| Between a rock and a hard-to-analyse non-conducting surface
Chemists can now paint a picture of a rock in as much chemical detail as if Monet had painted it himself. Using secondary ion mass spectrometry, researchers from DOE's Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory dislodged surface chemicals from basalt, a rock common to several DOE nuclear research sites, and identified them and their distribution on the rock's surface. To map the rock's chemicals, the researchers had to overcome basalt's insulating surface. The technique, published in the May 1 issue of Analytical Chemistry, can be used to predict the fate of contaminants passing through soil and could be applied to other non-conducting surfaces, such as pesticide-tainted produce.
Find the right filling station for alternative vehicles
A new on-line interactive computer program is taking the guesswork out of finding the fuel needed by the thousands of alternative vehicles on the road today. The Alternative Fuel Refueling Station Locator was developed by DOE's Alternative Fuels Data Center, which is managed by the DOE's National Renewable Energy Laboratory. The user-friendly national locator can help drivers find ethanol and methanol blends, electricity, propane and natural gas. Drivers can search by a specific address, city, state or region. Users can "zoom in" and "zoom out" to view surrounding areas and streets and print maps as needed. Visit the refueling station locator at http://afdcmap.nrel.gov/nrel.
Fish-friendly dam turbines
Although turbines have generated power at hydroelectric dams for more than 100 years, not much is known about how water flowing through the turbines may harm fish. Now researchers at three DOE national laboratories have begun examining the relationship between water velocities within the turbine chamber and injuries to fish. Laboratory researchers are studying one particular phenomenon called shear force, which occurs when two different water velocities collide. Depending on the shear's intensity, a fish may be disoriented momentarily, lose its scales, or be bruised or cut. Findings from this study could provide hydroelectric dam operators with some of the information necessary to design fish-friendly turbines.
IR devices reduces assembly-line trauma
A rapid infrared heating device developed at DOE's Oak Ridge National
Laboratory for fabricating steering wheel assemblies is reducing repetitive
stress injuries in one type of automotive manufacturing. The "polymer boot
heater" eases the installation of the protective boot, or polymer bellows,
which is used in automotive rack-and-pinion steering assemblies. The heater
expands the leading part of the polymer boot so it can be easily mounted
onto a metal housing. According to one General Motors official, "The
polymer boot heater has virtually eliminated the force needed to install
the boot. This reduction in force has resulted in the elimination of our
ergonomics problem."
Most distant radio galaxy identified
An astronomer from DOE's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory reported discovery of the most distant known radio galaxy. The galaxy, which may include a super-massive black hole, is located nearly 11 billion light years from Earth in the southern constellation Hydra. Its discovery was made possible by several newly available tools including deep radio surveys, large optical telescopes and infrared detectors. Livermore's Wil van Breugel announced the finding to the American Astronomical Society representing a team from University of California campuses at Berkeley and Davis, Leiden University and the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in New Mexico.
Natural gas vans help clear the air
A first-of-its-kind test of natural gas vans may yield data that will help confirm the performance and benefits of alternative fuel vehicles. DOE's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has agreed to collect one year's data on fueling, maintenance, emissions and overall performance of 10 natural gas vans operated by SuperShuttle in Denver, Colo. The performance of the alternative fuel vans will be compared with that of the gasoline-only vans already in their fleet. NREL's cooperative research and development agreement with the Gas Research Institute aims to demonstrate and promote alternative transportation technology that can improve air quality and enhance domestic energy security.
One-Ångstrom Microscope achieves resolution milestone
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| Columns of carbon atoms in diamond at
0.89-angstrom separation.
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Christian Kisielowski, Michael O'Keefe, and their colleagues at the DOE's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have used the One-Ångstrom Microscope at the National Center for Electron Microscopy to make unprecedented images of carbon atoms in a diamond lattice, only 0.89 angstrom apart. And in a first for electron microscopy, the OÅM has resolved nitrogen atoms near massive gallium atoms in gallium nitride, in columns spaced only 1.13 angstroms apart. Says Kiesielowski, "Images of light elements such as carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen in solids at atomic resolution—achieved by a technique that can be a routine tool—is a very big step forward."
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Sandia's tiny acoustic wave sensors part of 'chem lab on a chip'
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| Steve Casalnuovo shows a large computer printout of the design of an acoustic wave sensor
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Minute acoustic wave chemical sensors being developed at DOE's Sandia National Laboratories will in the next two years be part of a hand-held chemical detection system-commonly called "chem lab on a chip-and other integrated microsensor systems.
The microsensors, each about the size of a grain of rice, are similar to a "canary in a mine." Like the canary, the sensors will be able to detect the presence of chemicals in the environment. But unlike the bird, they won't sicken or die when exposed to the chemicals: They will simply alert people to the potential hazard.
Chem lab on a chip, formally called "Chemlab," is a Sandia initiative to build a hand-held "chemistry laboratory" the size of a palm-top computer. The acoustic wave sensor is one piece of equipment in that laboratory.
"What's important here is that the chemical sensing transducer and microelectronics are integrated onto a single substrate," says Steve Casalnuovo, who for the past three years has led a team of engineers and scientists developing the integrated sensor. "Monolithic integration has a lot of advantages but the principal one for us is the small size of the resulting devices."
An array of as many as four or five miniature sensors-each about two millimeters by 0.5 millimeters, by 0.5 millimeters and sensitive to different chemicals-could be built on a chip the size of a shirt button. Because of their size, they may eventually be used as mobile chemical detecting units carried by robotic vehicles to chemical spills, or worn by troops on a battlefield.
Casalnuovo says team members are investigating new types of acoustic wave devices that will provide more sensitive chemical detection, and foresee the time when they could sound a warning that a certain chemical is in the vicinity.
Submitted by DOE's Sandia National Laboratories |
