Drought lies in the throat of the thirsty
Forest researcher Park Williams. From the Journal.
If your measure of drought is the combined stress of rising temperatures and lack of moisture on Southwestern forests, the drought of the past decade is significantly worse than the droughts of 1898 or the 1950s, according to an analysis by Los Alamos National Laboratory researcher Park Williams. Ditto if your measure is the amount of water flowing through the Colorado River Basin, providing vital supplies to New Mexico, six other western U.S. states and Mexico. (Full Story)
Los Alamos research and leadership prizes awarded
Left to right, Garzon, Batista, and Beyerlein. LANL photos.
Commendations for exemplary scientific research and leadership have been bestowed upon three Los Alamos National Laboratory researchers, Fernando Garzon, Cristian Batista and Irene Beyerlein, by the Laboratory Fellows organization.
"This year's prizes again show the depth and breadth of the scientific talent at Los Alamos," said Laboratory Director Charlie McMillan. "I'm proud that Los Alamos continues to be a home for such creative and innovative work. Congratulations to Fernando, Cristian, Irene, and their collaborators." (Full Story)
LANL names 2012 Laboratory Fellows
Left to right, Farrar, Elliot, and Shashkov. LANL photos.
Three members of the Los Alamos National Laboratory scientific staff are being honored with appointment as Laboratory Fellows for 2012. The new Los Alamos Fellows are Charles Farrar, Steven Elliott and Mikhail Shashkov.
"Chuck, Steven, and Mikhail have made exceptional contributions in their fields and to national security,” said lab Director Charlie McMillan. “To be honored by their peers is a testament to their work. I congratulate the 2012 Laboratory Fellows and thank them for their service.” (Full Story)
Now Big Brother is REALLY watching you
The first part of the project involves a program called PetaVision. This initiative is a cooperative effort between Los Alamos National Laboratory and Portland State University with the support of the National Science Foundation. The goal of this initiative is to “Achieve human-level performance in a ‘synthetic visual cognition’ system,” in other words, create a computer program that will duplicate a human’s ability to see and recognize objects, specifically faces. (Full Story)
Nano insights could lead to improved nuclear reactors
Scanning electron microscope image of a copper and iron nano pillar. The arrow points to the interface between the two metals. From Caltech.
In order to build the next generation of nuclear reactors, materials scientists are trying to unlock the secrets of certain materials that are radiation-damage tolerant.
Scientists from Caltech, Sandia National Laboratories, UC Berkeley, and Los Alamos National Laboratory have taken a closer look at radiation-induced damage, zooming in all the way to the nanoscale. (Full Story)
LANL leads effort in nuclear disarmament
A section of the Aries disassembly line at TA-55. LANL photo.
Scientists at Los Alamos National Lab are working to help the U.S. meet the goals of a 2007 treaty with Russia to decrease the two nations’ nuclear weapons stockpiles.
On Thursday, the National Nuclear Security Association said LANL, in its second year of production, has managed to disable weapons pits and create 200 kilograms of plutonium oxide that cannot be used for weapons. (Full Story)
NNSA delivers W76-1 units to Navy for 2012
W76-1. SNL photo.
The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has announced that it delivered all of its scheduled W76-1 Submarine Launched Ballistic Missile warhead units to United States Navy in FY 2012.
The W76-1 Life Extension Program involves engineers, scientists and technicians from NNSA’s Pantex Plant, the Y-12 National Security Complex, Savannah River Site, Kansas City Plant, Los Alamos National Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratories. (Full Story)
Also from the Daily Post this week:
New companies get boost from Los Alamos National Security
Two local biotech start-ups, a water and power company and a hardware inventor are the latest recipients of $165,000 in Venture Acceleration Fund (VAF) awards from Los Alamos National Security, LLC.
