Understanding pollution in a pristine rainforest
An atmospheric observation tower, as viewed through the foliage below. ARM photo.
DOE has opened a new two-year field study of the Amazon Basin called Green Ocean Amazon, or GOAmazon. Labs with a key role in GOAmazon include Brookhaven, Lawrence Berkeley, Los Alamos, and Pacific Northwest.
Data obtained during the field campaign will enable scientists to study the intricacies of the natural state of the Amazon rainforest atmosphere and land systems, and how these may be perturbed by human influences such as pollution and deforestation. (Full Story)
Chevron, GE form technology alliance
Chevron Energy Technology Co. and GE Oil & Gas have created the Chevron GE Technology Alliance, which will develop and commercialize technologies to solve critical issues for the oil and gas industry.
The Alliance provides a mechanism for commercializing early stage technologies like Swept Frequency Acoustic Interferometry metering technology incubated in an alliance between Chevron and Los Alamos National Laboratory. (Full Story)
LANL to co-sponsor youth conference
Doing science at an EYH conference. LANL photo.
Approximately 150 Northern New Mexico girls will get hands-on experience learning about science and math at the 35th annual Expanding Your Horizons conference March 6 at the Santa Fe Community Convention Center.
Los Alamos National Laboratory partners with New Mexico Network for Women in Science and Engineering, Los Alamos Women in Science, Los Alamos National Security, LLC, and the LANL Foundation on EYH to increase awareness of and interest in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) activities and careers. (Full Story)
Math teacher’s skills add up to a presidential award
Vivian Valencia. From the Taos News.
Vivian Valencia knows it takes a lot to make math an elementary school student’s favorite subject. A native Taoseña, she achieved this feat and as a result received the 2012 Presidential Award for Math and Science Teaching.
“I wouldn’t be where I am right now if it wasn’t for the Math and Science Academy,” said Vivian Valencia about the 2012 Presidential Award for Math and Science Teaching. The academy is supported by the LANL Foundation. (Full Story)
Material technology that can increase performance of fuel cells
Chulsung Bae, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. NSF photo.
Chulsung Bae is working to develop a key fuel cell component that he hopes will be more durable and efficient than what is currently available, as well as less costly, with the hope of promoting more widespread use of the technology.
The National Science Foundation is funding Bae to study the chemical structures of polymer membranes in fuel cell operations. He has a candidate membrane and is collaborating with the Los Alamos National Laboratory to test it. (Full Story)
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Biosurveillance panel to address essential science for public health
Basil Swanson. LANL photo.
Convened during the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) annual meeting, its organizer Basil Swanson of Los Alamos National Laboratory noted, “It is absolutely essential that nations are able to quickly detect and characterize a biological threat affecting human, animal or agricultural health. Thus the need to gather these internationally recognized specialists and explore potential pathways for scientific advancement.” (Full Story)
Nuclear explosions prove sometimes smaller is better
Ed Daykin with the MPDV system. LV Review-Journal photo.
There’s a lot riding on the shoulders of Ed Daykin and his team when it comes to certifying that the nation’s nuclear warheads are safe, secure and reliable.
Daykin, an experimental physicist for National Security Technologies LLC — isn’t too worried about the high-tech task.
He and his colleagues at the NNSS, along with researchers Ted Strand from Lawrence Livermore and David Holtkamp at Los Alamos National Laboratory, have developed the MPDV system. (Full Story)
Quantum Materials secures Los Alamos quantum dot technology to improve consumer electronics
Thick-shell quantum dots show very rare incidences of blinking -- detected over an interval of 3000ms. QMC graphic.
Quantum Materials Corporation and Los Alamos National Laboratory today announce Quantum Materials optioning Thick-Shell ‘Giant’ Quantum Dot patented technology with the potential of 10 to 100-fold improvement in solid-state brightness over conventional nanocrystal quantum dots (QD). High brightness leads to efficient use of materials and increased performance in electronic displays and solid state (LED) lighting. (Full Story)
NNSA releases LANL performance evaluation
It was reported back in December that Los Alamos National Laboratory received a score of 89 percent on its annual performance evaluation from the National Nuclear Security Administration.
“The laboratory's performance evaluation from NNSA for Fiscal Year 2013 acknowledges our excellent work in science and technology and global security, meeting or exceeding our commitments in stockpile stewardship, and making major improvements in safety and security." (Full Story)
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What the toothpaste terror threat means for future airport security
MagRay engineer Larry Schultz loads a liquid into the MagRay scanner. LANL image.
Recently DHS provided funding for another project that could vastly improve liquids screening at airports. Dubbed the MagRay, the technology is being developed at the Los Alamos laboratories in New Mexico, where scientists are working on ways to combine X-ray and MRI techniques to create 3-D images with a far more detailed breakdown of a container's contents, including proton content and density.
They're also aiming to make it user-friendly: TSA screeners would insert the bottle into the machine and, without having to input any data, would get a green or red light on a display. Early lab tests have reportedly shown promising results. (Full Story)
Volcano eruption behind mass death of dinosaurs: scientists
Sedimentary features of laval flows in China. From Nature.
Research jointly conducted by Chinese and American scientists has found that a volcanic eruption in the Cretaceous Era may have caused the mass death of dinosaurs in northeast China.
