Courtesy photo.
Some people online are encouraging others to avoid Transport Security Administration body imaging scanners at the airport, claiming the equipment has the ability to unzip and alter human DNA.
The viral post attributes the claim to a purported study conducted by Boian S. Alexandrov at the Center for Nonlinear Studies at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.
But the study cited in the post makes no mention of airport scanners, and TSA says it uses a technology that does not alter human DNA and does not penetrate the skin.
"Our theoretical and experimental research has nothing to do with the belief that airport scanners can unzip DNA," Alexandrov, the lead researcher in the study, told USA TODAY. The project looked at how terahertz waves interact with double-stranded DNA. Alexandrov said it was "basic theoretical research." (Full story)
The high-efficiency ultracold neutron detector
employed in the 'bathtub' trap.
Particles called neutrons are typically very content inside atoms. They stick around for billions of years and longer inside some of the atoms that make up matter in our universe. But when neutrons are free and floating alone outside of an atom, they start to decay into protons and other particles. Their lifetime is short, lasting only about 15 minutes.
Physicists have spent decades trying to measure the precise lifetime of a neutron using two techniques, one involving bottles and the other beams. But the results from the two methods have not matched: they differ by about 9 seconds, which is significant for a particle that only lives about 15 minutes.
Now, in a new study published in the journal Physical Review Letters, a team including researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory has made the most precise measurement yet of a neutron's lifetime using the bottle technique. The experiment, known as UCNtau (for Ultra Cold Neutrons tau, where tau refers to the neutron lifetime), has revealed that the neutron lives 14.629 minutes with an uncertainty of 0.005 minutes. This is a factor of two more precise than previous measurements made using either of the methods. While the results do not solve the mystery of why the bottle and beam methods disagree, they bring scientists closer to an answer. (Full story)
A Los Alamos National Laboratory scientist was recently featured in “Mission Unstoppable,” a TV show that promotes women in STEM.
Dr. Harshini Mukundan was invited on the show to explain her role as a LANL group leader and her work in microbiology. She also leads a group of scientists who conduct a variety of research, including spectroscopy, which is how matter interacts with electromagnetic radiation, as well as biological work and more.
“As a scientist, I lead a group that actually looks at a team that looks at developing diagnostics for emerging infectious diseases,” Mukundan said. “Some of our research is trying to figure out ways to what I call agnostically detect – which means you don’t need to know what the pathogen is, what the bug is, but you are still able to identify it with some degree of reliability – so that we can be prepared for emerging threats like the COVID pandemic.”
Mukundan does science and STEM outreach because she believes it’s important to give back to the community and bring STEM awareness to girls. It is actions like these that led her to be nominated as an ambassador for the #IfThenSheCan initiative. (Full story)
Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU for the Mastcam-Z mosaic and
NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL/CNES/IRAP.
New images from the Perseverance mission show evidence of delta and flood deposits in Jezero crater on Mars, indicating that there were massive flash floods as well as periods of stability on the red planet. The deltas are an ideal place to search for signs of ancient life.
“These images show large boulders that have been washed down the river. They could have only been moved by powerful flood waters,” said Roger Wiens, principal investigator for SuperCam at Los Alamos National Laboratory. “The location of the boulders also tells us that the lake was not full at the time of the flash floods, indicating fluctuating water levels. This could mean Mars experienced changes in climate over time.” (Full story)
This predictive analysis is beneficial because it helps each data center’s supercomputer procurement team extrapolate to the new machines and system architectures that will deliver the most performance for production workloads at their datacenter. However, once a supercomputer is installed, configured, made available to users, and benchmarked, it is too late to consider fundamental architectural changes.
The goal of the Exascale Computing Project hardware evaluation group is to modernize the metrics and predictive analysis to guide US Department of Energy supercomputer procurements. Scott Pakin, the ECP HE lead at Los Alamos National Laboratory, notes, “Our main customer is the DOE facilities, who consider our work to be very valuable in determining the types of machines to be procured and configured. Our work can also be used by application developers seeking to understand the performance characteristics of their codes.” (Full story)
2021 Top 50 Best Companies for Latinas to work at
in the United States.
LATINA Style Inc. has named Los Alamos National Laboratory as one of the 2021 Top 50 Best Companies for Latinas to Work in the U.S.
Up three spots from last year, LANL ranked 30th out of 50 in 2021. Los Alamos has appeared on this list with other U.S. companies for four years in a row, and is the only national laboratory named as a “best company.”
Companies that responded to LATINA Style Inc.’s questionnaire — including LANL — were evaluated based on matters that LATINA Style Inc. magazine readers deemed as important to them in the workplace. (Full story)
