh-resolution climate simulations using the ECMWF Integrated Forecast…
Jeremy Rumsey
December 23, 2024
FeaturedScience

The OLCF’s 2024 in Review

High-performance computing pushed the boundaries of what’s possible in 2024, driving advancements across a range of disciplines. Partnerships with top academic, industrial and government institutions led to major contributions in fields such as quantum molecular mechanics and aviation. The year also saw groundbreaking research honored at leading conferences, underscoring the…
Angela Gosnell
December 19, 2024