March 19, 2015 • LIVERMORE, Calif.—Technologies developed in Sandia National Laboratories’ biosciences program could soon find their way into doctors’ offices — devices like wearable microneedles that continuously analyze electrolyte levels and a lab-on-a-disk that can test a drop of blood for 64 different diseases in minutes. At a recent seminar for potential investors...
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Sandia researchers find clues to superbug evolution
September 23, 2014 • LIVERMORE, Calif. — Imagine going to the hospital with one disease and coming home with something much worse, or not coming home at all. With the emergence and spread of antibiotic-resistance pathogens, healthcare-associated infections have become a serious threat. On any given day about one in 25 hospital patients has...
Categories: Biology, Bioscience / Medical Research
Prototype electrolyte sensor provides immediate read-outs
June 3, 2014 • Painless wearable microneedle device may reduce trips to doctors’ offices ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Patients trying to navigate today’s complex medical system with its costly laboratory analyses might prefer a pain-free home diagnostic device, worn on the wrist, that can analyze, continuously record and immediately remedy low electrolyte levels. Runners, athletes...
Converting natural gas to liquid transportation fuels via biological organisms
November 18, 2013 • LIVERMORE, Calif.— Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories will use their expertise in protein expression, enzyme engineering and high-throughput assays as part of a multiproject, $34 million effort by the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) aimed at developing advanced biocatalyst technologies that can convert natural gas to liquid fuel for transportation....
Categories: Biology, Science / Technology / Engineering
NICE! the brain as a model for future supercomputers
May 14, 2013 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The brain’s repute took a big hit in 1997 when an IBM supercomputer defeated world chess champion Gary Kasparov in a match reported around the world. But in the second round, the brain is back. A Sandia National Laboratories-supported workshop in Albuquerque called NICE, for Neuro-Inspired Computational...
‘Zombie’ replica cells may outperform live ones as catalysts and conductors
February 7, 2013 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — “Zombie” mammalian cells that may function better after they die have been created by researchers at Sandia National Laboratories and the University of New Mexico (UNM). The simple technique coats a cell with a silica solution to form a near-perfect replica of its structure. The process may...
Engineering alternative fuel with cyanobacteria
January 7, 2013 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Sandia National Laboratories Truman Fellow Anne Ruffing has engineered two strains of cyanobacteria to produce free fatty acids, a precursor to liquid fuels, but she has also found that the process cuts the bacteria’s production potential. Micro-algal fuels might be one way to reduce the nation’s dependence...
Categories: Biology, Energy / Environment / Water
Topics: Biology, women in STEM
Sandia probability maps help sniff out food contamination
September 27, 2012 • Uncovering the sources of fresh food contamination could become faster and easier thanks to analysis done at Sandia National Laboratories’ National Infrastructure Simulation and Analysis Center (NISAC). The study, in the International Journal of Critical Infrastructures, demonstrates how developing a probability map of the food supply network using stochastic network...
Students painlessly measure knee joint fluids in annual Sandia contest
September 26, 2012 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Texas Tech University repeated last year’s victory in the novel design category of Sandia National Laboratories’ annual competition to design new, extraordinarily tiny devices, while Carnegie Mellon University won the educational microelectromechanical (MEMS) prize for the second year in a row. This year’s contest attracted engineering students...
Sandia shows monitoring brain activity during study can help predict test performance
September 10, 2012 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Research at Sandia National Laboratories has shown that it’s possible to predict how well people will remember information by monitoring their brain activity while they study. A team under Laura Matzen of Sandia’s cognitive systems group was the first to demonstrate predictions based on the results of...
Categories: Biology, Science / Technology / Engineering
“Toxic” political discussions limit climate response, says invited speaker at Sandia
August 14, 2012 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The inability of natural and social scientists to convince political leaders that “we’re spinning a roulette wheel over climate change” puts humanity at “extreme risk,” said Massachusetts Institute of Technology management professor Henry Jacoby, former co-director of the MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of...
Alaskan North Slope climate: hard data from a hard place
August 13, 2012 • Researchers examine clouds (from both sides now) and the structure of the atmosphere BARROW, Alaska — Sandia National Laboratories’ researcher Mark Ivey and I (science writer Neal Singer) are standing on the tundra at an outpost of science at the northernmost point of the North American continent. We are five miles northeast...
