Optimize carbon dioxide sequestration, enhance oil recovery
Schematic of a water-alternating-with-gas flood for carbon dioxide sequestration and enhanced oil recovery. LANL graphic.
Los Alamos researchers and collaborators from the University of Utah have created a generic integrated framework simulation to optimize carbon dioxide (CO2) sequestration and enhance oil recovery (CO2-EOR) based on known parameter distributions for a depleted oil reservoir in Texas.
CO2-EOR is a technique in use for over 40 years to produce oil from depleted reservoirs by injecting CO2 along with water. Because a large portion of the injected CO2 remains in place, CO2-EOR is an option for permanently sequestering CO2. (Full Story)
Also from PhysOrg this week
CeCoIn5 reveals new secrets about how superconductivity and magnetism can be related
Swiss scientist Simon Gerber. Courtesy Scherrer Institute.
Superconducting materials exhibit unexpected behaviors when subjected to magnetic fields or high pressures according to two studies at Los Alamos National Laboratory with collaborators in Switzerland and South Korea.
Superconductivity in Cerium-Colbalt-Indium5, discovered nearly a decade ago at Los Alamos, may be the Rosetta Stone that many of us have been looking for" says Joe Thompson, a collaborator in both studies. (Full Story)
New coalition defends U.S. nuclear complex
The Strategic Deterrent Coalition’s inception comes at a time of tight federal budgets that threaten to crimp nuclear weapons spending at Los Alamos and Sandia national laboratories in New Mexico.
The Strategic Deterrent Coalition bills itself as nonprofit and non-partisan and funded by donations. Nearly two dozen politicians and ex-military and nuclear weapons officials, including Linton Brooks, a former director of the National Nuclear Security Administration, and former U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici of New Mexico, have endorsed the organization. (Full Story)
Researchers make predictions on how climate shifts will affect the planet
Tree ring data. LANL image.
The amount of moisture in the air during the warm months of the year and rain and snowfall in the winter accounts for 82 percent of droughts, according to a tree-ring study by Park Williams, with Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico and presented at a recent conference in Flagstaff. The researchers studied a massive set of tree ring records that showed rainfall patterns for the past 1,000 years. (Full Story)
NASA’s Swift catches X-ray action at Milky Way’s center
The SWIFT spacecraft. NASA image.
Recent observations by NASA’s Swift spacecraft have provided scientists a unique glimpse into the activity at the center of our galaxy. The Swift collaboration includes NASA Goddard, Los Alamos National Laboratory and others.
Scientists presented their research into images captured by Swift, explaining how these images will help decipher the physical nature of X-ray flares and enabled their discovery of a rare subclass of neutron star. (Full Story)
Tuition aid for northern students
Northern New Mexico students aiming to pursue four-year college degrees are eligible for tuition help ranging from $1,000 to $30,000 from the Los Alamos Employees’ Scholarship Fund.
The fund, which has awarded $3.7 million since 1998, is administered by the Los Alamos National Laboratory Foundation. (Full Story)
iShop project wins award from LANL CPO
Vangie Trujillo, center, of Los Alamos National Laboratory Community Programs Office presents a $500 check to members of the winning crowdfunding project iShop during final project presentations at UNM-LA in December.
From left, project member Katy Korkos, Professor Nick Seet, Trujillo, Yoko Suzuki and Brandon Cordova. iShop is an initiative to promote local shopping. Photo by Carol A. Clark. (Photo Album)
To subscribe to Los Alamos Report, please e-mail listmanager@lanl.gov and include the words subscribe losalamosreport in the body of your email message; to unscubscribe, include unsubscribe losalamosreport.
Please visit us at www.lanl.gov
And follow us on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Flickr
DNA evidence sentences nuclear waste to billion-year prison term
High-activity nuclear bomb waste is being shipped to the deep geologic repository at WIPP. DOE photo.
250 million-year-old DNA has been recovered intact from a nuclear waste disposal site in New Mexico and provides ample evidence that the waste will be imprisoned for life, but likely prison time will top a billion years.
Forensic teams of scientists at UNC, Los Alamos National Laboratory, New Mexico State University and others, carefully culled the evidence from original fluid inclusions in the massive salt rock at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad. (Full Story)
Effect of ocean temperature on southwestern US climate analyzed
NOAA image depicts sea surface temperatures around Greenland from October 2010.
Petr Chylek of LANL's Space and Remote Sensing group led the scientists to perform multiple linear regression analysis of surface air temperature and precipitation records provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Climate Data Center.
