Science / Technology / Engineering

November 11, 1997 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- After the horrors of enduring a foot amputation due to disease, accident or landmine, one learns that a prosthesis -- say, an artificial foot and ankle -- doesn't flex with the intricacy of a natural limb and may be uncomfortable to use.

October 31, 1997 • Trying to determine the nature of the air and ground emissions released during disposal of excess munitions through open burning or open detonation, researchers from Sandia National Laboratories and other labs have begun a series of tests inside a sealed, underground chamber at t

October 24, 1997 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- A missile or space ship, spinning like a football or Olympic diver as it reenters Earth's atmosphere, ordinarily is designed to be perfectly balanced -- with tight control over the distribution of mass within it -- to avoid flight instabilities. Unguided weap

October 20, 1997 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- Some evidence is hard to find, particularly the kinds of evidence that can help police place the perpetrator at the scene of the crime -- fingerprints, semen, urine, and other organic substances that carry clues to a criminal's identity.

October 20, 1997 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- The results of a series of field tests carried out at six producing U.S. oil wells are now available to members of the petroleum industry on a free CD-ROM put together by Sandia National Laboratories.

October 16, 1997 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- The Ensign-Bickford Co. (EBCo) and Sandia National Laboratories will work together under a new partnership to enhance the safety and reliability of explosive components used in national defense weapons systems and in civilian applications.

October 3, 1997 • Albuquerque, N.M. -- After a year of detective work involving scores of eyewitness reports from across New Mexico and Texas, a group of scientists has concluded that the Earth collided with a swarm of cosmic debris on the night of Oct. 3-4, 1996.

September 29, 1997 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- The Federal Aviation Administration has selected Sandia National Laboratories and eight universities to pilot its new Airworthiness Assurance "Center of Excellence," a research and development partnership intended to help carry America's fleet of commercial

September 29, 1997 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- A coating that allows miniature sensors to detect dangerous, even lethal, air- or water-borne molecules much more quickly has been created in a joint project of Sandia National Laboratories and the University of New Mexico. The achievement is reported in the

September 15, 1997 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- Some airline passengers visiting the main security checkpoint at the Albuquerque International Airport this week are being asked to try out tomorrow's technology for combating terrorism -- an "explosives-detection portal" under development at Sandia National

September 10, 1997 • Sandia and Los Alamos national laboratories scientists already are analyzing reams of data being downloaded from the 7-foot high FORTE satellite, orbiting 500 miles above the Earth. Four times a day the satellite passes within communicating distance of the Sandia National Laborat

September 2, 1997 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- A glitch in a microchip manufacturing plant can be costly. After hundreds of internal processes have nearly fabricated the next batch of wafers and, say, circuits are plasma-etched to the wrong depth and the defect goes unnoticed, the ruined lot may mean mill

August 28, 1997 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- The Cold War has ended, but the threat posed by weapons of mass destruction remains.

August 15, 1997 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- A revolutionary handheld laser device that in a few moments can detect and then track disorders of the blood has been patented in prototype by scientists at Sandia National Laboratories and the National Institutes of Health.

August 7, 1997 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- Nuclear-material shipping casks transported inside standard steel shipping containers can survive large fires and still protect their contents and prevent radioactive material releases, according to preliminary results from recent fire endurance tests.

August 1, 1997 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- If the power and temperatures generated recently by Sandia's Z accelerator were graphed like stock prices, brokers would describe them as going through the roof and still climbing.

July 23, 1997 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- Disabling sophisticated bombs without getting hurt is what a small team of researchers at Sandia National Laboratories knows how to do best. Now Sandia is sharing its technology and expertise in the occult art of bomb disablement with members of the world's m

June 30, 1997 • ALBUQUERQUE, NM -- Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories won eight awards in this year's R&D 100 competition -- the largest number Sandia has garnered since it began competing in the late 1970s.

June 26, 1997 • ALBUQUERQUE, N. M. -- Goodyear and the U.S. Department of Energy's Sandia National Laboratories will work together to develop new and more efficient manufacturing processes under a new cooperative research and development agreement (CRADA).

June 24, 1997 • Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument, N.M. -- When Sandia's Hal Post saw the woman peer through the brush and wonder aloud about the large photovoltaic array some thirty yards from the visitors' path, he was absolutely delighted.

June 24, 1997 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- The charge from Sen. Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) in 1994 was straightforward, but that doesn't mean it was simple: Find a way to expedite the movement of freight across the US-Mexico border.

June 11, 1997 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- The full complement of 84 cabinets that compose the teraflops high-performance ultracomputer - the fastest computer in the world - is now operating at Sandia National Laboratories.

May 29, 1997 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- A biochemical technique being refined at Sandia National Laboratories may soon enable sensors that can in seconds detect the equivalent of one contaminant particle among a billion other molecules in waste streams.

May 15, 1997 • Albuquerque, N.M. -- Pat Eicker, Director of Intelligent Systems and Robotics at Sandia National Laboratories, has been named the 1997 recipient of the Joseph F. Engelberger Robotics Award for leadership.

May 9, 1997 • After the euphoric ring of sledgehammer blows on the Berlin Wall echoed away in 1989 and diplomats from the West and the collapsing Soviet Union signed agreements trimming nuclear arsenals, physicists and engineers east and west were left with the daunting task of shifting pro...