Story tips from the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oc...( BIOMED -- Sensitive skin . . . ....)

BIOMED -- Sensitive skin . . .

People with tomorrow's prosthetic hands and arms will be able to feel heat, cold and touch through a series of developments by researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and NASA. Two different ORNL research groups, Ilia Ivanov and Dave Geohegan of the lab's Nanomaterials Synthesis and Properties Group, and John Simpson of the superhydrophobic materials group, are combining superhydrophobic material with thin layers of carbon nanotubes to mimic skin's properties. This artificial skin, dubbed FILMskin, combined with advanced sensors being developed by researchers at NASA will provide unprecedented utility to prosthetic wearers. [Contact: Ron Walli, (865) 576-0226; wallira@ornl.gov]

FORENSICS -- Better body bag . . .

A novel body bag proposed by a researcher at Oak Ridge National Laboratory could be a lifesaver for people who have to handle victims of natural disasters, wars or other events that claim multiple lives. While the basic body bag has changed very little since its inception, Arpad Vass of the lab's Biosciences Division is developing one that is leakproof, transparent and offers many other improvements. This body bag would safely contain the body until identification can be made while protecting people who have to handle the dead. The bag would contain titanium dioxide and, using 300- to 400-nanometer wavelength light, could be decontaminated in place. The bag would also contain a port from which a vacuum could be drawn to significantly slow down the decomposition process. Vass also noted that this advanced body bag would be useful for preserving evidence in homicides. [Contact: Ron Walli, (865) 576-0226; wallira@ornl.gov]

CLIMATE -- Underground CO2 sinks . . .

Climate change may be atmospheric, but the secret to Earth's response could be buried unde
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