Friday, February 6, 2015




LANL develops website to help fight measles

Disease mapping on the Gateway website, from KOAT

LANL scientists have now compiled into what’s called the Biosurveillance Gateway. It’s a website designed to help public health officials in their fight against measles and other infectious diseases.

"You want credible information, this is what we're offering," said Gateway project director Alina Deshpande.

There were 102 cases of the measles reported in the U.S. in January, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Full Story)




New technique may make solar panel production less expensive

Aditya Mohite, left, and Wanyi Nie report on a new technique for solar cell production.  LANL photo

Scientists have developed a more efficient method of creating the material that makes solar panels work, according to a report published this week, which researchers say could be key to creating clean global energy in the future.          

The report, published on Friday in the journal Science, details the feat by researchers at the Los Alamos National Laboratory who used a technique called hot-casting to grow solar cells from a mineral called perovskite. (Full Story)




Scientists call for antibody ‘bar code’ system

Antibodies illustration.         

More than 100 researchers have collaborated to craft a request that could fundamentally alter how the antibodies used in research are identified, a project potentially on the scale of the now-completed Human Genome Project.

“We propose that antibodies be defined by their sequences, just as genes are,” said Andrew Bradbury, a researcher at Los Alamos National Laboratory, “and they should be made recombinantly in cell lines.” (Full Story)

Also in R&D Magazine



A new, super-absorptive material could improve solar cells, lasers and more

Electronic band gap in complex oxide materials, from Engineering.com

Northwestern University’s James Rondinelli uses quantum mechanical calculations to predict and design the properties of new materials by working at the atom-level. His group’s latest achievement is the discovery of a novel way to control the electronic band gap in complex oxide materials without changing the material’s overall composition.

The research could potentially lead to better electro-optical devices, such as lasers, and new energy-generation and conversion materials. Prasanna Balachandran of Los Alamos National Laboratory is coauthor of the paper. (Full Story)




Building supercomputer capability in an unlikely place

CARC Hardware, from UNM
                
Students at the University of New Mexico will soon be able to access the kind of supercomputing power that researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory once used for the most complex calculations on the planet. Sure, it’s a decommissioned supercomputer housed in a one-time car dealership on the old Route 66 through Albuquerque, but it’s also the chance of a lifetime for a student with a complex research project. (Full Story)

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