World's glaciers 'out of balance’

The retreat of McCall Glacier in North Alaska. The left panel is 1958; the right panel is 2003.
 
Earth's glaciers are seriously out of balance with the global climate and are already on their way to losing almost 40% of their volume.
 
"When we look at the data, we can see that the glaciers are out of balance, meaning the climate has actually changed faster than the changes we've seen in ice area and volume," explained Sebastian Mernild from Los Alamos National Laboratory (Full Story)

Brain-scan program wins computing prize


Jordan Medlock describing his winning research project. LANL photo.
 
Manzano High School senior who taught a computer how to identify plaques in brain scans of mice for Alzheimer’s disease research won this year’s Supercomputing Challenge in Los Alamos.
 
The 22nd annual competition, sponsored mainly by Los Alamos National Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratories, had more than 200 New Mexico elementary through high school students, who competed in teams of up to five, according to a lab statement. (Full Story)








Firefighers use new high-tech tool
 
Firefighting takes on a futuristic look. On tonight’s “Drought Watch” Byron Morton shows us a new firefighting technology being used at Los Alamos National Lab.
 
It’s called a “Sim-Table” and it uses an overhead projection system and a sandbox to simulate terrain, fire progression, fire mitigation variables, and an amazing array of fire response techniques. (Full Story)







Lab recognizes pollution prevention efforts

George Rael, LASO assistant manager, presents a P2 award to Lab Deputy Director Beth Sellers.  LANL photo.

Efforts to refurbish used gas containers, perform wildfire-related work in the winter, and recycle thousands of lead bricks were among projects winning awards at the Los Alamos National Laboratory’s annual P2 Awards.
 
Employee ideas allowed the Laboratory to save or avoid using more than 100,000 reams of paper, 3,000 chemical containers, 9,000 kilowatt hours of electricity, 50 million gallons of fuel, and 80 tons of metal.  (Full Story)




Fused genes tackle deadly Pierce’s disease in grapevines

A gene fusion research project led by a UC Davis plant scientist and collaborators at Los Alamos National Laboratory delivers a one-two punch to Pierce's disease, a deadly threat to California’s world-renowned wine industry. The study was published in the early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. (Full Story)

Heavy elements 'spark planet formation'
 
Usually, planets form in star systems with comparatively high concentrations of elements heavier than hydrogen and helium, a new study has suggested.
 
Such heavier elements are necessary to form the dust grains and planetesimals that build planetary cores, according to the study, which was carried out by researchers Jarrett Johnson and Hui Li of Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. (Full Story)




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Detecting nuclear terrorism

Robert Whalen, Decision Sciences: The leap forward came from — at the Los Alamos National Laboratory about five years ago, that if you look at the muons and you look at the deflection that related to whether there was nuclear material there or not (full story).

Los Alamos lab to produce new cancer agent

Using proton beams, a collaboration between Los Alamos, Brookhaven and Oak Ridge national laboratories is developing a plan for full-scale production and stable supply of Ac-225, which emits alpha radiation. Alpha particles are energetic enough to destroy cancer cells but are unlikely to move beyond a tightly controlled target region and destroy healthy cells, according to LANL (full story).

Fire info session sizzles

The Los Alamos National Laboratory’s fire simulation table was a big hit among attendees. A projector was used to produce topographical images on a walnut-shell sand table. The table allowed viewers to see how fast the fire spread, how and where.

Deputy Fire Chief Justin Grider said the Department will likely ask the lab to use the table to map out future fire responses (full story).

Watch the YouTube video:

Also from the Monitor this week:

Supercomputing challenge slated for next week

More than 200 New Mexico students and their teachers will convene at Los Alamos National Laboratory April 23 and 24 for judging and the awards ceremony in the 22nd annual New Mexico Supercomputing Challenge (full story).

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Cancer therapy gets a boost from new isotope

Miering Nortier holds a sample target. LANL photo.

Using proton beams, Los Alamos and its partners could match current annual worldwide production of the isotope in just a few days, solving critical shortages of this therapeutic isotope that attacks cancer cells.

A collaboration between Los Alamos, Brookhaven, and Oak Ridge national laboratories is developing a plan for full-scale production and stable supply of Ac-225. (Full Story)


Cancer therapy gets a boost from new isotope -- VIDEO extra

Click on the picture to watch a YouTube video about the research.

A new medical isotope project at Los Alamos National Laboratory shows promise for rapidly producing major quantities of a new cancer-treatment agent, actinium 225.

Ac-225 emits alpha radiation. Alpha particles are energetic enough to destroy cancer cells but are unlikely to move beyond a tightly controlled target region and destroy healthy cells. Alpha particles are stopped in their tracks by a layer of skin—or even an inch or two of air. (Full Story)


When stellar metallicity sparks planet formation


Artist’s concept showing a young Sun-like star surrounded by a planet-forming disk of gas and dust. NASA.

