Sandia has major R&D responsibilities in national security, energy and environmental technologies, and economic competitiveness. http://www.sandia.gov/news/resources/rss/ http://www.sandia.gov/images2005/rss_logo.gif http://www.sandia.gov Carbon nanotubes, described as the reigning celebrity of the advanced materials world, are all the rage. Recently researchers at Rice University and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute used them to make the blackest black — the darkest known material, reflecting only 0.045 percent of all light shined on it. Sandia National Laboratories is also in on the carbon nanotube game, with research led by physicist François Léonard. Léonard has considerable experience in the subject, so much that he wrote the book on it — literally. He's the author of a forthcoming work, Physics of Carbon Nanotube Devices, which could become the definitive text on the topic. http://www.sandia.gov/news/resources/releases/2008/nanotubes.html NASA has once again turned to Sandia's Solar Tower to help evaluate new technology for future space shuttle missions. NASA's most recent testing series in early March evaluated the HYpersonic AeroTHermodynamic InfraRed Measurements (HYTHIRM) systems. http://www.sandia.gov/news/resources/releases/2008/hythirm.html DOE photovoltaic funding for years has gone to programs that promise more efficient conversion of sunlight to electricity, or in aiding solar start-up companies. It's called “technology push. ” Now for something different. In the past year, an unusually innovative DOE program called Solar America Cities has focused on reaching out to formerly ignored, sometimes low-profile city decision makers who administer large chunks of urban real estate. It's called “technology pull. ” http://www.sandia.gov/news/resources/releases/2008/photovoltaics-tiger-team.html Sandia to honor local science teachers http://www.sandia.gov/news/resources/releases/2008/honor-science-teachers.html Sandia National Laboratories researcher Peter Feibelman, writes about graphene published last week in Physical Review B. http://www.sandia.gov/news/resources/releases/2008/graphene.html Next time you visit the gas station and fill your tank with $3.50 or more a gallon gasoline, reflect on this. Nine years ago you could have bought that same gas for 98 cents a gallon. What is going on? Arnie Baker, chief economist at Sandia National Laboratories, says quite a lot, actually. From a declining U.S. dollar to restricted oil production in the Middle East, Russia and Venezuela to China and India increasing their oil demands, the price of gasoline and oil is on a seemingly endless upward spiral. http://www.sandia.gov/news/resources/releases/2008/oilprices.html Sandia National Laboratories recently licensed its safer fuel air diversionary device technology to Defense Technology Corporation of America, located in Casper, Wyo. Diversionary devices — also called stun grenades or flash-bangs — are a less-than-lethal device used in a wide variety of law enforcement and military operations. Like a grenade, the device is activated by pulling a pin. When thrown, the flash-bang creates a loud sound and bright flash of light to temporarily distract or disorient an adversary. http://www.sandia.gov/news/resources/releases/2008/flashbang.html Secretary of Energy Samuel Bodman has selected the Sandia National Laboratories’ MESA project team as recipients of the Secretary’s Achievement Honor Award. http://www.sandia.gov/news/resources/releases/2008/mesaaward.html Secretary of Energy Samuel Bodman presented the Sandia/LANL Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies (CINT) with the DOE Award for Achievement at the bi-annual DOE project management workshop in Washington, DC. held in late March. http://www.sandia.gov/news/resources/releases/2008/cint.html Can biofuels be made cheaply enough to lower the cost of driving a car? Are green roofs worth the cost? Can nanotechnology lead to better vaccines? And what is extreme ball lightning? These are a few of the topics researchers will address April 10-12 in Albuquerque during the 83rd annual meeting of the Southwestern and Rocky Mountain (SWARM) region of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), hosted by the University of New Mexico. This is the first time the meeting has been held in Albuquerque. Sandia National Laboratories is the title sponsor. http://www.sandia.gov/news/resources/releases/2008/meeting-advancesci.html Researchers in the Power Sources R &D group at Sandia National Laboratories have been driving nails into batteries, heating them to extreme temperatures, overcharging them, and putting them into some of the most adverse conditions possible to see how much abuse they can take before they blow up. And for certain types of lithium-ion batteries the answer is a lot. http://www.sandia.gov/news/resources/releases/2008/labchip.html A crisis is looming over water shortages worldwide. By 2025 more than half the nations in the world will face freshwater stress or shortages and by 2050 as much as 75 percent of the world’s population could face freshwater scarcity.. http://www.sandia.gov/news/resources/releases/2008/nature.html Researchers in the Power Sources R &D group at Sandia National Laboratories have been driving nails into batteries, heating them to extreme temperatures, overcharging them, and putting them into some of the most adverse conditions possible to see how much abuse they can take before they blow up. And for certain types of lithium-ion batteries the answer is a lot. http://www.sandia.gov/news/resources/releases/2008/batteries.html The Scientist magazine, known for its statistical studies and life sciences orientation, has chosen Sandia National Laboratories as one of the top-10 U.S. work places for post-doctoral students in the life sciences. The results are published in its March issue. http://www.sandia.gov/news/resources/releases/2008/poll.html Sandia