Story tips from the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, March 2010

To arrange for an interview with a researcher, please contact the Communications and External Relations staff member identified at the end of each tip. For more information on ORNL and its research and development activities, please refer to one of our Media Contacts. If you have a general media-related question or comment, you can send it to news@ornl.gov. FORENSICS -- Cadaver's best friend . . .

Police searching for victims in clandestine graves could soon have a new tool that will make their task considerably easier. LABRADOR, which stands for Lightweight Analyzer for Buried Remains and Decomposition Odor Recognition, detects volatile organic chemical compounds relevant to human decomposition. "This is the next step in clandestine grave detection and will augment methods using dogs," said Arpad Vass, co-developer of the handheld instrument. While not as sensitive as a canine's nose, LABRADOR has the advantage of being able to detect and alert the operator to the amount of odor present, which is a key factor in pinpointing the location of a grave or looking for victims in natural disasters. Funding was provided by the National Institute of Justice. [Contact: Ron Walli, (865) 576-0226; wallira@ornl.gov]

CYBERCRIME -- Exposing hackers . . .

Unscrupulous Internet service providers will have no place to hide because of a ranking system conceived by researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Indiana University. "Criminal enterprises have created entire Internet service providers dedicated to sending spam, phishing messages or spreading viruses," said Craig Shue of ORNL's Computational Sciences and Engineering Division. While some have been caught by the Federal Trade Commission or other Internet service providers unwilling to do business with them, many are able to escape detection. "These other Internet service providers have customers whose machines become infected and can be used to launch attacks or steal the customer's data," Shue said. This work, which creates a ranking system Shue likened to grading systems for comparing school districts, is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and Indiana University. [Contact: Ron Walli, (865) 576-0226; wallira@ornl.gov]

GREEN CONSTRUCTION SIMULATOR -- A greener shade of steel . . .

Ability and reputation are the qualities that draw industrial users to ORNL's Building Technologies Research and Integration Center (BTRIC). Manufacturers know that if they need to send energy efficiency data to a building code agency or a potential customer, a report that says "ORNL" on the letterhead guarantees the credibility of the information. The BTRIC boasts a range of sophisticated research facilities. For example, the center's Large-Scale Climate Simulator can enclose building components, such as roof or wall sections, within a highly customizable micro-climate and subject them to a range of temperature, humidity, sunlight, rainfall and several other environmental variables. Industrial users have been particularly enthusiastic about using the simulator to study the efficiency of roofing systems because roofs and attics are responsible for about 25 percent of commercial heating and cooling costs. Currently, the Metal Building Manufacturers Association (MBMA) is using the simulator to develop new construction methods that will result in more energy-efficient metal buildings. In the longer term, MBMA hopes to work with BTRIC to conduct whole building energy measurements to determine what changes can be made to increase the efficiency of existing buildings, as well as that of new building designs. [Contact: Jim Pearce, (865) 241-2427; pearcejw@ornl.gov]

VEHICLE EFFICIENCY -- Turning exhaust into electricity . . .

A General Motors-led research team is using the world's fastest supercomputer to advance the cause of vehicle efficiency. GM's Jihui Yang and colleagues have used ORNL's Cray XT5 Jaguar system to identify the atomic arrangement of a promising thermoelectric material made up of lead and tellurium speckled with small clumps of silver and antimony. By converting heat energy directly into electricity, thermoelectric materials may eventually recycle the energy coming out a vehicle's exhaust as waste heat and make it available to charge a hybrid battery or power electric systems throughout the vehicle. The team reported its findings in the October 2, 2009, issue of the journal Physical Review Letters. [Contact: Leo Williams, (865) 574-8891; williamsjl2@ornl.gov]

Source: DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory