Los Alamos Lab tackles surveillance, space protection issues
Los Alamos National Laboratory scientists are evaluating novel approaches to satellite situational awareness, including lowering the cost of space surveillance radars and optically monitoring the growing spread of orbital debris. (Full story)
Time-traveling browsers navigate the web's past
Finding old versions of web pages could become far simpler thanks to a "time-traveling" web browsing technology being pioneered at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.
Another story about the “time-traveling” Web browser also appeared in Popular Science. Read it here!
Using CO2 to extract geothermal energy
As part of developing new energy resources that don't emit carbon dioxide, the DOE is funding 9 trials that use supercritical CO2 to extract more geothermal energy.
The idea started in 2000 at Los Alamos National Laboratory; when physicist Donald Brown thought of pumping geothermal fluid using supercritical CO2 - a pressurized form that is part gas, part liquid; instead of water. (Full story) H
PC Advisory Council announces world's fastest 120Gb/s networking demonstration
The following HPC Council member organizations have contributed and are participating in the 120Gb/s InfiniBand SCinet demonstration: AMD, Avago, Colfax Intl, Dell, HP, IBM, InfiniBand Trade Association, Koi Computers, LSI, Los Alamos National Laboratory, and others. (Full story)
What happens when materials break up?
Because of the Roadrunner supercomputer’s unique capability, scientists are for the first time attempting to create atomic-scale models that describe how voids are created in materials, mostly metals, how they grow, and merge; how the materials may swell or shrink under stress; and how once broken bonds might reattach. . . . (Full story)
Lab gains in community perceptions; results of leaders survey released
Los Alamos National Laboratory has made significant improvements in the all important “favorable impression” category of an annual opinion survey.
The tracking study by Albuquerque-based Research & Polling, Inc. continues an annual program measuring the laboratory’s perceived performance and relationships with the communities of Northern New Mexico.Also this week in the Los Alamos Monitor:
Environmental work begins in Pueblo Canyon
Los Alamos National Laboratory is beginning to repair a degraded channel in Pueblo Canyon on the northwest side of the White Rock interchange with NM 502. While the work will have some short term impacts, the laboratory expects the job of stabilizing the wetland in the area to have positive results for the long term.
Researchers make hydrogen fuel progress
While previous research has shown that hydrogen can be harvested from ammonia borane for use in a fuel cell, the process leaves behind spent fuel. But researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory and the University of Alabama have shown that the byproduct can be efficiently converted back into usable fuel through a series of chemical reactions. (Full story)
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Laser-particle acceleration advances modern cancer radiotherapy
An international team of physicists at Los Alamos National Laboratory has succeeded in using intense laser light to accelerate protons to energies never before achieved.
Physicists around the world are examining laser particle acceleration and laser produced radiation for potential future uses in cancer treatment. (More)
LANL Roadrunner simulates nanoscale material failure
How mechanical properties change at the nanoscale is of fundamental interest and may have implications for a variety of nanostructures and nanodevices. (More)
LANL Roadrunner models nonlinear physics of high-power lasers
Los Alamos scientists Lin Yin and Brian Albright of Applied Science and Method Development, along with Los Alamos guest scientist Kevin Bowers, are using an adapted version of VPIC, a particle-in-cell plasma physics code, on Roadrunner to model the nonlinear physics of laser backscatter energy transfer and plasma instabilities. (More)
Roadrunner used to explore magnetic reconnection According to LANL
According to 
physicist Bill Daughton of the Plasma Theory and Applications group, understanding the three-dimensional evolution of magnetic reconnection at the most basic level remains an exceptionally challenging problem. (More)
AIDS researcher: Finding common ground generates uncommon solutions
Bette Korber wants to see a vaccine for AIDS in her lifetime, and she just might be part of it. She's a laboratory fellow at Los Alamos National Laboratory, where she has co-led a global HIV sequence and immunology database that she hopes will unlock the clues to the vaccine. "It's an international resource for people all over the globe," she says. (More)
Zerkle honored with Gov's award
Carolyn E. Zerkle is currently directing LANL's multiple responses to the Department of Energy's stimulus opportunities under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. (More)
Also this week in the Los Alamos Monitor:
On the shoulders of giants; nuclear workers honored
Los Alamos has had many days of commemoration for fallen patriots and veterans of foreign wars, but Friday the community celebrated a day of remembrance dedicated to its own workers.
