Top Story Archive

Grid bridges 4,800 miles to make molecular repositories more accessible
In a bid to facilitate collaboration among other biomolecular researchers, the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory has become the first institution outside the United Kingdom to join the Biological Simulation Grid Consortium of Great Britain.
11.14.2005

What Cascade Curtain?
A new connection on a fiber optic cable between Richland and Seattle has been lit to support the high-speed transfer of very large data sets between researchers at the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and U.S. and international science communities.
10.26.2005

Air quality in West going south
By mid-century, air quality throughout the Western United States will deteriorate, according to a new EPA-funded computer simulation by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.
10.6.2005

Groundwater sampling goes tubular
"Leave No Trace" is a popular ethic for outdoor recreationists who advocate a natural landscape. Now it is also applicable to groundwater sampling collection sites along the Columbia River in southeastern Washington State.
9.27.2005

Ecologists spawn new use for PIT tags
Fishing for a way to assess mixing behavior in treatment tanks for radioactive waste, ecologists at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory came up with an innovative use of radio frequency technology previously used to track migrating fish.
9.26.2005

Navy microbiologist joins PNNL to work on biodefense for national security
James R. Campbell, a microbiologist with more than 30 years experience combating infectious diseases that could threaten national security, has joined the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory as a manager in the physical and chemical sciences division. At PNNL, he will help guide biological security and biological defense programs and initiatives for national security applications.
9.14.2005

New 'biosensor' screens Air Force personnel and equipment for contamination - within minutes
Air Force personnel will soon know within minutes if they or their equipment are contaminated with a biological agent, thanks to a new technology developed by the Air Force and a national laboratory.
6.16.2005

Earth lightens up
Earth's surface has been getting brighter for more than a decade, a reversal from a dimming trend that may accelerate warming at the surface and unmask the full effect of greenhouse warming, according to an exhaustive new study of the solar energy that reaches land.
5.5.2005

Chemical Signatures for Bioforensics
The scientific analysis of biological evidence isn't just determining what something is - it's also learning how and where it was developed.
4.27.2005

ICPB locks in license to improve plastics with corn
The Iowa Corn Promotion Board, ICPB, has signed its first commercial license with Battelle to produce a new plastic additive made from corn that offers a variety of commercial advantages. Battelle operates the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory based in Richland, Wash., where the research will occur.
3.21.2005

Dropping nano-anchor
Touch the tines of a tuning fork and it goes silent. Scientists have faced a similar problem trying to harness the strength and conductivity of carbon nanotubes, regarded as material of choice for the next generation of everything from biosensors to pollution-trapping sponges.
3.17.2005

Newly patented system fights corrosion
Researchers at the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory made a key advance in developing a fully automated system that fights corrosion and wear and tear in even the hardest-to-reach places.
3.14.2005

Superglue of planet formation: sticky ice
How dust specks in the early solar systems came together to become planets has vexed astronomers for years.
3.8.2005

Fleshing out the genome
Genomics, the study of all the genetic sequences in living organisms, has leaned heavily on the blueprint metaphor. A large part of the blueprint, unfortunately, has been unintelligible, with no good way to distinguish a bathroom from a boardroom, to link genomic features to cell function.
2.4.2005

Plasma technology offers breathable air in biological and chemical threat situations
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory researchers are using the universe's most common form of matter, plasma, in a new filtration system that may one day save the lives of people seeking shelter from chemical or biological attacks.
2.2.2005

Have profiling microwave radiometer, will travel
Balloon-borne sounding system. Check. Micropulse lidar. Check. Infrared thermometer. Check. Eddy correlation flux measurement system. Eddy correlation flux measurement system?! Check already.
1.27.2005

Want to petrify wood without waiting a few million years? Try this
California has Silicon Valley. Could a Silicon Forest in Washington be next? A team of materials scientists from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory is on it.
1.24.2005