Sandia LabNews

Slithering science

As part of Sandia's ecology program, wildlife biologists set up and check herpetofaunal traps around Sandia lands to gather data on species in the area. The data, combined with other baseline monitoring, are used to to observe long-term habitat changes.

The early biologist catches the bird

Its heart beating rapidly, a wild gray flycatcher sits in the palm of a steady hand, waiting for just the right moment to make its escape. The moment lasts mere seconds, but it’s filled with emotion, from fear to connection to protection. Moments like this don’t happen for most people, but for a handful of biologists in Sandia's ecology program, they do.

Detecting quark nuggets, a candidate for extreme ball lightning and dark matter

Thirteen years ago, Chief Technology Officer and Vice President of Science and Technology Pace VanDevender retired from Sandia to become an 18th-century style “gentleman physicist.” He wanted to understand two mysteries before he died: puzzling electromagnetic signals observed on the Los Alamos-Sandia FORTE satellite and extreme ball lightning.