A North Carolina company has teamed with DOE's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory to produce a new, environmentally-friendly system for dry cleaning clothes.  The MiCARE Garment Cleaning System utilizes the laboratory's discoveries related to the behavior of compressed carbon dioxide, which has a density like water, a viscosity similar to a gas and the ability to reach places water and chemical solvents can't.  Pacific Northwest's discoveries, combined with the firm's special detergents, boost cleaning power and could  replace conventional, solvent-based cleaning with processes that use no water, have low energy requirements, and employ no toxic substances.  
 

Fate of the Earth   

DOE's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is studying molten rock remnants in Laos and Vietnam to reveal secrets of what happens to the planet following a meteorite impact. Recently, Livermore physicist Peter Fiske uncovered the remains of a powerful impact that threw out millions of tons of molten rock, known as tektites, 770,000 years ago. He and NASA collaborators hope the tektite data will help determine what happened to the planet after the strike. "There is evidence suggesting our planet can take a pretty good licking and keep on ticking," said Fiske. 
 

Going Where No Hospital Has Gone Before    

A portable medical imaging device developed at DOE's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory is making its way up Mount Everest with a team of scientists studying physiological effects of high altitude climbs.  The device, called MUSTPAC, weighs 85 pounds and can fit inside a large backpack.  It sends three-dimensional ultrasound images across satellites and telecommunication lines from remote places to doctors around the world for quick diagnosis. Earlier this month, the device was used to send ultrasound images via satellite from a Mount Everest base camp at 17,500 feet to Pacific Northwest, then routed to doctors at Yale University and Walter Reed Hospital in Washington D.C. 
MUSTPAC was field tested by the U.S. Army in Bosnia in late 1996.  More information can be found at http://www.pnl.gov/3dmed/index.html or http://www.pnl.gov/news/1997/bnw97_19.htm. 
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Ironclad Analysis 

DOE’s Los Alamos National Laboratory researchers are using statistical analysis in place of tedious chemistry to quantify impurities in steel and other products, reducing time and cost of analysis. Iron, the main component of steel, interferes with the telltale signals of impurities when analyzed by atomic emission spectroscopy. Normally, the iron must be removed through a chemical process. Los Alamos researchers now use a special algorithm that analyzes the entire spectrum in a spectral analysis rather than one wavelength. The method can analyze at levels below parts per million, with fewer errors from contaminants. 
 

Mass Spec for Finding Chemical, Biological Agents  

DOE's Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Army are working together to build a new tool for better detection of deadly chemical and biological warfare agents. The Block II Chemical and Biological Mass Spectrometer, to be developed by 2001, will be smaller, lighter, faster, cheaper, more sensitive and yet more rugged than current technology. It will distinguish among a wider variety of warfare agents without sounding false alarms; some testing with actual agents will be conducted at ORNL to refine the instrument's capabilities. Civilians will be able to use the Block II to map pollutants, rapidly identify hospital bacteria, and detect bacterial contamination in food. 
 

Music -- Pickin' and Grinnin' 

Nuclear weapons and five-string banjos may seem worlds apart, but a program at the DOE Oak Ridge Y-12 Plant is making for some sweet sounds. At the Oak Ridge Centers for Manufacturing Technology, a joint program with DOE's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the same technology and skills developed for the production of nuclear weapon components is helping Crafters of Tennessee produce instruments that banjo pickers say sound more true to their heritage. The key is in the banjo tone ring that recreates the distinctive sound of pre-World War II banjos. As Crafters of Tennessee's Mark Taylor puts it, "The new tone ring creates a really pure note that's as clear as a piano -- without overtones." 
 

New Breast Cancer Diagnostic Tool on Horizon 

A new diagnostic tool is being developed to help detect breast cancer using licensed technology developed at DOE's Jefferson Lab for its nuclear physics mission. This tool will use nuclear medical imaging known as scintimammography to pinpoint cancerous breast tissue. Tumors as small as 4 millimeters in diameter can be detected with this technology as opposed to mammography x-rays that usually can't go smaller than 7 millimeters.  This technology will be used when x-rays mammograms show an abnormality and will prevent some breast biopsies. Testing of the device is currently underway.  
 

Nuclear Science Wall Chart Debuts 

After extensive testing in high schools in the U.S. and abroad, a spectacular new wall chart that colorfully illustrates fundamental principles, recent discoveries, and future directions in nuclear science is hot off the press and available to teachers around the world. Members of DOE’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's Nuclear Science Division conceived the chart and developed it with the Contemporary Physics Education Project (CPEP), an international nonprofit organization of educators and physicists. Designed as a classroom tool for high school and college level students, the chart and accompanying teacher's guide were funded by grants from the DOE, National Science Foundation, and American Physical Society. To preview the chart and find out how to order copies, go to http://pdg.lbl.gov/cpep.html. 
 

Preventing "Sulfur Poisoning" 

Metal and oxide catalysts are important in oil refining and reducing auto emissions. But these catalysts are deactivated, or "poisoned," by minute quantities of sulfur found in petroleum products. Researchers at DOE’s Brookhaven National Laboratory are using x-rays and ultraviolet light at the Laboratory's National Synchrotron Light Source to see exactly how sulfur affects these catalysts. Such research may lead to new sulfur-resistant catalysts that could even remove sulfur from crude oil. Preventing "sulfur poisoning" would save the chemical industry millions of dollars annually. It would also help the environment by reducing or eliminating sulfur oxide pollutants produced when fuel is burned. 
 

Ranger Stars in Baghdad Palace Tour 

A DOE Los Alamos National Laboratory device that can identify radioactive materials was used to inspect Iraqi presidential palaces by a United Nations Special Commission team seeking evidence of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons. The Ranger device discovered a slightly radioactive thorium alloy in helicopter rotors, but no suspicious nuclear materials. Officials familiar with the UNSCOM work said inspectors were enthusiastic about Ranger's usefulness in clarifying otherwise uncertain detection of radioactive materials. Ranger is a hand-held, real-time radiation sensor that helps locate radioactive materials and identify the isotopic source. Los Alamos has transferred the Ranger technology to Quantrad Sensor Inc., in Santa Clara, Calif. 
 

Ritalin in the Brain: Righty-Lefty Counts!  

A dose of Ritalin is only half-effective in the brain, research at DOE’s Brookhaven National Laboratory's Center for Imaging and Neurosciences has found. That's because only the molecules with a "right-handed" orientation can bind effectively to brain-cell receptors and help control the flow of the brain communication chemical dopamine -- the action that alleviates the symptoms of Attention Deficit Disorder in children who take the drug. Currently available Ritalin is a mixture of right- and left-handed molecules. Chemist Yu-Shin Ding and her colleagues used Positron Emission Tomography, or PET, brain scans to make the discovery, which may apply to many other pharmaceuticals.  
 

Test Your Mine Detector  

Located at DOE's Nevada Test Site, the Underground Buried Objects Facility is Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's shared resource for emerging technologies to locate mines for humanitarian and military removal. This unique, enclosed 70-acre field contains 276 de-fused land mines of different types--all with their original explosives charges. These explosive ordnance have been buried several years, so chemical and physical emissions or "signatures" mimic actual field conditions. Each mine's type and location are plotted so researchers can calibrate and test detection equipment. The characteristics and location of another 20 mines are kept from researchers as a "blind" test-course for new technologies.