Climate change as art
The mesmerising patterns of our changing climate have been revealed in artistic computer simulations used to analyse global warming. The model, by the Los Alamos National Laboratory, is used to simulate eddy transportation of heat within the ocean, a key component necessary to accurately simulate climate change. These are circular movements of water, counter to a main current, causing a small whirlpool. (Full Story)
High-energy partnership
HAWC observatory, high on the slopes near Puebla, Mexico. HAWC PhotoA new facility should help advance understanding of black holes, supernovae and the origins of our universe. A partnership including Los Alamos National Laboratory and the University of Maryland will lead the High Altitude Water Cherenkov observatory near Puebla, Mexico.
Almost six years in the making, this facility has unique capabilities for detecting the highest-energy electromagnetic radiation, and complements other gamma ray observatories around the world. (Full Story)
Bioinformatics tool for metagenome analysis
Molecular biology studies begin with purified DNA and RNA. LANL photoA new method for DNA analysis of microbial communities, such as those found in the ocean, the soil, and our own guts, has been developed by scientists. "We have developed a new tool in this rapidly expanding and evolving field of what is called 'metagenomics'" said a researcher. "It uses nucleic acid data and looks for sections that map uniquely to a pre-constructed database." (Full Story)
Also in PhysOrg and R&D Magazine
Los Alamos lab reduces water use in 2014
Los Alamos National Laboratory says it has cut down on its water use by more than a quarter.
And about one-third of the savings last year came from the switch to reclaimed water for cooling a supercomputing center at the Northern New Mexico lab.
The lab’s reclamation plant contributed more than 27 million gallons of re-purposed water to the Strategic Computing Complex, a secure facility that supports national security work and is one of the institution’s larger water users. (Full Story)
Watch a video and see how SERF works. Also in HPCwire
New insights into radiation damage evolution
A reaction between two "stacking fault tetrahedra." LANL imageTwo reports from Los Alamos National Laboratory in Scientific Reports are helping crack the code of how certain materials respond in the highly damaging radiation environments within a nuclear reactor. The goal of these efforts is to understand at an atomistic level just how materials develop defects during irradiation, and how those defects evolve to determine the ultimate fate of the material. (Full Story)
Reader View: Keeping peace — the real mission of Los Alamos
I think it is time that someone spoke up about the real mission of Los Alamos Scientific (later National) Laboratory.
"You know what the lab is best known for, but you don’t know our mission. Your mission is to be absolutely certain that what Los Alamos is known for is never, ever used again in anger,” said former director Norris Bradbury.
Much water has passed over the dam, but that is still LANL’s mission, in spite of much of what you read and hear today. (Full Story)
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