WASHINGTON, D.C. — Chemist Mitch Anstey of Sandia National Laboratories will join Patrick Stewart, George Takei, Brian Greene, Sara Seager and other notable minds from the galaxy of science and science fiction at Smithsonian Magazine’s The Future Is Here Festival on May 16-18 in Washington, D.C. Anstey’s talk, “Let’s Make Light of the Situation,” will […]
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Sandia chemist Mitch Anstey to illuminate the Smithsonian Future Is Here Festival

American Physical Society names four Sandia fellows
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Four Sandia researchers have been named Fellows of the American Physical Society, an honor that indicates recognition by scientific peers of exceptional contributions to physics. No more than one half of 1 percent of APS membership can be elected in a given year. Those honored are: Charles Barbour, for outstanding contributions to […]

Entrepreneur teams with Sandia scientists to bring life-saving vaccines to far reaches of the world
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Getting life-saving vaccines to the most remote parts of the world is no easy feat. Biopharmaceuticals are highly sensitive to heat and cold and can perish if their temperature shifts a few degrees. “The vast majority of the world’s population lives in areas where electricity and refrigeration are not reliable,” said Bruce […]

Computer power clicks with geochemistry
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Sandia National Laboratories is developing computer models that show how radioactive waste interacts with soil and sediments, shedding light on waste disposal and how to keep contamination away from drinking water. “Very little is known about the fundamental chemistry and whether contaminants will stay in soil or rock or be pulled off […]

Study could help improve nuclear waste repositories
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Here’s the question faced by a team of Sandia National Laboratories researchers: How fast will iodine-129 released from spent nuclear fuel move through a deep, clay-based geological repository? Understanding that process is crucial as countries worldwide consider underground clay formations for nuclear waste disposal, because clay offers low permeability and high radionuclide […]

Sandia’s Nancy Jackson named American Chemical Society Fellow
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – A Sandia National Laboratories chemical engineer whose team partners with chemistry labs around the world to ensure chemicals are handled safely and securely has been named a 2013 American Chemical Society (ACS) Fellow. The prestigious honor, given by the world’s largest scientific society, is awarded to scientists who have demonstrated outstanding accomplishments […]
Sandia wins three R&D 100 awards
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Sandia National Laboratories researchers — competing in an international pool of universities, corporations and government labs — captured three R&D 100 Awards in this year’s contest. R&D Magazine presents the awards each year to researchers whom its editors and independent judging panels determine have developed the year’s 100 most outstanding advances in […]

Detecting homemade explosives, not toothpaste
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Sandia National Laboratories researchers want airports, border checkpoints and others to detect homemade explosives made with hydrogen peroxide without nabbing people whose toothpaste happens to contain peroxide. That’s part of the challenge faced in developing a portable sensor to detect a common homemade explosive called a FOx (fuel/oxidizer) mixture, made by mixing […]

Fertilizer that fizzles in a homemade bomb could save lives around the world
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – A Sandia engineer who trained U.S. soldiers to avoid improvised explosive devices (IEDs) has developed a fertilizer that helps plants grow but can’t detonate a bomb. It’s an alternative to ammonium nitrate, an agricultural staple that is also the raw ingredient in most of the IEDs in Afghanistan. Sandia has decided not […]

Alloy developed at Sandia has potential for electronics in wells
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — An alloy that may improve high-temperature electronics in oil and geothermal wells was really a solution in search of a problem. Sandia National Laboratories first investigated the gold-silver-germanium alloy about 15 years ago as a possible bonding material in a new neutron tube product. But a design change forced Sandia to shelve […]

Keeping tabs on the world’s dangerous chemicals
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – In the chemistry labs of the developing world, it’s not uncommon to find containers, forgotten on shelves, with only vague clues to their origins. The label, if there is one, is rubbed away. Left alone for years, some chemicals can quietly break down into explosive elixirs, and what was once an innocent […]

Scientists to explore need for, relevance of combustion engines at AAAS gathering
Enhancements to combustion technology can still help with carbon reduction, oil savings issues LIVERMORE, Calif.— The internal combustion engine has been the workhorse for transportation for more than a century, but Sandia National Laboratories researchers say there is still plenty to learn about engineering it to burn cleaner and more efficiently. A Sandia researcher will […]

‘Zombie’ replica cells may outperform live ones as catalysts and conductors
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 simplify a wide variety of […]

Four technology transfer awards go to Sandia Labs
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Sandia National Laboratories has won four awards from the Federal Laboratory Consortium (FLC) for Sandia’s efforts to develop and commercialize innovative technologies. The FLC’s Far West/Mid-Continent regional awards recognized Sandia’s technology transfer work with crystalline silico-titanates (CSTs), biomimetic membranes, the i-Gate Innovation Hub and DAKOTA software. “It is always gratifying when the […]

Students painlessly measure knee joint fluids in annual Sandia contest
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 from nine universities, nearly double […]