Mystery readers know that arsenic and selenium are two elements that are considered poisonous to the human body in high dosages. Using animal studies, scientists are finding out that there may be a benevolent side to these elements when taken together in specified dose rates. Researchers at the Synchrotron Division of the DOE's Stanford Linear Accelerator Center say that these results can have important human implications in parts of the world where drinking water is contaminated by arsenic.
 

Evidence supporting a theory about neutron stars was reported by DOE's Lawrence Livermore National Lab. Neutron stars have the mass of an ordinary star compressed into a spinning ball about 12 miles across. Livermore astrophysicist Richard Klein and colleagues from the University of California theorized that a neutron star accompanied by a companion star can release energy from bubbles of hot X-rays bursting at the neutron star's surface. They then confirmed key aspects of this "photon bubble" theory by using a NASA satellite to observe the Centaurus X-3 neutron star about 30,000 light-years distant.
 

A tiny temperature telesensor developed at DOE's Oak Ridge National Laboratory could have a huge impact as a reliable, inexpensive wireless monitoring device. The sensor, which measures 3-by-3 millimeters, could be particularly useful in industrial, home and medical settings. The device uses wireless spread-spectrum technology, commonly used in advanced 900-megahertz cordless telephones. While wireless sensors offer major benefits, they must be small, inexpensive and rugged to warrant wide-scale adoption. The ORNL telesensor meets those prerequisites not only for medical applications, but for a variety of other uses.
 

Efficient packing is important not only to travelers, but also to people dismantling outdated nuclear research buildings. However, instead of shoes and toiletries crammed into suitcases, decontamination and decommissioning (D&D) personnel routinely pack a building's potentially radioactive and contaminated piping, tanks, pumps, and other equipment into waste boxes. Researchers at DOE's Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory have developed a software simulation program to optimize the cutting and packaging of debris resulting from D&D operations. The Decontamination, Decommissioning and Remediation Optimal Planning System (DDROPS) software program simulates a facility for remediation preplanning and waste minimization purposes.
 

Researchers at DOE's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory are developing a heat-actuated heat pump small enough to fit within the walls or floor of a home to provide efficient space heating and cooling. Increased efficiency comes from the fabrication of tiny channels within the heat exchanger, where much of the heat pump's work takes place. Smaller channels result in more effective heat transfer due to the intimate contact between the refrigerant and heat exchanger surfaces. The heat pump uses heat, rather than electricity, to provide cooling. Researchers have developed miniaturized versions of the components for a prototype heat pump and expect to have a working system in about two years.
 

Maher Tadros and Mark Tucker may soon have an option for emergency personnel debating how to respond to a terrorist release of chemical or biological warfare agents. The two researchers from DOE's Sandia National Laboratories have developed a foam that is not harmful to people and begins neutralizing both chemical and biological agents in minutes.

Foam co-developer Maher Tadros demonstrates application of the new chem-bio decontamination foam from a pressurized canister.

The dilemma faced by response teams is that if they enter a chem/bio scene without knowing what agents are present, they could become victims. If they wait to evaluate, however, more people might die—or worse, an agent could disperse and cause widespread casualties.

"Whatever you do, it's best to act very quickly," says Tadros. "This foam can start neutralizing an agent or combinations of agents right away, even before you know what you're dealing with."

In laboratory tests the foam destroyed simulants of VX, mustard, and soman chemical agents, and killed a simulant of anthrax—the toughest known biological agent. "It has performed superbly for all the agents we have tested it against," Tadros says.

And, adds Tucker, "If you can kill spores, you can kill germinating bacteria and you can deactivate viruses. Spores are the most difficult."

Tadros came to Sandia four years ago after a 21-year career with Lockheed Martin, where he worked mostly in aerospace programs, once earning an Inventor of the Year award. A Distinguished Member of Technical Staff, he was educated at Clarkson and the University of Southern California, earning a PhD in chemistry at the latter.

Tucker, who received a bachelor's degree in engineering at Purdue in 1980, has been at Sandia since 1983. He spent most of the current decade working in environmental remediation projects—particularly bio-remediation—and earned a PhD in environmental engineering from the University of New Mexico in December 1997.

Submitted by DOE's Sandia National Laboratories