National Laboratories Fleet Services Department has exceeded fuel and energy efficiency standards set by the Department of Energy, one of a few organizations to do so in the nuclear weapons complex. By making a conscious effort to reduce the use of petroleum fuels and increase the use of gasoline enhanced with ethanol and alternative fuel vehicles, Sandia has met - and even exceeded - requirements of a DOE executive order. http://www.sandia.gov/news/resources/releases/2008/fleetservices.html Russian researchers, wanting to reduce the number of accidents at nuclear materials facilities in their country, have teamed up with several human factors and cognition experts from Sandia National Laboratories to figure out ways to determine on any given day if workers are ready to perform critical operations. http://www.sandia.gov/news/resources/releases/2008/russian-readiness.html David Schmidly and Tom Hunter, respective presidents of the University of New Mexico and Sandia National Laboratories, will sign a memorandum of understanding expected to improve cooperation between their respective institutions in a ceremony to take place Tuesday, March 18, at 9 a.m. at Sandia. Media will be able to interview both presidents from 9:45 to 10 a.m. http://www.sandia.gov/news/resources/releases/2008/ises_ceremony.html A small group of Sandia National Laboratories/California researchers have been operating the BioWatch Indoor Reachback Center. It's part of the Department of Homeland Security's BioWatch program, an early warning system designed to rapidly detect trace amounts of biological materials at various public facilities across the United States. BioWatch assists public health experts to determine the presence and geographic extent of a biological agent release, allowing federal, state, and local officials to more quickly determine emergency response, medical care and consequence management needs. http://www.sandia.gov/news/resources/releases/2008/biowatch.html Sandia National Laboratories is co-sponsoring the 2008 Terrorism Research Center Conference, Terrorism: Training, Threats, Tactics and Technology April 1-3. http://www.sandia.gov/news/resources/releases/2008/t4conference.html The kilogram is losing weight and many international scientists, including some at Sandia National Laboratories, agree that it’s time to redefine it. Scientists are hoping to redefine the kilogram by basing it on standards of universal constants rather than on an artifact standard. “The idea is to replace the single master kilogram with something based on physical constants, rather than an artifact that could be damaged accidentally,” says mechanical engineer Hy Tran, a project leader at the Primary Standards Laboratory at Sandia. http://www.sandia.gov/news/resources/releases/2008/defkilo.html Preparing groundwork for an exascale computer is the mission of the new Institute for Advanced Architectures, launched jointly at Sandia and Oak Ridge national laboratories. An exaflop is a thousand times faster than a petaflop, itself a thousand times faster than a teraflop. Teraflop computers —the first was developed 10 years ago at Sandia — currently are the physical state of the art. They do trillions of calculations a second. Exaflop computers would perform a million trillion calculations per second. http://www.sandia.gov/news/resources/releases/2008/exaflop.html Media are invited to tour Sandia National Laboratories' newly refurbished Z machine and participate in a rededication of its premier pulsed power accelerator starting at 1 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb.19, at Sandia. http://www.sandia.gov/news/resources/releases/2008/zopens.html Three Sandia National Laboratories research teams and one Sandia executive will be presented national awards by the Federal Laboratory Consortium (FLC) for their skills in transferring technology from Sandia to the private sector. http://www.sandia.gov/news/resources/releases/2008/consortium.html Sandia National Laboratories and Stirling Energy Systems (SES) have set a new solar-to-grid system conversion efficiency record by achieving a 31.25 percent net efficiency rate. The old 1984 record of 29.4 percent was toppled Jan. 31 on SES's Serial #3 solar dish Stirling system at Sandia's National Solar Thermal Test Facility. http://www.sandia.gov/news/resources/releases/2008/solargrid.html Sandia/California named winner of Environmental Spirit Award by Livermore Chamber of Commerce http://www.sandia.gov/news/resources/releases/2008/envirospirit.html Jess 7.1a3 a popular rule engine created by Sandia National Laboratories, has been licensed by Lockheed Martin Corporation to play a critical role in the Navy’s DDG 1000 destroyer ships. http://www.sandia.gov/news/resources/releases/2008/jessengine.html Water and energy are inextricably linked. It takes large volumes of water to produce energy and significant amounts of low-cost energy to treat and distribute water. But the planning and management of these fundamental resources have historically been done independently of one another. A Sandia National Laboratories research team is attempting to remedy the situation by developing interactive computer modeling tools that integrate the two for planning and management purposes. http://www.sandia.gov/news/resources/releases/2008/energywater.html Helen Greiner, co-founder of iRobot, and Vayl S. Oxford, director of the Domestic Nuclear Detection Office, are confirmed keynote speakers for the American Nuclear Society Joint Topical Conference on Emergency Management and Robotics for Hazardous Environments to be held in Albuquerque March 9-12. http://www.sandia.gov/news/resources/releases/2008/nukeconference.html Some 20,000 soldiers a year may soon be trained in interpersonal skill building and cross-cultural awareness using a videogame recently developed by researchers from Sandia and BBN Technologies. http://www.sandia.gov/news/resources/releases/2008/simulation.html