State of WMD: How 9/11 impacted the mission of national security laboratories
The Trident laser produces neutron bursts, used in the detection of clandestine nuclear materials and treaty verification. LANL photo.
In 2001, Los Alamos National Laboratory was several years into the stockpile stewardship program – developing physics and computational tools to ensure the safety and reliability of the nation’s nuclear weapons in the absence of testing. We weren’t sure what the future held. While we knew that nuclear weapons were still an important part of the nation’s military and diplomatic strategy, the end of the Cold War meant that the role they would play in national defense policy was unclear.
After September 11, the reality that not only did threats still exist but they could easily land on our shores hit hard. Soon after, a renewed sense of urgency emerged around the need to secure our nuclear weapons and ensure their readiness at a moment’s notice. On the top of many minds at Los Alamos were the what-if questions, specifically: What if the terrorists had used an improvised nuclear device? What if they might still? Could they potentially get a hold of a nation-state’s weapon of mass destruction? What about the potential for bio-attacks? (Full Story)
Los Alamos National Lab works on hydrogen-powered trucks
Recent data estimates diesel-powered trucks spew more than 200 tons of CO2 into the air every year. That's why Los Alamos National Lab is working on a new project to replace the diesel-powered trucks – with hydrogen-powered ones.
"As you try to get all of the carbon out of transportation infrastructure, you gotta do both light-duty vehicles, and heavy-duty vehicles,” said Rob Borup, a researcher at Los Alamos National Lab. Hydrogen-powered vehicles are --by definition-- an electric vehicle -- but there's no battery inside. Instead-- they use a fuel cell to combine hydrogen gas with oxygen to make electricity. (Full Story)
Also from KRQE-TV
Abrasion patch Bellegarde
NASA's Perseverance Mars rover used its abrasion tool to grind down the rock surface at this target, nicknamed "Bellegarde," on Aug. 29, 2021, the 188th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. This close-up image was produced by Perseverance's SuperCam instrument in natural color, as it would appear under daytime lighting conditions.
SuperCam is led by Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, where the instrument's Body Unit was developed. That part of the instrument includes several spectrometers as well as control electronics and software. (Full Story)
A deadly fungal disease on the rise in the West has experts worried
UC Irvine graphic.
A few years ago, Morgan Gorris, an Earth systems scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, decided to investigate an important question: What makes a place hospitable to Cocci? She soon discovered that the fungus thrives in a set of specific conditions. U.S. counties that are endemic to Valley fever have an average annual temperature above 50 degrees Fahrenheit and get under 600 millimeters of rain a year.
“Essentially, they were hot and dry counties,” Gorris told Grist. She stuck the geographic areas that met those parameters on a map and overlaid them with CDC estimates on where Cocci grows. Sure enough, the counties, which stretch from West Texas through the Southwest and up into California (with a small patch in Washington State) matched up. (Full Story)
News from Mars comes to downtown Los Alamos
Part of the LANL Mars team, from the Daily Post.
Mars is closer than you think. A stroll down Central Avenue in downtown Los Alamos can transport you to the surface of Mars via a slide show of pictures taken by the Perseverance Rover, which is exploring Mars. A video screen is attached to a building that is part of Central Park Square, across the street from the former CB Fox Kidz and around the corner from Bennett’s Fine Jewelry. This effort is a collaboration between Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and Central Park Square owner Philip Kunsburg.
“We are proud to display the accomplishments of this astounding project,” Kunsburg said. Residents of Los Alamos may remember a previous streaming of pictures from Mars taken by the previous Mars Rover, Curiosity, a few years ago. (Full Story)
Siddharth Komini Babu receives electrochemical society Toyota young investigator fellowship
Siddharth Komini Babu of Los Alamos National Laboratory has received an Electrochemical Society (ECS) Toyota Young Investigator Fellowship for Projects in Green Energy Technology.
The $50,000 fellowship supports young electrochemical researchers as they develop battery and fuel cell technology, including research topics that may result in further technological innovation. It is offered by the Electrochemical Society and the Toyota Research Institute of North America, a division of Toyota Motor Engineering and Manufacturing North America.(Full Story)
Santa Fe company builds teardrop trailers even a subcompact car can pull
Customers check out a T300 model, New Mexican photo.
Angel Irlanda designed and built his own lightweight trailer, weighing just 250 pounds (minus hitch and axle) for the carbon fiber-Kevlar-Corecell T250 edition or 300 pounds for the T300 version with the use of resin-reinforced chicken feathers.
He collaborated with material science and dynamic extremes scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory to determine the variance of strength in chicken feathers. This was through the New Mexico Small Business Assistance Program and the New Mexico Manufacturing Extension Partnership. (Full Story)
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