In new research, scientists have attempted to determine the precise conditions necessary for planets to form in a star system. Jarrett Johnson and Hui Li of Los Alamos National Laboratory assert that observations increasingly suggest that planet formation takes place in star systems with higher metallicities.

“Our calculation is an estimate of the minimum amount of heavy elements that must be present in circumstellar disks before planets can form,” says Johnson. (Full Story)


How it would work: Destroying an incoming killer asteroid with a nuclear blast

Click on the picture to see a YouTube video.

The killer asteroid--the one that we might never even see coming--could end life on this planet and there would be nothing humans could do about it. It creates a kind of helplessness that’s difficult to even think about, and it’s Robert Weaver’s job to think about it all the time.

Weaver, a scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), doesn’t hunt for killer asteroids, but he does study the ways humans might use their vast nuclear arsenals--designed to wipe each other off the face of the planet--to save the whole of humanity from a catastrophic asteroid impact. (Full Story)


How do supermassive black holes get so big?

The Sagittarius A black hole at the center of the Milky Way Galaxy. NASA.

In 1988, when the study of supermassive black holes in galaxies was in its infancy, Jack Hills, an astrophysicist at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, proposed that the smoking gun for a supermassive black hole at the center a galaxy would come in the form of stars vaulting from the galactic center at speeds of more than 1 million miles an hour – essentially fast enough to escape from the galaxy. (Full Story)


Cyber security exercise puts laboratories to the test

LANL's Dale Leschnitzer works through a cyber-security disaster scenario. LANL photo.

Fending off thousands of computer attacks from around the world, controlling vast libraries of sensitive information, yet keeping the scientific flow of knowledge moving, cyber teams such as those at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and elsewhere in the government complex feel the squeeze.

Recently, LANL hosted an information security exercise dubbed "Eventide" that put more than 100 participants from around the [DOE] complex into a virtual maelstrom of bad news and worse events. (Full Story)


Navajos, lab to study reservation resources

Lawrence Livermore, along with Los Alamos and Sandia national laboratories in New Mexico, is part of team that is laying the groundwork to provide long-term technical assistance to tribes on energy development and resource management. (Full Story)


Fire season looms

The lab will simulate how fire will move through Los Alamos with a map projector aimed at a sand box shaped with the area’s topographic detail. The exhibit will give people the opportunity to see almost exactly how a new fire might progress through the area. (Full Story)



LANL Prepares for 2012 Fire Season

Emergency Operations at Los Alamos National Laboratory continually plans and prepares for the yearly wild fire season in Northern New Mexico.

Fire readiness activities include training with the latest in simulation technology, the SIM Table, and a year-round program of fire fuel mitigation, thinning too-dense forest and cutting back thick underbrush all across Lab property. (Watch the video here or click on the picture)



LANL selects three New Mexico firms for environmental work

Three northern New Mexico companies will compete for up to $250 million in service contracts to transport and dispose of hazardous and radioactive waste at Los Alamos National Laboratory. (Full Story)


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Musing on muons

How to detect smuggled uranium and plutonium using muons

Muons are like electrons, though heavier and unstable. They are produced when cosmic rays (fast-moving atomic nuclei from space) hit the atmosphere. The reason they might be useful for detecting nuclear explosives is that they are scattered more by heavy atomic nuclei, such as those of uranium and plutonium.

The original idea, dreamed up in 2003 at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, was to use detectors called drift tubes to track muons through a cargo. Decision Sciences, a company spun out of that effort in 2005, has been refining this approach since then (full story).

How do supermassive black holes get so big? A peculiar diet, perhaps

For years, astronomers have puzzled over the diet needed to bulk up supermassive black holes – powerful gravitational traps that lurk in the centers of galaxies.

Jack Hills, an astrophysicist at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, proposed that the smoking gun for a supermassive black hole at the center a galaxy would come in the form of stars vaulting from the galactic center at speeds of more than 1 million miles an hour – essentially fast enough to escape from the galaxy (full story).

Reversing a trend toward 'nano,' DOE asks researchers to think 'meso'

DOE has asked its scientists to start doing research in the realm of the "meso," a Greek prefix that means "middle" and signifies a size closer to a living cell than the atomic level.

Leading the push are George Crabtree, a physicist at Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois, and John Sarrao of Los Alamos National Laboratory (full story).

LANL says it’s ahead of schedule on waste removal

The TRU Waste Program at Los Alamos National Laboratory is currently two months ahead of schedule processing and repackaging waste stored in large fiberglass-reinforced boxes (FRPs).

These large boxes pose particular repackaging challenges since they contain many different types of radioactively contaminated equipment and can be up to 30-feet long (full story).

Also from the Monitor this week:

Environmental data now viewable by the public

Los Alamos National Laboratory’s database of environmental monitoring data is now directly viewable by the public.

“Intellus New Mexico,” the new, web-based application, will display the same internal data that Laboratory scientists and regulatory agencies see and use for environmental analysis and monitoring of the LANL site. The new system contains more than 9 million records, including historical data as well as a near-real-time view of ongoing data collection activities (full story).

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