“Although the program was originally intended to commercialize Lab technologies, VAF frequently funds companies with no tie to LANL or research institutions,” says David Pesiri, the Laboratory’s Technology Transfer Division leader. (Full Story)
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The smarter, safer, stronger, far-out materials of the future
The nation’s 104 nuclear power plants rely heavily on steel for many of their components, including the pressure vessels that contain uranium. But eventually, the steady barrage of radiation can degrade steel, making it susceptible to fractures.
Researchers at Caltech and Los Alamos National Laboratory have created nano–laminate composites, materials that could better disaster-proof future reactors. The laminates could be incorporated into steel to replace aging parts in existing plants. (Full Story)
Need for welders spurs new programs at SFCC
Student welder at SFCC. From NM Business Weekly.
The need for welders at Los AlamosNational Laboratory and Caterpillar Inc. have spurred the creation of two new programs at Santa Fe Community College.
The school is now offering an associate in applied science degree in welding, beginning in the spring semester of 2013. A certificate program in welding will also be offered.
School officials said the new programs are not only due to the local demand, but a nationwide need for qualified welders. (Full Story)
Scholarships available
Students interested in returning to formal education after a break for military service or personal reasons areeligible for scholarships from the Los Alamos Laboratory Foundation.
The Los Alamos Employees Scholarship Fund provides $1,000 awards to candidates from Santa Fe, Rio Arriba, Los Alamos, San Miguel, Taos, Mora and Sandoval counties. (Full Story)
NAGC incorporated, looking for partners
The National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) and Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) announced the incorporation of the National Agricultural Genotyping Center (NAGC). Structured as a non-profit initiative for the purpose of agricultural development, the NAGC will leverage the benefits of high-throughput genotyping with the support of two of the nation’s most prominent organizations in the fields of science and agriculture. With incorporation complete, the NAGC now seeks partners looking to become a part of this project. (Full Story)
For more information on the NCGA click here
Preparing Sequoia for national security missions
Sequoia at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
Researchers from NNSA's three nuclear weapons laboratories are testing Sequoia's power and versatility by running unclassified science codes relevant to NNSA missions.
Los Alamos National Laboratory researchers will run asteroid and turbulence simulations, and Sandia National Laboratory scientists will explore the properties of tantalum on Sequoia. (Full Story)
Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who’s the fastest of them all?
Roadrunner, the first to the petaflop.
The unveiling of Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Titan Cray XK7 supercomputer knocks every other computer in the world down one notch in the Petaflop Hall of Fame.
The Top500 notes that there are now 23 systems with performance better than a petaflop per second, “just four-and-a-half years after the debut of Roadrunner, the world’s first petaflop/s supercomputer.” (Full Story)
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Inside the largest simulation of the universe ever created
Simulating Matter Distribution Across The Cosmos, Argonne National Laboratory.
“Dark energy is confusing because the universe isn’t just expanding -- we knew that already -- but that expansion is also accelerating, which is very unexpected,” says Salman Habib, a physicist at Los Alamos National Laboratory and the principal investigator for the Multi-Petaflop Sky Simulation at Argonne. “The cause of this acceleration is what people call ‘dark energy,’ but that’s just a technical shorthand for saying ‘we have no idea what’s going on.’” (Full Story)
Cancer data in the ‘cloud’ could lead to more effective treatment
Johns Hopkins researchers are now using “cloud” technology to collect detailed information from thousands of cancer cell samples. Early data is being stored on computers at the Los Alamos National Laboratory.
The goal is to help doctors make better predictions about how a patient's illness will progress and what type of treatment will be most effective. (Full Story)
LANL team comes up with Japan cleanup idea
Smoldering destroyed reactor building at the Fukushima plant in the aftermath of the tsunami.
The cleanup at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant may take years, but researchers from Los AlamosNational Laboratory think they’ve found a way to speed up the process.
Konstantin Borozdin of Los Alamos’ Subatomic Physics Group said in a press release that, in the weeks following the disaster, the muonradiography team began investigating the use of a muon scattering method developed at LANL to gather images of nuclear material within the reactor cores. Additional study has confirmed the method would work and could be applied at Fukushima Daiichi. (Full Story)
Curiosity’s CheMin X-Ray instrument first results
CheMin co-investigator David Vaniman explains how crystalline structure models help geologists understand mineral composition.
NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity has completed initial experiments with its CheMin instrument showing the mineralogy of Martian soil is similar to weathered basaltic soils on the edge of Mauna Kea volcano in Hawaii.
In this video from Los Alamos National Laboratory, co-investigator David Vaniman explains how CheMin works, what kinds of minerals scientists are looking for on Mars andwhy, and talks about how the Laboratory's collaborative culture made CheMin possible. (Watch the Video)
Laboratory to demolish excavation enclosures at Material Disposal Area B near DP Road
One of the enclosures used to safely excavate and clean up the lab’s oldest waste disposal site near DP Road in Los Alamos. LANL Photo.
Los Alamos National Laboratory is about to begin demolishing the metal enclosures used to cover the excavation and cleanup of a decades-old waste disposal site at the historic Technical Area 21.
Pre-demolition activities are beginning this week and the work should be completed by the end of March 2013. The project brings the Laboratory closer to transferring the six-acre tract of land to Los Alamos County. (Full Story)
Los Alamos Lab awards grants
Northern New Mexicans wanting to return to college for a certificate or two-year program are eligible for $1,000 awards from the Los Alamos Employees Scholarship Fund.
The awards go to students from Santa Fe, Rio Arriba, Los Alamos, San Miguel, Taos, Mora or Sandoval counties who are returning to a formal education after a break, such as business, the military or personal reasons. (Full Story)
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Research predicts vulnerable forests
Park Williams, with a newly minted Ph.D. and a curiosity about how forests respond to a changing climate, arrived at Los Alamos National Laboratory in April 2011. It was the heart of the hot drought that fueled the devastating Las Conchas forest fire.
Using tree ring records, Williams and his colleagues have concluded that the drought of 2000-12, in terms of its combination of tree-stressing dryness and heat, was the fifth worst in the last thousand years. (full story)
Tech challenges after a storm halts transportation
Is there technology to help a city like New York manage disasters like this week's hurricane?
Turns out, the Los Alamos National Laboratory has transportation simulation software that can help cities get the planning down to a science. It's called TRANSIMS and FastTrams, and Adel Sadek uses it. He's a University of Buffalo Transportation Systems Engineering professor. (full story)
NASA rover’s first soil studies help fingerprint Martian minerals
Initial experiments completed by NASA's Mars rover Curiosity have shown the mineralogy of Martian soil to be similar to that of weathered basaltic soils of volcanic origin in Hawaii.
CheMin uses X-ray diffraction, which provides more accurate identification of minerals. The CheMin team includes Indiana University Bloomington geologistDavid Bish, David Blake of NASA Ames Research Center and David Vaniman of Los Alamos National Laboratory. (full story)
Working with Curiosity’s ChemCam laser
Curiosity Rover Update with Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Nina Lanza. In this NASA video Nina explains how the ChemCam instrument works and how the science team is using it to explore a tiny cluster of rocks with an erosion pattern they've nicknamed ‘Stonehenge." (full story)
NSF supports unique, high-performance supercomputer center
The PRObE Center in Los Alamos is the world's first supercomputing system for large-scale systems research.
Withsupport from the National Science Foundation (NSF), the New Mexico Consortium, Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and Carnegie Mellon University created and opened the PRObE (Parallel Reconfigurable Observational Environment) Center, a one-of-a-kind computer systems research center located at Research Park in Los Alamos. (full story)
Lab’s community plan soldiers on
Back in September, the Board of Governors of Los Alamos National Security, LLC unanimously approved recommendations to continue its $3 million a year contribution to support aCommunity Commitment Plan.
The plan provides the lab’s Community Programs Office with funding from LANS’ management fee to invest in regional education, economic development and charitable giving programs. (full story)
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