SciVIBE

Exploring wildfires, hurricanes and extreme weather with Ruby Leung

From wildfires and hurricanes to drought and rainstorms, atmospheric scientist Ruby Leung explores the climatic underpinnings of extreme weather in this episode. Learn how wildfires in the U.S. are changing, what we can expect in tomorrow’s hurricanes, and what Ruby does when she isn’t modeling human-Earth system interactions.

A Little Piece of Washington State Will Blast Into Space This Week

Host Nick Hennen sits down with Pacific Northwest National Lab’s Ryan McClure. Ryan is involved in a NASA-funded project with PNNL to blast soil laden with bacteria to the International Space Station.

The bacteria-infused soil is from Prosser, Wash. Researchers like McClure and Janet Jansson, a laboratory fellow at PNNL and the leader of the study, will look at what the bacteria do in a microgravity environment to learn more about how soil microbial communities function in space. That’s the intelligence scientists need to grow food in space or on another celestial body.

If you’d like to follow the mission’s progress and launch, you can do so here: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/structure/launch/spacex.html or https://www.nasa.gov/spacex.

 

How to better protect yourself from toxic air during wildfires

When wildfire season creates toxic air in your community, the creeping smoke can make its way into your home, creating hazards that aren’t always easy to detect. This penetration of smoke can lead to high concentrations of tiny particles indoors when nearby wildfires are extreme. Exposure to this kind of air has been linked to unfortunate health results.

 

A PNNL research team, made up of Chrissi Antonopoulos, a Senior Analyst focusing on the advancement of energy- and carbon-neutral buildings, and Sam Rosenberg, a Data Research Scientist focusing on residential energy efficiency, indoor air quality, and building codes, studied this phenomenon. Together, they huddled inside and examined the air quality inside a nearly 100-year-old 2,600 square foot single-family dwelling in Portland, Oregon as wildfires raged nearby, creating toxic smoke throughout the city. Using low-cost sensors deployed in a new DOE Building America field study, they discovered some clear benefits in air quality from using portable air cleaners during this high smoke event. 

 

Tune in as host Nick Hennen learns more from special guest, Chrissi Antonopoulos on this episode of SciVIBE.

PNNL physicist Emily Mace on the Shallow Underground Lab and the enhanced detection of nuclear events

We meet with PNNL physicist Emily Mace on this episode of SciVIBE to get to know her a bit, learn about her experience working in the Shallow Underground Lab and with highly sensitive radiation detectors—designed and built by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory scientists—to measure argon-39 activity in groundwater samples.

From Steel Mill to DOE Laboratory, Arun Devaraj Seeks Perfection

Arun Devaraj, a materials scientist, remains committed to improving the quality and performance of metals. He is in the midst of an ambitious project to explore how hydrogen, combined with stress and oxidation, leads to catastrophic failures of high-strength steels that are widely used in the nuclear and automotive industries. His research will have important implications for carbon-free energy sources and their storage. And his research will unfold at PNNL’s Energy Sciences Center, a recently dedicated $90 million facility on the Richland, Washington, campus.

Listener questions on climate change answered!

PNNL Earth scientist Brian O’Neill answers listener-submitted questions on climate change on this special, climate-focused episode, which coincides with the release of the latest from the IPCC report (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change). Tune in to hear your questions answered! 

Marine Energy: Exploring Environmental Effects, Powering Ocean Observations with Andrea Copping

Marine renewable energy stands to do a great deal of good. The ocean’s wave, current, and tidal energy holds the promise of electricity that can help power the grid, strengthen scientific observations, and bring renewable power to coastal communities. But how do marine animals like sharks and whales coexist with marine energy devices? What are the potential impacts? PNNL oceanographer and senior research scientist Andrea Copping leads research that explores these important questions. Join us today as we dive deep into her findings and discuss not only what the science says, but how the investigations unfold.

Grid expert Carl Imhoff takes on the nation‘s toughest grid challenges

Carl Imhoff is one of the nation's top grid experts, recognized for his long history of advancing grid modernization in the region and across the country. Today you'll learn all about this, as well as a little bit about the man behind the science. 

Carl's expertise includes Grid Modernization, Smart Grid, Grid Cybersecurity, Transmission Systems, Distribution Systems, Grid Analytics, and Energy Storage.

In this episode, Carl details just how vital electricity will be in helping our country meet its national goals -- both in terms of economic vitality, clean energy and addressing climate change challenges. Carl also offers deep insight on the phenomenal changes we've seen in all of these aspects over the last twenty years.

Tune in as we talk about what all of this means for the nation's power grid, And moving forward, what is next? 

PNNL Remembers 9/11

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory Remembers September 11th, 2001.  

Host Nick Hennen interviews with staff at PNNL on Sept. 11, 2001, including Senior Public Affairs Advisor Greg Koller, former lab director and national security director, Mike Kluse and former DHS director Mike Mitchell. It also offers perspective on how National Security work at PNNL continues to have a significant impact on the security of the country with two STEM ambassador visitors to the SciVIBE podcast: Data Scientist, Kate Miller and Team Leader of Technical Security Solutions, Russ Haffner. They discuss Artificial Intelligence, Social Media Misinformation, Disinformation and the threats we face today as a nation, and how they've changed since 9/11.   

Fungus That Tastes Just Right

The natural world is rich with examples of give and take relationships. Bees pollinate flowers and receive pollen. Clown fish clean anemones, receiving protection in kind. But these relationships, or “systems,” are often more complex than they appear, some offering lessons that could help shape our future. What’s at stake in the relationship between leafcutter ants and the fungal gardens they nurture deep in their subterranean burrows? In this episode of SciVIBE, scientist Kristin Burnum-Johnson explains what’s up with these underground, invertebrate farmers, and what we stand to learn from studying their system.