LIVERMORE, Calif. — Teachers are no strangers to surprising their students, but in late April, the tables were turned on Livermore teachers Fenna Gatty and Gretchen Reynolds. In front of their students and colleagues, they were surprised as the winners of the Excellence in Teaching Award presented by the Livermore Valley Education Foundation and Sandia […]
Category Archives: Science / Technology / Engineering
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History of Sandia Labs rocketry told in award-winning film, ‘It Really Is Rocket Science!’
June 5, 2017 – 5:00 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The history of rocket testing and aerospace work at Sandia National Laboratories is the history of aero everything. “There was aeroheating and aeroballistics and aerodynamics and all things aero,” said Myra Buteau, a Sandia Labs video producer whose latest half-hour documentary, “It Really is Rocket Science!” tells the story of the laboratories’ […]
Sandia recognizes top female high school students in math, science in northern California
May 16, 2017 – 10:30 am
Mentorship emerged as theme for this year’s program LIVERMORE, Calif. – Female scholars from the junior class from San Francisco Bay Area high schools recently gathered at Sandia’s California site for the 26th annual Sandia Math and Science Awards. The Sandia Math and Science Awards program recognizes high-achieving young women for their accomplishments in STEM […]
Strategic Petroleum Reserve taps Sandia expertise in salt
May 15, 2017 – 8:05 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Not all salt is created equal, so when the nation stockpiles oil in salt caverns, it’s important to know all about the salt itself, as well as the shape of the storage caverns. Decades of Sandia National Laboratories expertise on how salt domes behave went into a recent report that concluded that […]
Trash into treasure: Sandia could help biofuel pay for itself with goods made from waste
May 4, 2017 – 8:55 am
EMERYVILLE, Calif. — A recent discovery by Sandia National Laboratories researchers may unlock the potential of biofuel waste — and ultimately make biofuels competitive with petroleum. Fuel made from plants is much more expensive than petroleum, but one way to decrease the cost would be to sell products made from lignin, the plant waste left […]
More small, clean-energy businesses will tap into Sandia technical expertise
April 25, 2017 – 8:35 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The Department of Energy has chosen five more small, clean-energy businesses to work with Sandia National Laboratories to speed the commercialization of next-generation technologies and gain a global competitive advantage for the U.S. “Sandia is excited to bring these small businesses together with our scientists and engineers to tackle challenges and bring […]
Better living through pressure: functional nanomaterials made easy
April 18, 2017 – 5:00 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Using pressure instead of chemicals, a Sandia National Laboratories team has fabricated nanoparticles into nanowire-array structures similar to those that underlie the surfaces of touch-screens for sensors, computers, phones and TVs. The pressure-based fabrication process takes nanoseconds. Chemistry-based industrial techniques take hours. The process, called stress-induced fabrication, “is a new technology that […]
Drop of mock B61-12 is first of new flight tests
April 13, 2017 – 2:39 pm
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — From a distance, the drop of a mock nuclear weapon — containing only non-nuclear components — was a mere puff of dust rising from a dry lake bed at Nevada’s Tonopah Test Range. However, it marked the start of a new series of test flights vital to the nation’s B61-12 weapon refurbishment […]
Predicting the limits of friction: Sandia looks at properties of material
March 23, 2017 – 5:00 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Normally, bare metal sliding against bare metal is not a good thing. Friction will destroy pistons in an engine, for example, without lubrication. Sometimes, however, functions require metal on metal contact, such as in headphone jacks or electrical systems in wind turbines. Still, friction causes wear and wear destroys performance, and it’s […]
Testing for Zika virus: there’s an app for that
March 20, 2017 – 11:58 am
Sandia prototype dramatically cuts cost, time for detection of mosquito-borne illness LIVERMORE, Calif. — Add rapid, mobile testing for Zika and other viruses to the list of things that smartphone technology is making possible. Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories have developed a smartphone-controlled, battery-operated diagnostic device that weighs under a pound, costs as little as […]