NM Gov. Bill Richardson was the first of a series of speakers in the program Friday that paid tribute to past, present and future nuclear weapons employees. (More)
Los Alamos National Laboratory names six scientists as 2009 Fellows
The title of Fellow is bestowed on only about 2 percent of the Laboratory's current technical staff. The new Fellows come from myriad scientific disciplines and have sustained high-level achievement important to the Laboratory, become recognized authorities in their fields, and made important discoveries used or cited by peers inside and outside the Laboratory. (More)
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Fastest supercomputer in the world models dark matter, HIV family tree simultaneously
Roadrunner Universe model seeks to better understand both dark energy and dark matter, the least understood constituents of the cosmos. LANL image.In November of last year, scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory switched on Roadrunner, the world's fastest computer. IBM and the Department of Energy built the machine to model nuclear explosions, but two new studies, both released today, are proof that the computer's massive power has been at least as devoted to peaceful science as to simulating thermonuclear weapons. Full Story.
Roadrunner supercomputer maps HIV family tree
HIV phylogenetic tree is color coded by infected patient. LANL image. Physicist Tanmoy Bhattacharya and HIV researcher Bette Korber are creating an evolutionary genetic family tree based on samples taken by the international Center for HIV/AIDS Vaccine Immunology consortium, in order to compare the evolutionary history of more than 10,000 sequences from more than 400 people with HIV. Full Story.
Roadrunner models nonlinear physics
of high-power lasers
Los Alamos National Laboratory scientists Lin Yin and Brian Albright, along with Los Alamos guest scientist Kevin Bowers, are using an adapted version of a particle-in-cell plasma physics code . . . on the Laboratory's Roadrunner supercomputer to model the nonlinear physics of laser backscatter energy transfer and plasma instabilities to assist colleagues at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory as they attempt to reach fusion ignition at NIF next year. Full Story.
First-ever simulation of stretching silver nanowire over period of millisecond
Very tiny wires, called nanowires, made from such metals as silver and gold, may play a crucial role as electrical or mechanical switches in the development of future-generation ultrasmall nanodevices. Full Story.
Additional stories this week about science on the Roadrunner supercomputer can be found at United Press International and Electrical Engineering Times.
Carefully cleaning up the garbage at Los Alamos
Technical Area 21 at Los Alamos National Laboratory during a brief morning rain and hail storm. New York Times photo.No one knows for sure what is buried in the Manhattan Project-era dump here. At the very least, there is probably a truck down there that was contaminated in 1945 at the Trinity test site, where the world's first nuclear explosion seared the sky and melted the desert sand 200 miles south of here during World War II. Full Story.
Creating an intelligent tomorrow
Española Schools Superintendent Janette Archuleta attributed some of these [math and science] gains to the LANL-supported Math and Science Academy programs. The MSA is a virtual academy that teaches the teachers, and has gradually won support for its rigorous professional development from five school districts in Northern New Mexico. Full Story.
Navigator recalls bomb drop
The Enola Gay crew in 1945.The man who navigated the world's first atomic bomb to its destructive destination in Hiroshima recalled on Sunday the explicit instruction his team was given that historic August day in 1945. Full Story (requires subscription or viewing an ad).
To subscribe to Los Alamos Report, please e-mail listmanager@lanl.gov and include the words subscribe los alamosreport in the body of your email message; to unscubscribe, include unsubscribe losalamosreport.
Please visit us at www.lanl.gov
Los Alamos Lab tackles surveillance, space protection issues
Los Alamos National Laboratory scientists are evaluating novel approaches to satellite situational awareness, including lowering the cost of space surveillance radars and optically monitoring the growing spread of orbital debris. (Full story)
Time-traveling browsers navigate the web's past
Another story about the “time-traveling” Web browser also appeared in Popular Science. Read it here!
Using CO2 to extract geothermal energy
PC Advisory Council announces world's fastest 120Gb/s networking demonstration
What happens when materials break up?
Because of the Roadrunner supercomputer’s unique capability, scientists are for the first time attempting to create atomic-scale models that describe how voids are created in materials, mostly metals, how they grow, and merge; how the materials may swell or shrink under stress; and how once broken bonds might reattach. . . . (Full story)
Lab gains in community perceptions; results of leaders survey released
Los Alamos National Laboratory is beginning to repair a degraded channel in Pueblo Canyon on the northwest side of the White Rock interchange with NM 502. While the work will have some short term impacts, the laboratory expects the job of stabilizing the wetland in the area to have positive results for the long term.
Researchers make hydrogen fuel progress
While previous research has shown that hydrogen can be harvested from ammonia borane for use in a fuel cell, the process leaves behind spent fuel. But researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory and the University of Alabama have shown that the byproduct can be efficiently converted back into usable fuel through a series of chemical reactions. (Full story)
