Los Alamos Press Highlights

Geneticists call for better draft sequences

Patrick Chain of the Joint Genome Institute at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico and his colleagues from more than ten sequencing centres across the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom suggest in their paper that a new set of standards needs to be applied to genome projects. (Full story)




Also from Nature News this week:

Fossil rewrites early human evolution

The fossils come from a sediment layer sandwiched between two layers of volcanic rock known as tuff - each dated to 4.4 million years ago, says a team led by Giday WoldeGabriel, of Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. (Full story)





Discovering Ardi, Sunday October 11 at 7 PM MDT, 9 Eastern

Documenting the sustained, intensive investigation leading up to the landmark publication in Science of the Ardipithecus ramidus fossils. "These are the results of a scientific mission to our deep African past," said project co-director and geologist, Dr. Giday WoldeGabriel of the Los Alamos National Laboratory. (Check it out)


How green is your data?

Los Alamos National Laboratory began a server virtualization push in 2006. The lab has eliminated 105 physical servers and now runs more than 250 virtual servers on 13 physical hosts. Virtualization has saved the lab 873,000 kilowatt hours per year and about $639,000 in energy costs. (Full story)


DOE labs keep busy with research

"In a future with no nuclear testing, the nuclear deterrent relies on the scientific credibility and the agility of the staffs of the labs more than on the stockpile itself," says Duncan McBranch, principal associate director of science, technology, and engineering at LANL. (Full story—subscription required)

KRSN 1490 AM

Lab scientist discusses climate change

Los Alamos scientist Nate McDowell spoke about new approaches to assessing regional climate impacts on vegetation during an interview this week on Los Alamos radio station KRSN 1490 AM. (Listen in)








Virtualization proves cost effective for some agencies

Officials at the Energy Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory have used virtualization technology to address issues of cooling, limited floor space and power consumption as they sought to ramp up capacity in data centers on the sprawling, 36-mile campus. (Full story)


NNSA marks Energy Awareness Month

Los Alamos's "Cerillos" supercomputer ranked second [for energy efficiency] at more than 458 million flops per watt, while the lab's "Roadrunner," the world's fastest supercomputer for the past two years, came in fourth at nearly 445 million flops per watt. (Full story)

The butterfly effect gets entangled

The study supports long-standing ideas that there is no single sharp boundary between the quantum and classical worlds, says quantum physicist Wojciech Zurek of the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. (Full story)






NASA grant to fund search for life on Mars

In cooperation with scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory, Delaware State University researchers will develop sensors to be placed on future Mars rovers that can detect compounds essential for life, even underneath the soil. (Full story)


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