Italy’s famous dome is cracking, and cosmic rays could help save it
Florence's famed Il Duomo has been plagued by cracks for centuries, photo from Ars Technica.The soaring dome atop the Cathedral of St. Mary of the Flower justly dominates the Florence skyline and has stood for centuries, ever since Filippo Brunelleschi designed it in the early 15th century. But scholars aren't quite sure how this goldsmith with no formal architectural training managed to construct it. Brunelleschi built a wooden and brick model of his plan but deliberately left out crucial details and left no comprehensive blueprints so his rivals could not steal his secrets.
Elena Guardincerri, a physicist at Los Alamos National Laboratory who grew up in a nearby town in Italy, thinks she can help resolve part of the mystery with the aid of a subatomic particle called a muon. (Full Story)
Removing hydrogen gas with silicone-based getters
3D hydrogen removal fabrication, from ASN.Water covers over 70% of the Earth’s surface and is vital to support life. In the nuclear industry, decomposition of water into hydrogen and oxygen can occur inside waste containers, leading to explosion. Removal of hydrogen gas is necessary to address this issue.
In their paper in Advanced Functional Materials, Dr. Denisse Ortiz-Acosta and colleagues from Los Alamos National Laboratory fabricate and evaluate 3D silicone materials for hydrogen removal.
Getters, materials used to aid hydrogen removal, were fabricated using a 3D printer. Additives were incorporated into a silicone resin to optimize the rheological properties, getter capacity, and pot life. (Full Story)
D-Wave demonstrates large-scale quantum simulation of topological state of matter
Quantum computer, from D-Wave."D-Wave’s quantum simulation of the Kosterlitz-Thouless transition is an exciting and impactful result. It not only contributes to our understanding of important problems in quantum magnetism but also demonstrates solving a computationally hard problem with a novel and efficient mapping of the spin system, requiring only a limited number of qubits and opening new possibilities for solving a broader range of applications," said Dr. John Sarrao, principal associate director for science, technology, and engineering at Los Alamos National Laboratory. (Full Story)
New method of genome editing
Said the paper's lead author, Dean Morales, who is now a postdoctoral researcher at Los Alamos National Laboratory, "As a basic research tool, with spatiotemporal control each cell can become an experiment. Imagine you'd like to study the function of a certain gene and how it alters that cell's behavior or its behavior with a close neighbor. Using the plasmonic nanoparticles as an antenna we can either turn on or turn off a gene of interest and observe in real-time the ramifications of its activity." (Full Story)
Los Alamos lab researching algae to convert to affordable fuel
Amanda Barry with a small algae farm. New Mexican photo.Molecular biologist Amanda Barry and a team at Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Bio-energy and Biome Sciences group are trying to determine whether one particular strain of algae can be produced at low cost and in short periods of time so that it could economically compete with fossil fuels.
“Algae hold great potential as a source of renewable fuel due to their ability to produce refinery-compatible diesel and jet fuel precursors,” Barry said in an interview last week at the New Mexico Consortium’s lab in Los Alamos. (Full Story)
Editor's Note: This story originally appeared in the Santa Fe New Mexican.
Supercomputers to be used in 13 manufacturing projects
Dow, GE and 3M are among 12 companies awarded $3.8 million for 13 industrial research projects – ranging from gas turbine combustor optimization, to manufacturing solid-state lithium-ion batteries, to improving insulating foam – under the U.S. Dept. of Energy’s High Performance Computing for Manufacturing (HPC4Mfg) Program.GE Global Research Center will partner with Los Alamos National Laboratory to improve the Truchas code for single crystal casting in a project titled “Highly Parallel Modeling Tool to Drive Casting Development for Aerospace and Industry Gas Turbines (IGT) Industries.” (Full Story)
To subscribe to Los Alamos Press Highlights, please e-mail listmanager@lanl.gov and include the words subscribe PressHighlights in the body of your email message; to unsubscribe, include unsubscribe PressHighlights.
Please visit us at www.lanl.gov
