Are there any plans for ORNL to directly engage the motorsports industry to assist in developing new technologies?
–Eric Wilson I hadn’t thought of that. I can see a NASCAR with an ORNL logo. The vehicle technology programs that we engage in are funded by the Department of Energy, Particularly now with discussion of things like plug-in hybrids and even pure plug-in electric vehicles, if you peel away the layers there’s some really interesting material science problems there to do with batteries and so forth that really gets at the heart of what we’re really good at the lab: understanding materials in a microscopic kind of atom-by-atom scale. And actually there are benefits in the motorsports world for that sort of thing. In fact, back in the days when I was a university researcher, using neutron scattering we looked at residual stresses in titanium shock absorber springs. You don’t put titanium shock absorbers on your personal car, but for Formula One it’s the way to go and so that was an actual instance where I got a little bit involved in that. But I don’t think you’re going to see NASCAR or For
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