ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Sandia National Laboratories researchers have developed tiny, gold antennas to help cameras and sensors that “see” heat deliver clearer pictures of thermal infrared radiation for everything from stars and galaxies to people, buildings and items requiring security. In a Laboratory Directed Research and Development project, a team of researchers developed a nanoantenna-enabled […]
Category Archives: Science / Technology / Engineering
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Seeing infrared: Sandia’s nanoantennas help detectors see more heat, less noise
September 16, 2019 – 5:00 am
Sandia experiments at temperature of sun offer solutions to solar model problems
September 10, 2019 – 5:00 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Experimenting at 4.1 million degrees Fahrenheit, physicists at Sandia National Laboratories’ Z machine have found that an astronomical model — used for 40 years to predict the sun’s behavior as well as the life and death of stars — underestimates the energy blockage caused by free-floating iron atoms, a major player in […]
HOT SHOT findings could save defense tech developers time and money
August 30, 2019 – 10:55 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — An early milestone for developing missile technologies is to show they can work in computer-simulations or large-scale field tests that shake and spin components without falling to pieces. “Screws can back out; things can break,” said Greg Tipton, a structural dynamics engineer at Sandia National Laboratories. Similar tests are performed in the […]
Sandia abuses batteries for better energy storage
August 13, 2019 – 5:00 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — They crush ‘em. They pierce ‘em. They roast ‘em, soak ‘em in saltwater and short circuit ‘em. They overcharge and even over-discharge ‘em. Heck, they can even shoot them with lasers. Those poor batteries never really stand a chance against Sandia National Laboratories researchers whose job is to test the cells beyond […]
How a chicken farmer landed a job in cybersecurity
August 8, 2019 – 5:00 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Logan Carpenter teases his co-workers when they complain about work. Growing up in rural Madison County, Virginia, he worked on a chicken farm through high school and took up landscaping and painting jobs on the side. Tending poultry, performing menial labor for low wages, and being consumed daily by bugs and southern […]
Earthquake or underground explosion?
August 7, 2019 – 5:00 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Sandia National Laboratories researchers, as part of a group of National Nuclear Security Administration scientists, have wrapped up years of field experiments to improve the United States’ ability to differentiate earthquakes from underground explosions, key knowledge needed to advance the nation’s monitoring and verification capabilities for detecting underground nuclear explosions. The nine-year […]
Four Sandia researchers win Presidential Early Career Award
August 1, 2019 – 5:00 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Sandia researchers Salvatore Campione, Matthew Gomez, Paul Schmit and Irina Tezaur have received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers for 2019. President Donald Trump announced the awards as the U.S. government’s most prestigious for early career scientist and engineers. PECASE includes $250,000 as research support over a five-year period […]
Sandia Labs manufacturing spinoff steps into national market
July 29, 2019 – 5:00 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Joe Beck and Eric Branson’s business grew so fast it took them a year just to find time to put up a sign. “It’s since gone way beyond our expectations,” said Beck, president and CEO of Albuquerque-based Advanced Manufactured Power Solutions, or AMPS. The custom manufacturing company builds battery packs, cables and […]
Materials for hydrogen service advanced by new multilab consortium
July 25, 2019 – 5:00 am
LIVERMORE, Calif. — Researchers at Sandia and Pacific Northwest national laboratories are leading a collaborative effort to investigate how hydrogen affects materials such as plastics, rubber, steel and aluminum. The Hydrogen Materials Compatibility Consortium, or H-Mat, will focus on how hydrogen affects polymers and metals used in diverse sectors including fuel cell transportation and hydrogen […]
What do dragonflies teach us about missile defense?
July 24, 2019 – 5:00 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Be grateful you’re not on a dragonfly’s diet. You might be a fruit fly or maybe a mosquito, but it really wouldn’t matter the moment you look back and see four powerful wings pounding through the air after you. You fly for your life, weaving evasively, but the dragonfly somehow tracks you […]
Personalized medicine software vulnerability uncovered by Sandia researchers
July 1, 2019 – 5:00 am
LIVERMORE, Calif. — A weakness in one common open source software for genomic analysis left DNA-based medical diagnostics vulnerable to cyberattacks. Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories identified the weakness and notified the software developers, who issued a patch to fix the problem. The issue has also been fixed in the latest release of the software. […]
Portable gas detection shrinks to new dimensions
June 27, 2019 – 5:00 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A sensor for detecting toxic gases is now smaller, faster and more reliable. Its performance sets it up for integration in a highly sensitive portable system for detecting chemical weapons. Better miniature sensors can also rapidly detect airborne toxins where they occur, providing key information to help emergency personnel respond safely and […]
Don’t set it and forget it — scan it and fix it with tech that detects wind blade damage
June 24, 2019 – 5:00 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Drones and crawling robots outfitted with special scanning technology could help wind blades stay in service longer, which may help lower the cost of wind energy at a time when blades are getting bigger, pricier and harder to transport, Sandia National Laboratories researchers say. As part of the Department of Energy’s Blade […]
Thwarting oil-pipeline corrosion by identifying a nanoscale villain
June 6, 2019 – 5:00 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Steel pipes rust and eventually fail. To preempt disasters, oil companies and others have created computer models to predict when replacement is needed. But if the models themselves go wrong, they can be modified only through experience, a costly problem if detection comes too late. Now, researchers at Sandia National Laboratories, the […]
Sandia launches a bus into space
May 23, 2019 – 8:23 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Sandia National Laboratories recently launched a bus into space. Not the kind with wheels that go round and round, but the kind of device that links electronic devices (a USB cable, short for “universal serial bus,” is one common example). The bus was among 16 total experiments aboard two sounding rockets that […]