Computer learns how to imagine the future
In the fourth frame, the computer predicted or "imagined" what the next frame would be, based on the data. LANL image.The fastest computer in the United States, Trinity has unique capabilities designed for the National Nuclear Security Administration’s stockpile stewardship mission, which includes highly complex nuclear simulations in the absence of testing nuclear weapons. All this capability means Trinity allows a fundamentally different approach to large-scale cortical simulations, enabling an unprecedented leap in the ability to model neural processing.
To test that capability on a limited-scale problem, computer scientists and neuroscientists at Los Alamos created a “sparse prediction machine” that executes a neural network on Trinity. (Full Story)
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AI earthquake prediction might soon forecast tremors and save lives
Now, a team of scientists working at the Los Alamos National Laboratory and the University of Cambridge says they might — just might — have cracked the code by using artificial intelligence.“One has to be really cautious, because we don’t want to be considered nutcases by our colleagues,” Paul Johnson, a Los Alamos National Laboratory fellow and lead investigator on research recently published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, told Seeker. (Full Story)
Predicting quakes in laboratory analogs
Photo-elastic plates reveal discrete points of stress buildup along both sides of a modeled fault, LANL image.The time it takes a proxy fault to slip can be inferred from the subtle acoustical signals it emits. Theorist Bertrand Rouet-Leduc of Los Alamos National Laboratory and Cambridge University and his colleagues have developed a technique that extracts the signals from the noise and analyzes their statistical features to infer a material’s instantaneous friction, shear stress, and how likely it is to fail.
The algorithm made a sequence of decisions based on each data parcel’s mean, variance, and other statistical features to predict how much time remained before the next slip. (Full Story)
Cosmic rays have revealed a new chamber in Egypt’s Great Pyramid
Setting up a muon detector inside the Queen’s chamber of the Great Pyramid, from ScanPyramids.Cosmic rays may have just unveiled a hidden chamber within Egypt’s most famous pyramid.
“If there is more mass, fewer muons get to that detector,” says Christopher Morris at Los Alamos National Laboratory, who uses similar techniques to image the internal structure of nuclear reactors. “When there is less mass, more muons get to the detector.”
“What they’ve seen is fairly definitive,” he says, although it will take drilling and cameras to determine if the cavity is a structural chamber, or a void created by a long-forgotten collapse. (Full Story)
Cosmic rays reveal mysterious void in Egypt’s Great Pyramid
A 3-D rendition of the Great Pyramid, showing the location of the void as a cluster of white dots. From ScanPyramids mission.High above Egypt and everywhere else, cosmic rays bombard the atmosphere. Now, by monitoring the cosmic rain on Egypt's Great Pyramid, an international research team has detected a large void hidden within 4,500-year-old stone structure.
“If you see the same signal with different technologies, it increases your confidence that what you see is real,” said Konstantin Borozdin, a physicist who worked on muon detection at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico and is vice president at Decision Sciences, a California-based security company that uses muon technology to scan vehicles for hidden radioactive cargo. (Full Story)
Also from the New York Times
LANL teams with Pojoaque to boost teacher prep
Lorenzo Gonzales from the Lab’s Math and Science Academy program works with teachers at the recent Ir-Rational Number Institute. LANL photo.The Laboratory’s Math and Science Academy has selected Pojoaque Valley School District as the partnership school for its new teacher education program, with the aim to develop a model for elementary education.
The aim of the Partnership School initiative is to develop a model for elementary education where pre-service teachers, in-service teachers and principals have opportunities to continually improve their teaching practices,” said Lorenzo Gonzales, education specialist with the academy. (Full Story)
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