How New Mexico controlled the spread of COVID-19
Early in the spring, the state put together a team of 150 researchers and clinicians to advise its officials, and New Mexico has been “very proactive in implementing science-based decisions,” says Sara Del Valle, a mathematical and computational epidemiologist at Los Alamos National Laboratory.
Modeling the SARS-CoV-2 virus’s transmission patterns is important for understanding ways of containing the outbreak. So in the spring New Mexico created its own modeling project in collaboration with researchers at Sandia National Laboratory and Los Alamos, as well as Presbyterian Healthcare Services, a nonprofit health care system in the state. (Full Story)
Mutant virus: should we be worried that Sars-CoV-2 is changing?
Back in the spring, at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, the computational biologist Bette Korber and her team were busy building the mathematical tools that would flag up such repeat offenders in the GISAID data.
Korber and others reported their finding officially in the journal Cell in August, along with their conclusion that the switch had made the virus more transmissible but not more – or less – dangerous. Whether the virus has become better at spreading between people since the spring is a matter of lively debate, but most researchers agree that the switch has had no impact on disease severity. (Full Story)
Up to 15 inches of sea-level rise from ice sheets by 2100
Los Alamos National Laboratory, working with three dozen other institutions from around the world, has helped to create the most accurate prediction of how melting ice in Antarctica and Greenland will contribute to global sea-level rise. The six-year effort, called the Ice Sheet Model Intercomparison Project (ISMIP6), found that by the year 2100, sea levels could rise by as much as 15 inches, from melting of the ice sheets alone. This is in addition to 5 to 26 inches of sea-level rise expected to come from ocean thermal expansion, the melting of mountain glaciers around the world, and changes in storage of water on land. (Full Story)
The Hall effect links superconductivity and quantum criticality in a strange metal
Over the past few decades, researchers have identified a number of superconducting materials with atypical properties, known as unconventional superconductors. Many of these superconductors share the same anomalous charge transport properties and are thus collectively characterized as "strange metals."
Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley) and Los Alamos National Laboratory have been investigating the anomalous transport properties of strange metals, along with several other teams worldwide. (Full Story)
Why neural networks struggle with the Game of Life
The Game of Life is a grid-based automaton that is very popular in discussions about science, computation, and artificial intelligence. It is an interesting idea that shows how very simple rules can yield very complicated results.
Despite its simplicity, however, the Game of Life remains a challenge to artificial neural networks, AI researchers at Swarthmore College and the Los Alamos National Laboratory have shown in a recent paper. Titled, “It’s Hard for Neural Networks To Learn the Game of Life,” their research investigates how neural networks explore the Game of Life and why they often miss finding the right solution. (Full Story)
Android-based devices under attack by crypto mining botnet
Cyber threat responders are fighting back with counter weapons of their own. For example, last month, computer scientists at the Los Alamos National Laboratory were able to design a new state-of-the-art artificial intelligence (AI) system that has the capability to possibly identify malware aimed at penetrating supercomputers to mine for cryptocurrency.
Gopinath Chennupati, a researcher at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, said, “Based on recent computer break-ins in Europe and elsewhere, this type of software watchdog will soon be crucial to prevent cryptocurrency miners from hacking into high-performance computing facilities and stealing precious computing resources. Our deep learning artificial intelligence model is designed to detect the abusive use of supercomputers specifically for the purpose of cryptocurrency mining.” (Full Story)
What it takes to shoot a laser On Mars
“I’ve been fascinated by Mars ever since I was a little kid,” said Lisa Danielson, ChemCam operations manager at Los Alamos National Laboratory. “I studied physics and astronomy, but I got my advanced degrees in geology because I realized that, to study other planets, I needed to understand rocks. I went to work for NASA and now I’m here, helping to direct the instrument that shoots lasers on Mars, which is a pretty cool job to have.”
In this episode, Danielson is joined by Nina Lanza, another planetary scientist who is also on the ChemCam team. This is the seventh and final episode of Mars Technica, a new seven-series podcast produced by Los Alamos National Laboratory, which delves into the Lab’s role on the Mars Perseverance mission. (Full Story)
Also from the Reporter this week:
Parents, teachers and students find free remote-learning resources at New Mexico STEAM Hub
“Back-to-school 2020 has challenged all of us to become more resourceful and creative,” said Thom Mason, director of Los Alamos National Laboratory. “Now more than ever, it’s critical for the Laboratory to be a partner in education. I commend the New Mexico STEAM Coalition for seeing the need for the STEAM Hub and applaud the enthusiasm of our regional partners who joined the effort.” (Full Story)
Symposium focuses on the impact of the Manhattan Project and the world 75 years later
Women work as "computers" during the Manhattan Project in Los Alamos. LANL photo.
On Saturday, Sept. 19, The National Museum of Nuclear Science & History will host the virtual symposium, “They Changed the World: The 75th Anniversary of World War II and the Use of Atomic Weapons.” The symposium includes two panels – the first is heavily focused on the Manhattan Project, the second is focused on the world 75 years later.
The second panel focuses on the last 75 years following the world’s first atomic testing ... world-renowned speakers for the symposium include former director of Los Alamos National Laboratory, Professor Siegfried Hecker; and more. (Full Story)
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