Los Alamos Press Highlights

 

The coronavirus is still mutating. But will that matter? ‘We need to keep the respect for this virus.’

This electron microscope image shows

coronavirus particles. Courtesy photo.

 

Coronavirus infections are down across much of the United States. Hospitalizations, too. Deaths are finally dropping from their dismaying late-summer peak of more than 2,000 a day. Most people are vaccinated, and booster shots are gaining approval. Officials in the United States are hoping the worst of the pandemic is over.

 

But so much depends on the virus itself. It is not static. It mutates. Delta, the variant of SARS-CoV-2 now causing virtually all infections in the United States, is more than twice as transmissible as the virus that emerged in Wuhan, China. The possibility of further significant mutations in the virus looms like a giant asterisk over any discussion of the trajectory of the pandemic.

 

The first significant change in the virus was identified by Bette Korber, a theoretical biologist at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. She had been scrutinizing the genomes of virus samples from around the world and noticed that one mutation, known as D614G, had become common in the virus in dozens of geographic locations. This mutation altered the positioning of the virus’s spike protein — its tool for binding to cells.

 

Korber, in collaboration with researchers at Duke University and the University of Sheffield in England, concluded that the strain with the mutation was more transmissible than the first strain that circulated in China. They posted their findings online — and slammed into a wall of scientific skepticism.

 

No one today doubts that the coronavirus is capable of evolving rapidly — and dangerously — as it spreads through the human population. It is a generalist virus — able to infect many different mammals. It has been known to jump from humans into minks and back into humans. Zookeepers are coping with infections among lions, tigers, gorillas and other captive animals. (Full story)

 

 

 

Physicists make most precise measurement ever of neutron’s lifetime

 

The magnet array for the UCNτ experiment at

Los Alamos National Laboratory.

 

Physicists have measured the lifetime of the neutron more precisely than ever before.

 

The average time it takes for the subatomic particle to decay is 877.75 seconds, according to an experiment that used magnetic fields to trap ultra-cold neutrons. The results have twice the precision of similar measurements, and are consistent with theoretical calculations. But they do not explain why in an alternative kind of experiment, neutrons last nearly 10 seconds longer.

 

The latest measurement was presented at a virtual meeting of the American Physical Society on 13 October, and published in Physical Review Letters1.

 

Exactly how long it takes for a neutron to decay is random, but the average time is about a quarter of an hour. To get a precise value, Daniel Salvat, an experimental nuclear physicist at Indiana University in Bloomington, and his colleagues built an experiment called UCNτ at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. They slowed neutrons down to ultra-cold temperatures and placed them in a vacuum ‘bottle’, a metal structure shaped like the halfpipe in skateboarding. Magnetic fields at the bottom of the bottle prevented the neutrons from touching the surface, where they would have been lost. (Full story)

 

Also reported in Gizmodo.

 

 

 

NASA releases incredible audio captured by its Perseverance rover on Mars

 

 

Nasa releases incredible audio captured by 

Perseverance rover on Mars.

 

NASA’s Perseverance rover has recorded five hours of sounds from Mars and scientists said it made them feel as if they were “right there on the surface.”

 

The rover now has the unique distinction of becoming the first spacecraft to record the sounds of the Red Planet through dedicated microphones, according to a press release issued by the space agency on Monday.

 

“Sound on Mars carries much farther than we thought. It shows you just how important it is to do field science,” said Nina Lanza, a SuperCam scientist working with mic data at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico.

 

“We’ve all seen these beautiful images that we get from Mars but having sound to be able to add to those images, it makes me feel like I’m almost right there on the surface,” said Lanza in a video released by NASA. (Full story)

 

 

 

Bacteria, fungi interact far more often than previously thought

 

A diverse culture collection of fungal isolates

obtained from around the world has been

screened by researchers for potential bacterial

associates.

 

In a novel, broad assessment of bacterial-fungal interactions, researchers using unique bioinformatics found that fungi host a remarkable diversity of bacteria, making bacterial-fungal interactions far more common and diverse than previously known.

 

"Until now, examples of bacterial-fungal interactions were pretty limited in number and diversity," said Aaron Robinson, a biologist at Los Alamos National Laboratory and lead author of a new paper describing the research in Nature's Communications Biology journal. "It had been assumed that bacterial-fungal associations might not be that common. But we found a lot of diverse bacteria that appear to associate with fungi, and we detected those associations at a frequent rate."

 

The research contributes to an emerging understanding of the fungal bacteriome, the existence of bacteria both within and in close association with a fungal host, opening up possibilities for studying the interactions more intimately and connecting that research to issues such as ecosystem functioning and climate change impacts. (Full story)

 

 

 

NASA Perseverance mission shows flash floods on Mars

 

The Perseverance Mars rover in April. Courtesy photo.

 

Pictures of boulders that were carried by flash floods into a lake bed might not seem too thrilling.

 

But when it’s the Perseverance rover photographing the Martian landscape and capturing evidence of dramatic weather events — and perhaps a climactic change — that occurred on this now-desolate planet billions of years ago, the images are indeed intriguing.

 

The rover landed in the windswept, barren Jezero Crater, which was once a lake linked to a river.

 

It shot photos of terrain as far away as 1.4 miles, using the SuperCam that Los Alamos National Laboratory helped develop for the Mars mission. Some of the images and an analysis by almost 40 researchers were published in the journal Science. (Full story)

 

 

 

Tess Light Awarded 2021 Global Security Medal

 

Tess Light

 

Tracy “Tess” Lavezzi Light, a scientist in Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Intelligence and Space Research division, has been awarded the distinguished 2021 Los Alamos Global Security Medal, which recognizes the exceptional achievements of active or recently retired employees who have made significant contributions to the Laboratory’s global security mission.

 

“For more than 20 years at the Laboratory, Tess has helped guide major projects with impacts across our mission. She is an ambassador for the Laboratory and a skilled defender of U.S. interests in the complex global geopolitical landscape,” Laboratory Director Thom Mason said. “I am honored to award her the Global Security Medal.”

 

Since 2004, Light has provided nationally recognized expertise and inspirational leadership for the Laboratory’s Space-based Nuclear Detonation Detection Program, which is the central National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) component of the U.S. Nuclear Detonation Detection System (USNDS), a multi-agency program whose primary mission is to detect and assess nuclear detonations occurring anywhere on Earth, from the ground to space. (Full story)

 

 

 

Three LANL Scientists Elected 2021 Fellows of the American Physical Society

 

Newly-elected 2021 American Physical Society

fellows are, from left, Eric Brown, Nathan Moody

and Takeyasu Ito.

 

Three Los Alamos National Laboratory scientists have been elected fellows by the American Physical Society (APS). The new APS fellows are Eric Brown, Takeyasu Ito and Nathan Moody.

 

“I am pleased to see Eric, Takeyasu and Nathan recognized by the American Physical Society,” said Thom Mason, Laboratory director. “This recognition highlights their contributions to the physics community, and I congratulate each of them on this honor.”

 

The APS Fellowship Program recognizes APS members who may have made advances in physics through original research and publication, or made significant innovative contributions in the application of physics to science and technology. They may also have made significant contributions to the teaching of physics or service and participation in the activities of the APS. (Full story)