New technology allows hair to reflect almost any color

Hair color goes high-tech (courtesy photo)

What if you could alter your hair to reflect any color in the spectrum? What if you could use a flatiron to press a pattern into your new hair color? Those are possibilities suggested by researchers from the University of New Mexico and Los Alamos National Laboratories. (full story)




 
National labs snare 9 innovation ‘Oscars’

LANL’s Acoustic Wavenumber Spectroscopy (AWS), which
generates images of hidden structural properties and/or defects.
(LANL photo)

The National Nuclear Security Administration national laboratories – Sandia, Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore – have landed nine of R&D Magazine’s 2013 R&D 100 Awards, also known as the “Oscars of Innovation.” (full story)



Also appearing this week in the Albuquerque Journal:


Scholarships open door for grad

Scholarship winner Raymond Fasano plans to study
engineering at Tufts University (courtesy photo)

Raymond Fasano didn’t have much money growing up and had to rely on only one parent for everything.

The Bernalillo High School valedictorian didn’t let that deter him from excelling.

His diligence earned him two major financial aid packages. Fasano was accepted into the QuestBridge program, and he is the recipient of a $30,000 scholarship from the Los Alamos Employees’ Scholarship Fund. (full story)

 
Three Los Alamos National Laboratory researchers have been named among the most influential scientists in the world.

Scholarship winner Raymond Fasano plans to study
engineering at Tufts University (courtesy photo)

Hepatitis C researcher Alan Perelson and HIV researcher Bette Korber, along with mass spectrometry researcher Allison Aiken, were named to Thomson Reuters Corp.’s list of the “World’s Most Influential Scientific Minds,” released Tuesday. (full story)


This story also appeared in the Albuquerque Journal and the Los Alamos Monitor

And also appearing this week in the Santa Fe New Mexican:

Native student to receive business scholarship

Los Alamos National Security LLC, working through the Los Alamos National Laboratory Foundation, is offering a $1,000 Northern New Mexico Tribal Business Scholarship for Native American students who are already pursuing business degrees. (full story)

Mechanism Found for Development of Protective HIV Antibodies

Scientists at Duke University and Los Alamos find
a vulnerability in HIV that could lead to a vaccine
(courtesy image)

Scientists at Duke Medicine have found an immunologic mechanism that makes broadly neutralizing antibodies in people who are HIV-1 infected.

These findings, published online July 24, 2014, in the journal Cell, are a major development toward determining the key to induction of potent neutralizing antibodies by an HIV vaccine.

…study authors included Peter Hraber and Bette T. Korber of Los Alamos National Laboratory…. (full story)

 
Bechtel-UC Teams at US National Laboratories Win Six R&D 100 Awards

LANL’s Safire, an R&D 100 Award winner (LANL photo)

Bechtel announced today that researchers from two U.S. national laboratories managed and operated by Bechtel partnerships have earned six 2014 R&D 100 Awards, known as the Oscars of Invention.

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory teams collected four awards and Los Alamos National Laboratory teams received two. R&D Magazine gives the awards to recognize the top 100 technology products of the year, honoring cutting-edge scientific and engineering technologies with commercial potential. (full story)

This story also appeared in the Yahoo! News


How I make science and research work as a business

Gary Grider (courtesy Albuquerque Business First)

With a high population of science-based jobs in the state, the art of mixing science and business is something New Mexico might be able to thrive in. To find out how that can best be done, Albuquerque Business First spoke to Gary Grider, who works at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. He gave us a few tips about how business and science can work together to create stronger industries. (full story)


Los Alamos National Laboratory launches new student app

Los Alamos National Laboratory recently launched its new student mobile app students and postdoctoral candidates can use to learn about employment opportunities, science research, education programs and more. (full story)

Thuc Hoang, Trinity Project Manager, National Nuclear Security Administration
 

Illustration of the Trinity Supercomputer, from Cray Inc.

Forty-two petaFLOPS equals one big upgrade for the National Nuclear Security Administration. A new super computer dubbed Trinity will be assembled next year at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. The $174 million deal with Cray is one of the biggest contracts in the supercomputer manufacturers history. Cray also built supercomputer Cielo, which will be retired after Trinity is up and running. Thuc Hoang is the Trinity project manager in the Office for Advanced Simulation and Computing at the NNSA. She told Tom Temin and Emily Kopp on the Federal Drive how supercomputing supports the mission. (full story)

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Cray to Develop New Supercomputer to Manage Nuclear Stockpile

Illustration from Cray Inc.

Cray Inc will develop a supercomputer for the National Nuclear Security Administration. The deal, worth $174 million, is one of the largest contracts in Cray’s history.

The supercomputer, named Trinity, is projected to be one of the fastest in the world when it’s built at the Los Alamos National Laboratories. The NNSA, part of the Department of Energy, manages the nation’s nuclear weapons stockpile, a responsibility that includes running virtual simulations testing the stockpile’s safety, security, reliability and performance. (full story)

This story also appeared in ABC News, PC World, HPC Wire, US News, Albuquerque Journal and many other outlets

 
Imaging the Fukushima Daiichi reactors with cosmic-ray muons

Reactor building at Fukushima plant.