Jiang Baoyu together with four scientists from Nanjing University, Ken Wohletz of Los Alamos National Laboratory, and the American Museum of Natural History, began the research in 2011 and published their findings in the scientific journal "Nature Communications" on Feb. 4. (Full Story)
2013 AAAS Award for Science Diplomacy goes to Siegfried Hecker
Sig Hecker. LANL photo.
Siegfried Hecker, director emeritus of Los Alamos National Laboratory has been chosen by the American Association for the Advancement of Science to receive the 2013 Award for Science Diplomacy.
Hecker was honored by AAAS for his "lifetime commitment to using the tools of science to address the challenges of nuclear proliferation and nuclear terrorism and his dedication to building bridges through science during the period following the end of the Cold War." (Full Story)
Guest Column: LANL program shares cutting-edge technology
Mariann Johnston. LANL photo.
Los Alamos National Laboratory has a stockpile of patents covering technologies with untapped commercial potential, and it wants to simplify the process of sharing these innovations – as well as its portfolio of copyright-protected software – with businesses that can translate this wealth into private-sector jobs.
The lab’s Richard P. Feynman Center for Innovation in August launched the Express Licensing program to fast-track the licensing of technologies and software with a simple online application. (Full Story)
Your next fridge could keep cold more efficiently using magnets
GE scientists make a magnetic refrigeration breakthrough. GE image.
Such magnetic refrigeration systems were developed as far back as the 1930s, and researchers at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico successfully achieved a few degrees of refrigeration in the 1980s. However, the technology has failed to make it into household refrigerators as it relies on superconducting magnets that themselves need to be cooled to extremely low temperatures, making it not cost- or energy-efficient for household use. (Full Story)
Nuclear waste solution seen in desert salt beds
Underground at WIPP. NYT photo.
Half a mile beneath the desert surface, in thick salt beds left behind by seas that dried up hundreds of millions of years ago, the Department of Energy is carving out rooms as long as football fields and cramming them floor to ceiling with barrels and boxes of nuclear waste.
The process is deceptively simple: Plutonium waste from Los Alamos National Laboratory and a variety of defense projects is packed into holes bored into the walls of rooms carved from salt. (Full Story)
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Chevron, GE form technology alliance
GE flow meter products will be developed incorporating the Swept Frequency Acoustic Interferometry metering technology incubated in an alliance between Chevron and Los Alamos National Laboratory.
"Los Alamos develops unique technologies for our national security missions and these can have powerful applications for U.S. industry," said Duncan McBranch, chief technology officer for Los Alamos National Laboratory. "Strategic partnerships with industry allow us to accelerate breakthrough innovation in these areas." (Full Story)
Are drones the next target for hackers?
DHL delivery drones carry cargo that hackers may want to steal. From BBC.
David Mascarenas, who works for the National Security Education Center at Los Alamos National Labs, agrees. As drones are nothing but flying computers, he says they “have the potential to exhibit never before seen security flaws that couple both cyber and physical security concerns.”
At the Los Alamos National Laboratory Engineering Institute, Mascarenas and colleagues are testing software that would make drones unpredictable – for example by taking random paths while still achieving their goals – to reduce the possibility of ambush. (Full Story)
U.S. conducts ‘successful’ analysis of updated B-61 bomb
The B-61. LANL photo.
The "full-system mechanical environment test" was the first in a line of assessments intended to verify how the B-61 bomb's new "Mod 12" variant would behave under routine conditions or accident scenarios, the National Nuclear Security Administration said in a statement.
The analysis by the Los Alamos and Sandia “is a significant achievement and gives us confidence in our ability to move forward to increase the safety and security of the bomb,” said Don Cook, NNSA deputy administrator for defense programs. (Full Story)
Radiochemistry and the study of chemisorption
Yucca Mountain tunnel. DOE photo.
Dr. Bob Rundberg presented to the Mines chemistry department on radiochemistry. He works at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, where he has been involved with a number of important projects, including the Yucca Mountain nuclear storage facility.
Yucca Mountain is a site in Nevada which was under consideration for a permanent repository for the most radioactive types of nuclear waste. Before it was ultimately rejected, many studies were done to assess the viability of the site. (Full Story)
Scientists find more precise way to measure neutron lifetime
A team of Physical Measurement Laboratory scientists has achieved a five-fold reduction in the dominant uncertainty in an experiment that measured the mean lifetime of the free neutron (exceptionally long for an unstable particle), resulting in a substantial improvement of previous results. The team includes NIST, Univ. of Tennessee, Oak Ridge, Tulane Univ., Los Alamos National Laboratory, and Indiana Univ. (Full Story)
FBI Director Rates LANL Security ‘Excellent’
National FBI Director James B. Comey flanked by New Mexico law enforcement agency leaders. Daily Post photo.
During a news conference in the rotunda at Albuquerque FBI Headquarters Friday, FBI Director James B. Comey Jr. described security at Los Alamos National Laboratory as "excellent." LANL and other national labs continue to be top targets for cyber and other attacks and Comey said security measures in place are meeting those challenges. (Full Story)
Six companies receive venture capital grants
The Native American Venture Acceleration Fund created by Los Alamos National Security LLC and the Regional Development Corp. has awarded a total of $60,000 in grants to six northern New Mexican businesses.
“The positive responses and active engagement in the Native American Venture Acceleration Fund are encouraging,” Kurt Steinhaus, director of the Laboratory’s Community Programs Office, said in a statement. “These entrepreneurs and their companies are vital to the Northern New Mexico economy.” (Full Story)
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