Los Alamos Press Highlights

3-D microscope tracks travels of molecule within a cell

If you could peer deeply into a single live cell, the minute movements of its microscopic organelles, proteins and particles would look something like the frenzy of a New York street during rush hour.

Los Alamos National Laboratory scientist Jim Werner and his team at the Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies wanted a way to track the three-dimensional movement of a single molecule in a cell amid the frenetic activity (full story).

Researchers make advances in rechargeable solid hydrogen fuel storage tanks

Researchers have revealed a new single-stage method for recharging the hydrogen storage compound ammonia borane. The breakthrough makes hydrogen a more attractive fuel for vehicles and other transportation modes.

In an article appearing in Science, Los Alamos National Laboratory and Univ. of Alabama researchers working within the U.S. Department of Energy’s Chemical Hydrogen Storage Center of Excellence describe a significant advance in hydrogen storage science (full story).

This news was also covered by . . .

Los Alamos Monitor

PhysOrg

And Fuel Cell Works

Mathematical models of urban characteristics

Luis Bettencourt of the Center for Nonlinear Science at Los Alamos and his colleagues devised several metrics for measuring and comparing the socioeconomic characteristics of cities and found some unexpected constants.

One of these is a 15% rule - as population grows, both negative and positive factors increase at a rate 15% faster than a linear growth rate (in other words, things like wages, traffic congestion, and crime all grow by 115% when the population of a city doubles rather than growing at the same rate as the population grows) (full story).

Also covered in the Los Alamos Monitor:
http://www.lamonitor.com/content/lanl-research-may-point-reasons-why-la-slow-grow

Future for nuclear fuel seen in refrigerator-sized reactor

Hyperion Power Generation Inc. in Santa Fe, New Mexico, is working on 25-megawatt, refrigerator-sized designs for $50 million each that could power remote locations or be used in hospitals and factories.

Hyperion CEO John Deal, 47, worked at Los Alamos National Laboratory, where he says he got the idea to commercialize small nuclear technology, as "resident entrepreneur." (full story)




LANL taps Bechtel man for position
Paul Henry named principal associate director for capital projects

An internal restructuring at Los Alamos National Laboratory will combine project management and environmental cleanup functions under a new directorate.

Laboratory Director Michael Anastasio also has announced the creation of a new senior leadership position, principal associate director for capital projects (PADCAP), adding that Paul Henry of Bechtel has been chosen for that position (full story).


Expert addresses Korean nuclear issues

On Thursday, a Stanford professor who has held North Korean plutonium said [in a talk at Purdue University] that despite its clandestine nuclear program, North Korea is not such a hermit kingdom after all.

"The North Korean dilemma cannot be solved without understanding the people and the history," said Siegfried Hecker, a professor in the department of management science and engineering and director emeritus of the Los Alamos National Laboratory, a multidisciplinary research institute (full story).

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