• Better Batteries for Grid-Scale Energy Storage

    Molten sodium batteries have been used for many years to store energy from renewable sources, such as solar panels and wind turbines. However, commercially available molten sodium batteries, called sodium-sulfur batteries, typically operate at 520-660 degrees Fahrenheit. Sandia Lab’s new molten sodium-iodide battery, using low- cost materials, operates at a much cooler 230 degrees Fahrenheit instead.

  • Protecting Lives on the Wildland Fire Line

    Unlike first responders who fight structural fires, wildland firefighters are unable to use the current standard respirator systems, which are heavy, limited to 45 minutes of air and are too bulky. Since the current standard equipment for respiratory protection is a bandanna, DHS S&T and partners designed the Wildfire Respirator around a lightweight mask covering just the mouth and nose, relying on filtration rather than on heavy tanks of compressed air.

  • Malware Detection for Androids

    Conventional antivirus and malware detection often fails to detect malware where the software signature may well be only marginally different from the original virus. Researchers have developed a new approach that can detect malicious activity at the source code level.

  • Handheld Screening Wands May Reduce Need for Airport Pat-Downs

    Until recently, creating an effective and reliable handheld screening technology of passengers was too costly. Advancements made in 5G cell phones, automotive radars, embedded computing, and other critical enabling technologies now make screening solutions such as the handheld millimeter wave wand cost effective.

  • A 10-Year Look at the Battery Supply Chain in America

    A new report offers a detailed view of America’s EV battery supply chain over the last decade. The insights offered can help regulators and other key decisionmakers plan for the future growth of electric vehicles (EVs) in the U.S. This is important, because EVs can help put America on the path toward a clean energy economy. but the supply chain behind them is not fully understood.

  • Global Approach Is Needed on Battery Regulation

    New EU regulations on batteries could offer a huge boost to the global decarbonization mission – but only if the EU leverages its political and economic weight to ensure a fairer global marketplace.

  • New Weapons Testing Capability Produces Richer Data, Saves Time, Cost

    A team of Sandia National Laboratories engineers developed a new testing capability in support of the lab’s nuclear weapons mission. The new weapons testing capability produces richer data, and saves time and cost. “Superfuge” test combines multiple environments on a full-scale weapons system.

  • Pegasus Project Shows the Need for Real Device Security, Accountability and Redress for those Facing State-Sponsored Malware

    It is no surprise that people around the world are angry to learn that surveillance software sold by NSO Group to governments has been found on cellphones worldwide. People all around the world deserve the right to have a private conversation. Communication privacy is a human right, a civil liberty, and one of the centerpieces of a free society. And while we all deserve basic communications privacy, the journalists, NGO workers, and human rights and democracy activists among us are especially at risk, since they are often at odds with powerful governments.

  • Spyware: Why the Booming Surveillance Tech Industry Is Vulnerable to Corruption and Abuse

    The latest revelations about NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware are the latest indication that the spyware industry is out of control, with licensed customers free to spy on political and civilian targets as well as suspected criminals. We may be heading to a world in which no phone is safe from such attacks.

  • Bringing the Jury to the Crime Scene Via a 3D Headset

    Delivering the correct verdict on car accident and murder cases is contingent on good spatial awareness, but short of being at the scene of the crime, jurors confined to the court room may be more prone to errors. Thanks to the advent of virtual reality (VR), jurors now have a better chance of making the right decision.

  • Smartphone Screens Effective Sensors for Soil or Water Contamination

    The touchscreen technology used in billions of smartphones and tablets could also be used as a powerful sensor, without the need for any modifications.

  • Growing Unease in Israel over Pegasus Case

    Israel is worried that the Pegasus spyware revelations may turn a PR black eye into a diplomatic crisis. Israel never exhibited any qualms about dealing with and selling arms to pretty unsavory regimes, but such deals were typically kept secret. The fact that the Israeli Ministry of Defense authorized the NSO Group to sell the Pegasus spyware to regimes which then used it to spy on opposition figures, civil society activists, and journalists – and, in the case of Saudi Arabia, to track Jamal Khashoggi and kill him — has raised questions about what did the government know and when did it know it.

  • Detecting, Blocking Grid Cyberattacks

    Researchers have designed and demonstrated a technology that can block cyberattacks from impacting the nation’s electric power grid.

  • Macron’s Secure Mobile Phone Compromised by Pegasus Spyware

    The secure smartphone of French president Emmanuel Macron was compromised by the Pegasus surveillance malware. It was surreptitiously installed by Moroccan intelligence operatives, who introduced the virus into the phones of former Prime Minister Edouard Philippe and fourteen other current and former French cabinet ministers.

  • The U.S. Army Tried Portable Nuclear Power at Remote Bases 60 Years Ago – It Didn’t Go Well

    The U.S. military’s Camp Century was a series of tunnels built into the Greenland ice sheet and used for both military research and scientific projects. The military boasted that the nuclear reactor there, known as the PM-2A, needed just 44 pounds of uranium to replace a million or more gallons of diesel fuel. Heat from the reactor ran lights and equipment and allowed the 200 or so men at the camp as many hot showers as they wanted in that brutally cold environment. The PM-2A was the third child in a family of eight Army reactors, several of them experiments in portable nuclear power.