Getting through an airport is a nightmare if you have this insanely cool job
Explosives test at Los Alamos National Laboratory, LANL photo.Los Alamos National Laboratory scientists talked about using “biology, physics, chemistry, engineering, [and] high-performance computing…to keep America safe” in a Reddit AMA (“Ask Me Anything”) live online chat yesterday. They also talked about the difficulties of getting through airport security because their belongings are often covered in the vestiges of explosives.
So be thankful for this team. Not only do they help keep the US safe, but we can pretty much guarantee that their trip through security is going to be much more annoying than yours. (Full Story)
Strawberry’s the best flavor
A Homeland Security Department science and technology program manager is high on new tech at Los Alamos. “Right now, most forms of cryptography can be broken with the right tools — but what if there were a development in the works that could change the game completely?” the DHS official, Michael Pozmantier, writes for TechCrunch. “At Los Alamos National Laboratory, scientists have taken the first step toward exactly that. It’s a device the size of a Starburst candy, which fits on a small circuit board the size of a video card. Inside that unassuming exterior is a crazily fluctuating quantum light field — the quickest and most reliable true random number generator ever made.” (Full Story)
See the original article at Tech Crunch
Novel water-removal technique boosts performance of carbon nanomaterials
Fuel cell in a test stand, LANL image.New research illuminating water’s critical role in forming catalysts for oxygen reduction in materials has revealed the key to designing next-generation carbon nanomaterials with enhanced performance for fuel cells and batteries.
“The implications of understanding water’s role in achieving high-performance layered materials for energy generation and storage devices will be transformational,” said Gautam Gupta of the Materials Synthesis and Integrated Devices group at Los Alamos National Laboratory. (Full Story)
What is quantum cloud computing?
Heart of the D-Wave Quantum Computer, D-Wave image.“As conventional computers reach their limits in terms of scaling and performance per watt, we need to investigate new technologies to support our mission,” said Mark Anderson of the Los Alamos National Laboratory's Weapons Physics Directorate. “Researching and evaluating quantum annealing as the basis for new approaches to address intractable problems is an essential and powerful step, and will enable a new generation of forward thinkers to influence its evolution in a direction most beneficial to the nation." (Full Story)
LANL critical watersheds on exhibit at White House water summit
Richard Middleton's view, courtesy photo.A Los Alamos National Laboratory project was included in a White House celebration of the 23rd annual United Nations World Water Day Tuesday.
The White House hosted a Water Summit, including demonstrations, exhibitions, announcements and revelations intended to spotlight creative solutions and transform the way we think about solving the water problems today and tomorrow.
The full LANL project is half-way through a three-year $3 million Critical Watershed program, funded by a LDRD (Lab Directed Research and Development) grant. The principal investigator, Richard Middleton is an expert in energy infrastructure modeling. (Full Story)
Los Alamos National Laboratory and Seagate heat up data archiving
Under a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement, Seagate and Los Alamos are working together on power-managed disk and software solutions for deep data archiving.“We see huge opportunities to bring power-aware cold storage to the market as organizations—including and beyond the Department of Energy—seek new ways to address data storage in resourceful ways,” said Gary Grider, division leader of high-performance computing (HPC) at Los Alamos. (Full Story)
Four firms picked to work with LANL
Four small businesses will be working with Los Alamos National Laboratory to accelerate the nation’s transformation toward a clean energy economy as part of the Department of Energy’s Small Business Vouchers pilot project.
The following four businesses were awarded the pilot vouchers, for a total of $590,000: Amsen Technologies, Sustainable Innovations, KWJ Engineering, and Treadstone Technologies. (Full Story)
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