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A technology originally developed for the Federal Aviation Administration and licensed to a start up company for security screening has been sold to a major security firm. L-3 Communications acquisition of SafeView may advance the technology beyond its use in Israel, Iraq and at foreign airports. The security portals provide fast, safe screening to detect hidden metal or plastic weapons and contraband on individuals. The millimeter wave technology was developed at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

Researchers at PNNL have developed a novel nanoporous sorbent thiol-SAMMS, or thiol-functionalized Self Assembled Monolayers on Mesoporous Supports, to specifically remove mercury and other contaminants such as cadmium and lead from produced waters and condensate liquids from natural gas.

Researchers at PNNL have developed a compact and rugged microchannel distillation unit to create a light fraction of JP-8, the standard military fuel.

Since its discovery on Europa and other icy moons orbiting large gaseous worlds, extraterrestrial ice as a source for oxygen has presented the tantalizing possibility of complex life in frigid reaches far from Earth. Yet planetary scientists have struggled to explain how, in the absence of sufficient heat, oxygen could be produced from the permafrost surfaces. A new experiment offers the most detailed picture to date on how oxygen can be made on icy worlds.

A new ceramic-based aluminide coating protects steel and superalloys against corrosion, oxidation and other adverse chemical reactions. Developed at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, the coating is economical, easy to apply and does not chip off.

The W.R. Wiley Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory (EMSL), a Department of Energy-sponsored national scientific user facility, is seeing early promise from its two scientific "grand challenges" that have been investigating enigmas in microbiology and biogeochemistry.

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory has been recognized for transferring technologies that treat and cure cancer, uniquely analyze massive sets of data, neutralize toxic chemicals from the environment and increase surgical implant success rates.

There is growing consensus among scientists, regulators, politicians, industry and the public that we need to know more about the possible harmful or adverse effects of nanoparticles on human health. To investigate the damage potential of sub-micron sized particles, scientists at the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Wash., have harnessed living cells to monitor responses to a variety of biologically active test agents.

In the clouds above Darwin, Australia, pilots guided by a team of international climate scientists are now one week into a series of carefully orchestrated flights to obtain key in situ data about tropical clouds. Preliminary results reveal superior images of ice crystals in high-altitude tropical cirrus clouds.