Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

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A still from an animation of methane, the blue and silver molecules, escaping from a methane hydrate, the red and silver molecules water molecules that form a cage around methane molecules. (Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.)

Twice-stuffed permafrost

July 31st, 2012 Updated: July 31st, 2012

A Pacific Northwest National Laboratory computation suggests that the water-gas compounds found in ocean permafrost can provide energy and store it, too – and then trap carbon dioxide.

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This shows the Western North American power grid with the analysis results of 200 overlaid possible contingencies. Red areas indicate vulnerable portions of the power grid that network operators must address. Gray areas are causes for concern and green areas are safe. Overlaying the 200 sets of risk-level data allows operators to visualize the collective risk of contingencies on the system.

Getting a grip on the grid

June 10th, 2010 Updated: February 18th, 2013

A PNNL team enlists new algorithms and powerful computers to quickly analyze which combinations of failures most threaten the power grid.

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The big face off

December 17th, 2009 Updated: February 18th, 2013

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory researchers say their algorithms can analyze millions of video frames, pluck out the faces and quantify them to create searchable databases for facial identification.

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