Predictions by climate models are flawed, says invited speaker at Sandia
July 25, 2012 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Richard Lindzen, a global warming skeptic, told about 70 Sandia researchers in June that too much is being made of climate change by researchers seeking government funding. He said their data and their methods did not support their claims. “Despite concerns over...
Global warming unequivocal in its advance, says invited speaker at Sandia
July 24, 2012 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Global warming is unequivocal in its advance and will lead to more record-setting temperatures, said Warren M. Washington, a senior scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, in the seventh lecture of Sandia National Laboratories’ Climate Change and National Security series. The talk was given in mid-May....
Categories: Awards, Biology, Computing, Energy / Environment / Water, Homeland security, Military / Defense, Science / Technology / Engineering
Sandia seeks commercial partners for revolutionary “SpinDx” medical diagnostic tool
July 12, 2012 • LIVERMORE, Calif. — Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories have developed a lab-on-a-disk platform that they believe will be faster, less expensive and more versatile than similar medical diagnostic tools. Lab officials are seeking industry partners to license and commercialize the SpinDx technology, which can determine a patient’s white blood cell...
Categories: Biology, Homeland security, Science / Technology / Engineering, Technology transfer / Economic Impact
Climate change accelerating Southwest desertification, speaker says
May 10, 2012 • ALBUQUERQUE, NM — Jonathan Overpeck, professor of Atmospheric Sciences and Geosciences at the University of Arizona, brought a friendly smile, informative graphics and a warning about drought in the Southwest to Sandia’s Climate Change and National Security Speaker Series. Addressing “Climate Change and the Aridification of the North American Southwest...
Miniature Sandia sensors may advance climate studies
April 10, 2012 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — An air sampler the size of an ear plug is expected to cheaply and easily collect atmospheric samples to improve computer climate models. “We now have an inexpensive tool for collecting pristine vapor samples in the field,” said Sandia National Laboratories researcher Ron Manginell, lead author of...
Sandia seeks better neural control of prosthetics for amputees
February 18, 2012 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M — Sandia National Laboratories researchers, using off-the-shelf equipment in a chemistry lab, have been working on ways to improve amputees’ control over prosthetics with direct help from their own nervous systems. Organic materials chemist Shawn Dirk, robotics engineer Steve Buerger and others are creating biocompatible interface scaffolds. The...
Anthrax-killing foam proves effective in meth lab cleanup
February 16, 2012 • Sandia’s decontamination foam, developed more than a decade ago and used to decontaminate federal office buildings and mailrooms during the 2001 anthrax attacks, is now being used to decontaminate illegal methamphetamine labs. Mark Tucker, a chemical engineer in Sandia’s Chemical & Biological Systems Dept. and co-creator of the original decontamination...
Sandia designs mobile facility to measure greenhouse gases
September 8, 2011 • LIVERMORE, Calif. — Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories have designed and built a mobile research facility to trace and identify the origin of greenhouse gases. In addition to pinpointing the chemicals’ location, the unique mobile facility can help researchers learn whether the gases are biogenic (coming from plant sources) or...
Sandia’s CANARY software protects water utilities from terrorist attacks and contaminants, boosts quality
July 25, 2011 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Americans are used to drinking from the kitchen tap without fear of harm, even though water utilities might be vulnerable to terrorist attacks or natural contaminants. Now, thanks to CANARY Event Detection Software — an open-source software developed by Sandia National Laboratories in partnership with the Environmental...
Topics: women in STEM
Sandia National Laboratories unlocks secrets of plague with stunning new imaging techniques
May 16, 2011 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories have developed a super-resolution microscopy technique that is answering long-held questions about exactly how and why a cell’s defenses fail against some invaders, such as plague, while successfully fending off others like E.coli. The approach is revealing never-before-seen detail of the cell...
Topics: women in STEM
Turning algae into energy
October 7, 2009 • Project converts dairy wastes to energy, other products ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — As part of a project to create alternative sources of energy, researchers at Sandia National Laboratories are cultivating green algae that holds promise as a new supply of biofuel. “People have been growing algae for centuries for food supplements...
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