Los Alamos National Laboratory, in New Mexico, US, will team up with Toshiba Corporation to use muon tomography to safely peer inside the cores of the Fukushima Daiichi reactors. The initiative could reduce the time required to clean up the disabled complex by at least a decade, and greatly reduce plant personnel exposure to radiation. (full story)

 
Earth-crushing pressure? This electron spin doesn’t care

Magnetic diffraction in a high-pressure
diamond anvil cell.  From PhysOrg

To fully understand something, it is often instructive to view it at its extremes. How do materials behave when their bits are forced much closer together than is comfortable? How do electrons accommodate proximity? What normal behaviors break down?

The researchers in this study, from Argonne; The University of Chicago; Los Alamos National Laboratory; the NSF; the University of Tennessee; and Oak Ridge calculated the ranges of energy that an electron may assume. (full story)


A new TV series highlights the legends of the “Manhattan Project”

Los Alamos office at 109 E. Palace Ave, Santa Fe.
From KOAT.

It was the 1940s, and people on the outside could only wonder what was going on “up on the hill.” What was the top-secret mission? “The Manhattan Project was arguably history’s largest, most secret scientific effort.”

Only the best and brightest scientists knew the magnitude of the assignment in the remote desert, today's Los Alamos.  Los Alamos was really the ideal location.  That's where the world's first atomic bomb was developed, ending world war two.

 
LAPD competes in Robot Rodeo

Robots Rodeo, LANL photo.

Even though the title has as the word “rodeo” in it, it was all business at the 2014 Western National Robot Rodeo. The event took place June 23-27 inside the Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Technical Area 49.

This year, five bomb squads from New Mexico and their bomb-diffusing robots participated, as well as two teams from Colorado and one team from the United Kingdom. (full story)



Los Alamos National Security gives grants to local businesses

Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) employees pledged a record $327,000 during the recently completed scholarship fund drive. More employees donated to the fund this year than in past years.

“Our employees know first-hand that education can unlock opportunity for these talented students who hold the promise to be future leaders in government, industry, or the nonprofit sector,” said Los Alamos’ Environmental Programs Director Jeff Mousseau. (full story)

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Gates says fixing education toughest challenge

Bill Gates with Charlie McMillan (left) and Gary Grider at the Laboratory's Metropolis Computing Center. LANL photo.

Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Bill Gates says eradicating malaria is easier than fixing the United States’ education system. But what he really wishes he could do is write a check to eliminate biological, chemical and nuclear weapons.

Gates made the comments in a 45-minute talk Monday to employees at Los Alamos National Laboratory. He was in northern New Mexico for a private tour of the nation’s premier nuclear weapons facility. (Full Story)

Bill Gates talks health, education in LANL visit

Gates speaks to Lab employees.  LANL photo.               
 
The world’s richest man said he saw some great science during a brief visit Monday to Los Alamos National Laboratory. “Obviously, I believe in science and innovation,” said Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft and co-chairman of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Gates was introduced by LANL Director Charles McMillan, who identified lab interns in the audience who were recipients of Gates Foundation scholarships. (Full Story)

Also in the Albuquerque Journal and Los Alamos Monitor

Scientists ignite aluminum water mix

Bryce Tappan ignites a small quantity of aluminum nanoparticle water mixture. LANL photo.

Research by Los Alamos National Laboratory explosives scientist Bryce Tappan, published as the cover story in the prestigious German journal of chemistry Angewandte Chemie, for the first time confirms that chemical kinetics—the speed of a chemical reaction—is a primary function in determining nanoaluminum combustion burn rates.

Tappan and his co-authors, Matthew Dirmyer of Los Alamos, and Grant Risha of Penn State University, made this discovery by looking for the “kinetic isotope effect” in nanoaluminum particles. (Full Story)

In virus hunt, Saudi Arabia suspects African camel imports

Somali camels are seen before being exported to Middle East countries. Reuters photo.

Lisa Murillo, an expert in virology and affiliate scientist at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in the United States, said she had analyzed data on human MERS cases in the Middle East and camel imports from the Horn of Africa - and found striking correlations that cry out for further investigation.

As a result of her findings, Murillo says she has developed what she acknowledges is a "very speculative hypothesis" - that the number of MERS cases in Arabian Peninsula countries is related to the number of camels imported into those countries. (Full Story)

Record $327,000 pledged by LANL employees in 2014 scholarship drive

2014 Los Alamos Employees' Scholarship recipient Nicolette Gonzales, right, talks with Laboratory Director Charlie McMillan. LANL photo.

Los Alamos National Laboratory employees pledged a record $327,000 during the recently completed 2014 Los Alamos Employees’ Scholarship Fund (LAESF) drive.

Coupled with $250,000 in matching funds from Los Alamos National Security, LLC, which manages and operates the Laboratory, the total amount contributed in this year’s campaign is more than $577,000. (Full Story)

Ten local companies win funding from Los Alamos Venture Acceleration Fund

Ten New Mexico companies have been awarded funds from the Los Alamos Venture Acceleration Fund.

Los Alamos National Security, which manages Los Alamos National Laboratory, has invested approximately $3 million via the Venture Acceleration Fund in 49 companies in New Mexico. (Full Story)


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