The analysis assumed historical radiative forcing and natural variability as predictors for temperature and precipitation trends. The archived data reveal a general trend toward a warmer climate but with a nearly unchanged rate of precipitation over the past 118 years. (Full Story)
LANL research helps improve solar cells
Schematic of the quantum dot sensitized solar cell (QDSSC) architecture. LANL image.
Solar cells made with low-cost, non-toxic copper-based quantum dots can achieve unprecedented longevity and efficiency, according to a study by Los Alamos National Laboratory and Sharp Corporation.
“For the first time, we have certified the performance of a quantum dot sensitized solar cell at greater than 5 percent, which is among the highest reported for any quantum dot solar cell,” said Hunter McDaniel, a Los Alamos postdoctoral researcher. (Full Story)
Also from the Monitor this week
Nearly $2 million pledged in LANL 2014 campaign
Nearly $2 million has been pledged by Los Alamos National Laboratory employees to United Way and other eligible nonprofit programs during the laboratory’s 2014 Employee Giving Campaign. Los Alamos National Security, LLC plans to prorate its $1 million match among the selected nonprofit organizations, bringing the total donation to nearly $3 million. (Full Story)
NNSA says it needs New Mexico's labs
In its 2013 wrap-up, the National Nuclear Security Administration, which runs both Sandia National Laboratories and Los Alamos National Laboratory, said the two labs were critical to the agency meeting several of its goals.
NNSA also recognized New Mexico researchers who garnered four of “Popular Science” magazine’s 100 best innovations from 2013, which came from LANL and Sandia. (Full Story)
Top 10 things you didn’t know about Los Alamos National Laboratory
Technicians check out ChemCam, a LANL instrument aboard Mars Curiosity rover. LANL photo.
Known only as site Y when it opened in 1943, Los Alamos National Laboratory had just one original mission: to build an atomic bomb. In the years since, the Lab’s mission has expanded to include a range of energy security, nonproliferation and other scientific research, though national security science remains core to the Lab’s mission. (Full Story)
To subscribe to Los Alamos Report, please e-mail listmanager@lanl.gov and include the words subscribe losalamosreport in the body of your email message; to unscubscribe, include unsubscribe losalamosreport.
Please visit us at www.lanl.gov
And follow us on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Flickr
What If they try to hack Amazon’s drones?
David Mascarenas, right, works with a student on a quad copter. LANL image.
For now, the threats are being addressed incrementally. Georgia Tech, for example, has been conducting studies into autonomous vision-based navigation, while the Los Alamos National Laboratory wants to make robot movement less predictable.
“The advantage of acting unpredictably is that people who might want to exploit the robot cannot as easily anticipate where the robot might go next,” says Los Alamos National Laboratory research engineer David Mascarenas. (Full Story)
Nontoxic quantum dot research improves solar cells
Hunter McDaniel is developing next-generation quantum dots. LANL image.
Solar cells made with low-cost, nontoxic copper-based quantum dots can achieve unprecedented longevity and efficiency, according to a study by Los Alamos National Laboratory and Sharp Corp.
“For the first time, we have certified the performance of a quantum dot sensitized solar cell at greater than 5%, which is among the highest reported for any quantum dot solar cell,” said Hunter McDaniel, a Los Alamos postdoctoral researcher and the lead author. (Full Story)
This spooky X-ray ‘hand’ demonstrates a pulsar star mystery
This X-ray nebula appears to look like a human hand. NASA image.
That spooky hand in the image above is producing questions for scientists. While the shape only coincidentally looks like a human hand, scientists are still trying to figure out how a small star produced such a large shape visible in X-rays.
“Scientists are intrigued by what exactly powers these massive explosions, and understanding this would yield important insights about the fundamental forces in nature,” stated Peter Moller, of Los Alamos National Laboratory. (Full Story)
LANL begins shipments to Idaho
First MTRU shipment. LANL photo.
Los Alamos National Laboratory has made the first of its 18 shipments of transuranic (TRU) waste to the Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project at Idaho National Laboratory.
“Known as MTRU, or mixed transuranic waste, the material requires special handling because it consists mostly of large, metal equipment with sharp edges. By using equipment and technology available at the Idaho site, this waste can be remotely repackaged safely and efficiently with far fewer hazards for workers.” (Full Story)
Bradbury Science Museum turns 50
“For 50 years, the Bradbury Science Museum’s mission has been to foster enthusiasm and support for science and engineering, and a better understanding of the mission and work of the Laboratory.”
The museum was originally founded in 1954 by Robert Krohn, but was classified a museum when it first opened. In 1963, Robert Porton convinced then Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Director Norris Bradbury to open the unclassified museum. (Full Story)
New associate directors named at LANL
Mary Hockaday and Cheryl Cabbil.
