The World’s most powerful non-destructive magnet screams like a banshee
Magnet Lab Director Chuck Mielke (center) and colleagues celebrate their 100T shot. LANL photo.You don’t normally associate any kind of sound with a magnet. But apparently that’s because the ones stuck to your fridge aren’t two million times as powerful as the Earth’s magnetic field — like the one the Los Alamos Laboratory just created.
For over a decade and a half the lab has been trying to create a magnet with a strength of 100 Tesla that doesn’t destroy itself in the process. And when they finally succeeded in hitting that level — at around the 1:36 mark in the video — the magnet emits a haunting scream instead of the electric hum you’d expect. If I worked in that lab I’d have nightmares every night. (Full Story)
World record magnetic field 100T
Scientists jump for joy at the new World Record. LANL video.Scientists at the Los Alamos National Laboratory campus of the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory have successfully produced the world's first 100 Tesla non-destructive magnetic field. The achievement was decades in the making, involving a diverse team of scientists and engineers.
A YouTube video of the world-record pulsed, non-destructive magnetic field generated at LANL’s National High Magnetic Field Lab went viral during the week, generating more than 100,000 views since it was posted late Thursday (March 22). Watch the video here.
Read the full news release for even more!
Lab reaches magnet milestone
Researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory’s biggest magnet facility Thursday met the grand challenge of producing magnetic fields in excess of 100 tesla, while conducting six different experiments. “This is our moon shot, we’ve worked toward this for a decade and a half,” said Chuck Mielke, director of the Pulsed Field Facility at Los Alamos. (Full Story)
Additional stories from the Los Alamos Monitor this week:
Los Alamos conference reaches out to girls
Harshini Mukundan, center, of C-PCS shows girls how DNA can be extracted from cheek cells. LANL photo.“Pulling out DNA from your own cheek cells!,” “Ooey, Gooey, Polymers” and “Minerals in Makeup” were just some of the hands-on classes to choose from during the 33rd annual Expanding Your Horizons conference in Los Alamos.
Empowering young women to pursue learning in science and math was the goal of the conference and approximately 100 high school girls from all over Northern New Mexico piled into the Crossroads Bible Church to attend. (Full Story)
The man behind the photograph
Jack Aeby with his Perfex-44 35mm camera. From the Monitor.Jack Aeby witnessed the first atomic bomb test in the United States on July 16, 1945. Not only did he witness this history-making event, he was permitted to take photographs with his personal 35mm camera. (Full Story)
NNSA makes progress on PF-4 upgrades
A letter written by NNSA’s Donald Cook, which details the technical basis, actions taken to improve safety and plans for safety improvements from operations at the Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Plutonium Facility (PF-4).
Cook wrote, “Our immediate assessment of the situation concluded that the additional risk from the continued operation of PF-4 remained small compared to other risks faced by the public, so no emergency actions were warranted. (Full Story)
More grapes, less wrath: Hybrid antimicrobial protein protects grapevines from pathogen
Photo by Petr Kratochvil.A team of researchers has found a way to ensure that your evening glass of wine will continue to be available, despite the potential attack of Xylella fastidiosa, a bacterium that causes Pierce's Disease and poses a significant threat to the California wine industry's valuable grapevines.
Researchers from Los Alamos National Laboratory, University of California at Davis, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service have created specially engineered grapevines that produce a hybrid antimicrobial protein that can block Xf infection. (Full Story)
LANL expands security checks
Canine handler Matthew Nguyen and his dog Dawson practice an inspection. LANL photo.People passing through Department of Energy land at the Los Alamos National Laboratory are now subject to the same security checkpoints and vehicle searches in use deeper within the lab.
Jack Killeen, the security services division leader, said last week the searches, which use bomb-sniffing dogs, require drivers to step out of their cars and open their glove boxes and trunks to the lab’s Protective Force. (Full Story)
Also from the Journal this week:
557 workers accept lab buyout
Los Alamos National Laboratory announced Monday that 557 employees will leave the lab as part of a voluntary separation program announced last month.
That’s enough to make it “much less likely we will need to file a plan for an involuntary reduction” in the lab’s permanent workforce via layoffs, said spokesman Fred deSousa. (Full Story)
Coalition wants more funding for LANL
The Coalition of LANL Communities sent representatives to Washington earlier this month to meet with a New Mexico congressional delegation. Currently the group is seeking an increase in the nuclear weapons agency environmental management account. (Full Story)
NNSA achieves major milestone in radioactive source security
The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) announced this month the recovery of the 30,000th disused and unwanted radioactive source. The NNSA s Global Threat Reduction Initiative's (GTRI) milestone of 30,000 sources represents a total of more than 825,000 curies of radioactivity.
These sources were recovered in partnership with Los Alamos National Laboratory, Idaho National Laboratory and the Conference of Radiation Control Program Directors from sites throughout the United States. (Full Story)
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