Research
Highlights...
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| Number 90 |
September 24, 2001 |
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Chemical
warfare agents detectable on
soils, plants
Military
commanders and national leaders need to know if chemical warfare
agents are present before sending troops into hostile territory.
Researchers at DOE's Idaho National
Engineering and Environmental Laboratory can now detect part-per-million
levels of chemical warfare agents directly on soil or plant surfaces
within 5 to 10 minutes using a new ion-trap secondary ion mass
spectrometer. Samples as small as 3 to 4 milligrams-about 40 grains
of salt-are identified by the ions that the instrument sputters
off the sample surfaces. Each chemical present is identified by
a detectable spectrum as unique as a fingerprint.
[Deborah
Hill, 208/526-4723,
dahill@inel.gov]
Chem-bio
detection tool fast, sensitive
A technology from
DOE's Oak Ridge National Laboratory
could play a part in safeguarding not only our military forces,
but also people at airports, stadiums and other public gathering
places. The Block II Chemical Biological Mass Spectrometer is
the first integrated instrument capable of detecting and identifying
both chemical warfare agents and biological warfare agents.
The instrument combines the detection speed, sensitivity and
specificity necessary for environmental detection of highly
diverse classes of materials in a package that is field-portable.
First applications will be on the battlefield with future applications
likely to support efforts in counter terrorism, domestic preparedness,
law enforcement and health care. Existing technologies are severely
limited in sensitivity, detection range and speed of response.
[Ron
Walli, 865/576-0226,
wallira@ornl.gov]
Oboe:
Music to Livermore ears
In 1992, testing
of nuclear weapons by exploding them beneath the Nevada Test
Site stopped. Today instead, science-based Stockpile Stewardship
assures weapon safety and reliability. An array of high-tech
experiments yields data for supercomputer programs that simulate
weapon aging and operation. Now, far beneath the Nevada desert,
subcritical experiments replace the "big-bang" explosions
of decades past. In "subcrits," a coin-sized plutonium disc
is shocked by high explosive, while sensitive instruments
measure particles ejected from the surface. Subcrits began
July 2, 1997. DOE's Lawrence
Livermore National Laboratory is readying Oboe 8, which
will be the 14th NNSA subcritical experiment overall and the
10th for Livermore.
[David Schwoegler,
925/422-6900,
newsguy@llnl.gov]
Real-time
beryllium detection
Beryllium's high
strength and light weight make it an ideal metal for many
industrial applications. Breathing fine particulate beryllium,
however, can be a health hazard to workers who grind, mill
or otherwise machine the metal. In some individuals beryllium
triggers an autoimmune response that can result in Chronic
Beryllium Disease, a debilitating, incurable and sometimes
fatal disease. A beryllium detection technique, a quick colorimetric
analysis from DOE's Los
Alamos National Laboratory, involves wiping the surfaces
of the lab with a chemically prepared pad and then adding
a solution. If the pad turns blue, beryllium is present; if
it remains orange, the surface is free of contamination.
[Shelley
Thompson, 505/665-7778,
shelley@lanl.gov]
Statistics
stack odds in favor of airlines
Statistical science
is playing a larger role in ensuring flight safety with a
new suite of tools called the Aviation Performance Measuring
System that extracts crucial mechanical information about
airline engines and equipment from digital flight data. Scientists
at DOE's Pacific Northwest National
Laboratory have created statistical algorithms for APMS
so aviation experts can recognize atypical flights-first by
studying thousands of hours of flight data to understand how
normal flights look, then searching the database for flights
that don't fit those patterns. Experts analyze the atypical
flights for evidence of previously unrecognized operational
or equipment problems. Battelle, which operates PNNL for DOE,
has led this research since 1993 for the NASA Ames Research
Center.
[Staci Maloof,
509/372-6313,
staci.maloof@pnl.gov]
Where
in the water is that float from San Diego?
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| SOLO and the New Horizon |
Jim Bishop of DOE's
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory,
co-director of the DOE
Center for Research on Ocean Carbon Sequestration, was
chief scientist on a recent voyage of the Scripps Institution
of Oceanography's research vessel New
Horizon out of San Diego, developing what Bishop calls
"a forensic science to detect biological activity in the deep
sea." A device for optically measuring particulate inorganic
carbon was among the instruments tested and calibrated, along
with a SOLO float that tested a new way to measure carbon
sedimentation. An intermittent GPS caused the SOLO to spend
most of ten days hiding, but it faithfully transmitted satellite
data that aided a midnight recovery off wind-whipped Point
Conception.
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Synchrotron light helps develop new LCD technique
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| Joachim
Stöhr |
A team of researchers from IBM
and DOE's Stanford Linear
Accelerator Center recently announced that they have developed
a revolutionary new technique that can be used in manufacturing
liquid-crystal displays. According to Praveen Chaudari of IBM's
Thomas J. Watson Research Center and Joachim Stöhr, Deputy
Director of the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory at
SLAC, this technique promises to yield high-clarity panels for
laptop computers at substantially reduced costs. The
key to the new method involves using ion beams to irradiate
the two amorphous-carbon surfaces between which liquid-crystal
molecules are trapped. This process establishes a precisely
controllable orientation of the carbon bonds near the surfaces.
These bonds then determine the alignment of the rod-shaped liquid-crystal
molecules—which in turn affects the transmission of light
through the panel. Such alignment has thus far been achieved
by rubbing of polymer surfaces with a velvet cloth, a fairly
dirty process that is not very conducive to large-scale manufacturing.
"The
new process has resulted in the highest-resolution large displays
available today," says Stöhr, who used SLAC's polarized
x-ray beams to examine the orientation of chemical bonds at
the polymer and carbon surfaces. The detailed understanding
of the mechanisms responsible for liquid-crystal alignment that
resulted from his research proved to be one of the keys to the
breakthrough.
Stöhr
has had a long love affair with synchrotron-radiation research
ever since working as a postdoc at DOE's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
in the mid-1970s. After stints in industrial research at EXXON
and IBM during the 1980s and 1990s, he came to SLAC on the first
day of January 2000. In addition to pursuing his own work on
the physics of surfaces, he oversees the chemical and materials-science
research programs at the synchrotron laboratory.
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