A new study suggests that, in a multi-room building, rapid air exchanges can spread the virus rapidly from the source room into other rooms at high concentrations. Particle levels spike in adjacent rooms within 30 minutes and remain elevated for up to 90 minutes.   The findings, published in the journal Building and Environment, come from researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.   SciVIBE talks to lead author, Leonard Pease and co-author Timothy Salsbury to learn more about this new study.

Pods of Science

Faster Air Exchange in Buildings Not Always Beneficial for Coronavirus Levels

Computational chemist Samantha Johnson talks to SciVIBE about her life and work at PNNL and the search for combinations to bolster energy future. Johnson is among the PNNL scientists preparing to move into the Energy Sciences Center, the new $90 million, 140,000-square-foot facility that is expected to open in late 2021.

Finding What Makes Catalysts Tick

Computational chemist Samantha Johnson talks to SciVIBE about her search for combinations to bolster energy future. Johnson is among the PNNL scientists preparing to move into the Energy Sciences Center, the new $90 million, 140,000-square-foot facility that is expected to open in late 2021.

Materials Scientist Curtis Larimer talks about ElastiDry, a PNNL invention that can be applied to PPE in the fight against COVID-19 that emerged as the winner at the recent Department of Energy National Labs Accelerator Pitch Event.   Learn more about ElastiDry.  

Promising Invention Repels Germs, Wows Judges in National Pitch Competition

Year in Review: A look back at three fascinating stories featured in SciVIBE in 2020. PNNL advances the frontiers of knowledge, taking on some of the world’s greatest science and technology challenges. Distinctive strengths in chemistry, Earth sciences, and data analytics are the heart of our science mission, laying a foundation for innovations that improve America’s energy resiliency and enhance our national security. We are a national lab with Pacific Northwest roots and global reach. Whether our researchers are unlocking the mysteries of Earth’s climate, helping modernize the U.S. electric power grid, or safeguarding ports around the world from nuclear smuggling, we accept great challenges for one purpose: to create a world that is safer, cleaner, more prosperous, and more secure.

SciVIBE: 2020 Year In Review

While trees are known to absorb greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, PNNL researchers have found that under certain circumstances, trees actually contribute the more powerful greenhouse gas methane to the atmosphere. It can happen when seawater floods nearby forests; the flooding acts like a switch, causing release of methane from soil and trees. In some cases, enough fuel is bound within a tree’s tissues that it can, when manually released, sustain a flame. Coastal scientist Nick Ward discusses the work he’s presenting at the Earth science conference AGU 2020 and how his colleagues expect the process to become more important as sea levels rise, causing more coastal forests to flood. Check out more on AGU 2020 here: https://www.pnnl.gov/news-media/agu-2020-connect-virtually-pnnl. Here's a link to Nate's work on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ft3rZdPIE5s&t=3s

Trees Near Seawater Contribute Methane to the Atmosphere

Check out more on AGU 2020 here: https://cutt.ly/kj8n2cU Here's a link to Nick's work on YouTube: https://cutt.ly/fj8meRF      

Dust blowing onto high mountains in the western Himalayas is a bigger factor than previously thought in hastening the melting of snow there, researchers show in a study published Oct. 5 in Nature Climate Change. That’s because dust – lots of it in the Himalayas – absorbs sunlight, heating the snow that surrounds it. Qian and Chandan Sarangi, formerly a post-doctoral associate at PNNL and now at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras in India, are corresponding authors of the study. More than 700 million people in southeast Asia, as well as parts of China and India, depend on melting snow in the Himalayas for much of their freshwater needs in summer and early fall, driving the urgency of scientists ferreting out the factors that influence earlier snowmelt in the region. In a study funded by NASA, scientists analyzed some of the most detailed satellite images ever taken of the Himalayas to measure aerosols, elevation, and surface characteristics such as the presence of dust or pollution on snow.

Dust is melting the Himalayas

Brent VanDevender, a physicist at the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, hasn’t had this much fun doing science for a while. In this episode, he shares how a chance conversation with a colleague led to a better understanding of the limitations of quantum computing. The study, published in the journal Nature, shows that qubits need to be shielded from natural radiation, like cosmic rays. And the research links the vanishingly small quantum bits to the search for dark matter in space.

How to build a quantum computer that works

Ted Bowyer, a PNNL physicist, has spent much of his career developing new way to track a radioactive gas known as radioxenon. The capability helps scientists track nuclear explosions anywhere on Earth.

Exploring Radioxenon

How to Stay Safe from Biothreats

What’s behind the science and inventions that impact our daily lives? Pacific Northwest National Laboratory’s Pods of Science are the stories of what happens before the breakthrough. Before a technology becomes a household name, before the life-saving drug hits your local pharmacy shelves, before the paper is published—here’s what happens when great minds meet great challenges.

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Pods of Science

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