EDGE bioinformatics brings genomics to everyone
Cheryl Gleaner (left) demonstrates EDGE bioinformatics to students, LANL photo.A new bioinformatics platform called Empowering the Development of Genomics Expertise (EDGE) will help democratize the genomics revolution by allowing users with limited bioinformatics expertise to quickly analyze and interpret genomic sequence data. Researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory and their collaborators at the Naval Medical Research Center developed EDGE, which is described in a paper recently published in Nucleic Acids Research. (Full Story)
Also from PhysOrg this week:
Quantum friction—beyond the local equilibrium approximation
Non-equilibrium description of quantum friction, MBI graphic.Systems out of thermodynamic equilibrium are very common in nature. In recent years they have attracted constantly growing attention because of their relevance for fundamental physics as well as for modern nanotechnology. In a collaborative effort, the Theoretical Optics and Photonics group at the Max-Born-Institut and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin together with colleagues from the Universität Potsdam, Yale University and the Los Alamos National Laboratory now report on detailed new physical insights of non-equilibrium atom-surface quantum friction. (Full Story)
Smoking a pack a day causes 150 lung cell mutations a year
In their comprehensive analysis, a research team from England’s Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute and the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico found that those who smoke have on average 150 additional mutations in every cell of their lungs for each year of smoking one pack of cigarettes per day.The study reporting the findings, “Mutational signatures associated with tobacco smoking in human cancer,” is published in the journal Science. (Full Story)
Entropy Engine appears perfectly unpredictable
Quantum-Secured Communication team leader Ray Newell, LANL photo.The Entropy Engine, one of Los Alamos National Laboratories R&D 100 award-winning technologies this year, was designed to address a dangerous authentication crisis in the world today.
What computers need to know to ascertain who is talking to whom has come a long way from what was once quaintly termed a “handshake,” and yet there are still large holes and uncertainties in the distributed computing, as has been most conspicuous in the hacking related charges and suspicions surrounding the recent Presidential election. (Full Story)
Also from the Daily Post:
LANL employees contribute to families in need
Retiree Johnnie Martinez places a frozen turkey in a collection box, LANL photo.Los Alamos National Laboratory held its annual Bring a (frozen) Turkey to Work Day on Tuesday, something it has been doing for several years now.
The Lab partners with the Food Depot in Santa Fe, which in turn partners with 145 other agencies throughout Northern New Mexico to ensure that people in the area don’t go without food, especially this week, Thanksgiving week.
All told, Laboratory employees and Laboratory contractor Cray Computer donated 475 frozen turkeys, which are packaged with nonperishable food items also donated by Laboratory employees during its recently-completed holiday food drive. (Full Story)
Author thanks LA for solving photo mystery
President John F. Kennedy shakes hands with Manhattan Project scientist Stanislaw Ulam at the CMR building.In 1962, the lab was focusing its efforts on nuclear propulsion to power the rockets for America’s fledgling space program, before chemical propulsion later became the mainstay of the space program.
It was decided that Kennedy and his entourage, which included Vice President Lyndon Johnson, military officials, several congressmen and supporting staff, would visit Wing 9 [at CMR] because it was still outside the security fence at the time. (Full Story)
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