Los Alamos National Laboratory has announced that Mary Hockaday will be its new AD of the Experimental Physical Sciences Directorate while Cheryl Cabbil will be AD for Nuclear and High Hazard Operations.
“Mary is a 30-year veteran of the Lab and currently serves in a joint role as the deputy associate director for the Weapons Physics and Cheryl brings a distinguished track record for developing and implementing nuclear facility management programs," said Laboratory Director Charlie McMillan. (Full Story)
Also appearing this week in Albuquerque Business First
Lab scientists can be entrepreneurs, too
Steve Yarbro’s eureka moment wasn’t that he figured out how to separate thick, heavy oil. It was discovering that he could start a company to do that while maintaining his career at Los Alamos National Laboratory. (Full Story)
To subscribe to Los Alamos Report, please e-mail listmanager@lanl.gov and include the words subscribe losalamosreport in the body of your email message; to unscubscribe, include unsubscribe losalamosreport.
Please visit us at www.lanl.gov
And follow us on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Flickr
Dangerous or harmless? New technology could alter airport security rules on liquids
AP Photo.
The Los Alamos National Laboratory has announced what it called a breakthrough for screening liquids at airport security, though it could be years before the technology is potentially installed at a checkpoint near you.
Called MagRay, the system uses magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and X-rays to quickly analyze whether a bottle’s contents are safe or dangerous. (Full Story)
Watch a machine tell the difference between soda and liquid explosives
Since 2006, to protect against the threat of those explosives, people traveling by air in America have been limited to one quart-sized bag for liquids, each in a container no larger than 3.4 ounces.
A new device being developed by Los Alamos National Laboratory could eventually make the scanning process less painful. Called the MagRay, it's designed to scan liquids and quietly differentiate between the safe and unsafe. And now Los Alamos has released a video showing off the tech. (Full Story)
This story also appeared in the Santa Fe New Mexican, Homeland Security Newswire, and the Los Alamos Monitor.
Black hole birth captured by cosmic voyeurs
Tom Vestrand and the RAPTOR telescope. LANL photo.
Intelligent telescopes designed by Los Alamos National Laboratory got a front row seat recently for an unusual birth.
"Los Alamos' RAPTOR telescopes in New Mexico and Hawaii received a very bright cosmic birth announcement for a black hole on April 27," said astrophysicist Tom Vestrand, lead author of a paper appearing today in the journal Science that highlights the unusual event. (Full Story)
Zap! NASA's Curiosity rover fires 100,000th laser shot on Mars
ChemCam zaps another Martian rock. NASA illustration.
NASA's trigger-happy Curiosity rover has fired its 100,000th laser shot on Mars, a science milestone in its mission to determine what rocks on the Red Planet are made of.
Roger Wiens, a planetary scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory and principal investigator for ChemCam, said the laser-firing instrument has exceeded expectations. (Full Story)
Martian laser surpasses 100,000 zaps
The 100,000th shot. NASA image.
The ChemCam laser instrument aboard NASA’s Curiosity rover fired its 100,000th shot recently, chronicling its adventures on Mars with a coffee-table-book’s worth of spectral data that might rival snapshots gathered during a long and satisfying family vacation here on Earth. ChemCam zaps rocks with a high-powered laser to determine their composition and carries a camera that can survey the Martian landscape. (Full Story)
New neutrino cooling theory changes understanding of stars’ surface
Neutron star. LANL image.
Massive X-ray superbursts near the surface of neutron stars are providing a unique window into the operation of fundamental forces of nature under extreme conditions.
“Scientists are intrigued by what exactly powers these massive explosions, and understanding this would yield important insights about the fundamental forces in nature, especially on the astronomical/cosmological scale,” said Peter Moller of Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Theoretical Division. (Full Story)
Obituary: Stirling Colgate
Stirling A. Colgate , Astrophysicist, 88, died Sunday of a long illness. 1n 1975 he went to work at LANL, where he continued to work until his death. He was also a member of the National Academy of Science.
He was born in New York City and attended Los Alamos Ranch School (1939-1942). He was also a member of the Merchant Marine Armed Services 1943-1946. He married Rosie in 1947 and obtained his PhD. from Cornell University in 1951. (Full Story)
To subscribe to Los Alamos Report, please e-mail listmanager@lanl.gov and include the words subscribe losalamosreport in the body of your email message; to unscubscribe, include unsubscribe losalamosreport.
Please visit us at www.lanl.gov
And follow us on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Flickr
