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Getting bot responders into shape

DOE/Sandia National Laboratories
Business Announcement

Sandia National Laboratories is tackling one of the biggest barriers to the use of robots in emergency response: energy efficiency. Through a project supported by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Sandia is developing technology that will dramatically improve the endurance of legged robots, helping them operate for long periods while performing the types of locomotion most relevant to disaster response scenarios.

Funder: Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency

Studies look at long-term aging of electronics in nuclear weapons

DOE/Sandia National Laboratories

Researchers have studied radiation effects since the early days of nuclear weapons. But a 30-year program Sandia National Laboratories began in 2006 will provide real-time data for the first time on how electronics age within a weapon.

Storing hydrogen underground could boost transportation, energy security

DOE/Sandia National Laboratories
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Large-scale storage of low-pressure, gaseous hydrogen in salt caverns and other underground sites for transportation fuel and grid-scale energy applications offers several advantages over above-ground storage, says a recent Sandia National Laboratories study sponsored by the Department of Energy's Fuel Cell Technologies Office.

Journal: International Journal of Hydrogen Energy
Funder: DOE/US Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy

Turning biological cells to stone improves cancer and stem cell research

DOE/Sandia National Laboratories
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A simple technique that creates near-perfect, robust models of human and animal cells is being used to study cancer and stem cells, and could be used to create complex durable structures without the use of machinery.

Journal: Nature Communications
Funder: US Department of Energy's Basic Energy Sciences

Combining 'Tinkertoy' materials with solar cells for increased photovoltaic efficiency

DOE/Sandia National Laboratories
Grant and Award Announcement

Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories have received a $1.2 million award from the US Department of Energy's SunShot Initiative to develop a technique that they believe will significantly improve the efficiencies of photovoltaic materials and help make solar electricity cost-competitive with other sources of energy.

Funder: DOE/Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy

MINER shines in urban emergency response exercise

DOE/Sandia National Laboratories
Business Announcement

In a field test in downtown Chicago, Sandia National Laboratories' mobile imager of neutrons for emergency responders (MINER) system identified the exact location of a sealed laboratory radiation source through shielding and at a distance. MINER detects fast neutrons that emanate from special nuclear material and can discriminate the device signature from background radiation and to measure the spectrum of neutrons emitted by it.

Funder: DOE/Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation Office of Research and Development, DOE/National Nuclear Security Administration

Adaptive zoom riflescope prototype has push-button magnification

DOE/Sandia National Laboratories
Business Announcement

Sandia National Laboratories announces a prototype of a Rapid Adaptive Zoom for Assault Rifles that would enable the user to zoom in and out at the push of a button without having to remove their eyes from their rifles. The prototype uses a patented adaptive zoom that changes the focal length of the lenses by varying their curvature.

A better prosthesis: Sandia invents sensor to learn about fit; system to make fit better

DOE/Sandia National Laboratories

Sandia National Laboratories researcher Jason Wheeler has been working to make prostheses more comfortable in a twofold approach: sensors that detect how the prosthesis fits and a system to make the fit better. He points out that it doesn't matter how high-tech a prosthesis is if it's not comfortable.

Team advances understanding of the Greenland Ice Sheet's meltwater channels

DOE/Los Alamos National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A paper in Nature this week notes that observations of moulins (vertical conduits connecting water on top of the glacier down to the bed of the ice sheet) and boreholes in Greenland show that subglacial channels ameliorate the speedup caused by water delivery to the base of the ice sheet in the short term. By mid summer, however, the channels stabilize and are unable to grow any larger.

Journal: Nature

In-flight sensor tests a step toward Structural Health Monitoring for safer flights

DOE/Sandia National Laboratories
Business Announcement

Nine commercial aircraft flying regular routes are on the frontier of aviation safety, carrying sensors that monitor their structural health along with their routine maintenance. These flight tests are part of a Federal Aviation Administration certification process that will make the sensors widely available to US airlines.

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