A quarterly research and development magazine
From the Editor
Dear Readers,
At Sandia, researchers often find themselves
traveling to the far ends of the world to provide
exceptional service and this issue of Sandia
Technology provides an example. Over the years,
our technical staff members have spent weeks
— and months — away from home, living in
remote locales. More...
Download Sandia Technology — 4.7MB PDF
What is 
?
Spring 2007 — Volume 9, No. 1
Understanding climate change
Climate researchers are focusing increased
attention on high latitudes as they work
to better understand the interactions of a
complex atmosphere-land-ocean system. The
Arctic is predicted to undergo more intense
warming than any other region on earth because
water undergoes a specific seasonal phase
change there. Scientific evidence shows that
this warming is already happening.
Describing fundamental properties of materials
Gold is shiny, diamonds are transparent, and
iron is magnetic. Ever wonder why?
The answer lies with a material’s electronic
structure, which determines its electrical,
optical, and magnetic properties. In a number
of areas of engineering, including weapons,
Sandia relies extensively on using and controlling
such properties.
Keeping watch on the world
“USNDS may be more important than ever to
strategic national security. The threats are
real, and USNDS provides critical
global awareness.”
— Jerry McDowell,
Sandia Vice President for Defense
Systems and Assessments
Assessing dental disease in minutes
A recently completed pilot study conducted
with the University of Michigan shows that a
Sandia handheld device determined in minutes
— from a tiny sample of saliva alone —
if a patient has gum disease and quantitatively
how advanced the disease is.
Scaling down to the micro-dimension
One of the great revelations of
engineering at the micro- and nano-scales
is that the micro-world is quite, quite different
from the world we can see and touch.
