Metric System Born in France 213 Years Ago
Illustration courtesy/CSU
NIST News:
The International System of Units, universally abbreviated SI (from the French Le Systéme International d´Unités), is the modern metric system of measurement.
Long the dominant measurement system used in science, the SI is becoming the dominant measurement system used in international commerce.
The Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act of August 1988 [Public Law (PL) 100-418] changed the name of the National Bureau of Standards (NBS) to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and gave to NIST the added task of helping U.S. industry Read More
Exploiting the Power of IBM Blue Gene/Q Supercomputers
Sequoia supercomputer. Photo by Bob Hirschfeld/LLNL
NNSA News:
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Breaking new ground for scientific computing, two teams of Department of Energy (DOE) scientists have for the first time exceeded a sustained performance level of 10 petaflops (quadrillion floating point operations per second) on the Sequoia supercomputer at the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL.)
A team led by Argonne National Laboratory used the recently developed Hardware/Hybrid Accelerated Cosmology Codes (HACC) framework to achieve Read More
SFI Seminar: ‘Information Theoretic Tools for Social Media’
SFI News:
Greg Ver Steeg will present a talk on “Information Theoretic Tools for Social Media” at the Santa Fe Institute, 1399 Hyde Park Road in Santa Fe.
Monday, Dec. 10 • 12:15 p.m. • Medium Conference Room
Abstract: Information theory provides a powerful set of tools for discovering relationships among variables with minimal assumptions. Social media platforms provide a rich source of information than can include temporal, spatial, textual and network information.
What are the interesting information theoretic measures Read More
NNSA Conducts Pollux Subcritical Experiment at Nevada National Security Site
Courtesy/NNSA
NNSA News:
LAS VEGAS – The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) announced Friday that Pollux, a subcritical experiment, was successfully conducted Thursday at its Nevada National Security Site (NNSS.)
NNSA Administrator Thomas D’Agostino. Courtesy/NNSA
The experiment, conducted by staff from NNSS, Los Alamos National Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratories, gathered scientific data that will provide crucial information to maintain the safety and effectiveness of the nation’s nuclear weapons.
“Challenging subcritical experiments maintain our Read More
New Microscopy Technique Gets Close Enough to See Lengths of Atomic Bonds
For the first time, scientists have used an imaging technique that’s so precise that it’s possible to see the different lengths of individual atomic bonds. Using a method called non-contact atomic force microscopy, IBM researchers scanned a microscopic probe with a tip only an atom wide over a nanographene molecule and measured the forces between the probe and the sample. In this colored image, the bonds with more electrons—which are also shorter—are a brighter green. Courtesy/IBM Research-Zurich Read More
LANL Names Weapons Program Associate Directors
LANL News:
Bob Webster has been named Associate Director for Weapon Physics and John Benner has been named Associate Director for Weapon Engineering and Experiments at Los Alamos National Laboratory.
Both have been in their positions at LANL as acting associate directors since March 2012.
As Associate Director for Weapon Physics, Webster has responsibility for weapon design and computational physics along with programmatic responsibility for the Advanced Simulation and Computing Program and Science Campaigns.
The Directorate consists of Computational Physics and Theoretical Design Read More
Udall, Kyl Announce NNSA Reform in Defense Bill
U.S. SENATE News:
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Tom Udall, D-N.M. and Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., announced the adoption of their amendment to the Senate-passed 2013 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), to evaluate the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) in light of major management issues, cost overruns and security breaches in recent years.
LANL News and Information [Links to LANL]
