Los Alamos County Council Chair Geoff Rodgers and Councilors dedicate the new building as community members look on. Photo by Carol A. Clark/ladailypost.com
Municipal Building Dedication: Community members turned out as former and current County officials cut the ribbon on the new Los Alamos County Municipal Building June 28 at 1000 Central Ave. Photo by Carol A. Clark/ladailypost.com https://ladailypost.comcontent/ribbons-cut-los-alamos-municipal-building https://ladailypost.comcontent/community-invited-municipal-building-grand-opening-and-tours-june-28
Los Alamos National Laboratory. Courtesy/LANL
Director Charlie McMillan
LANL Shutdown Averted: In an email to employees at Los Alamos National Laboratory Oct. 9, Director Charlie McMillan explained that because of the ongoing lapse in federal appropriations, the NNSA had directed all labs and sites to start preparing for the orderly closure of all operations except for those required to maintain minimum safety. Without a resolution to the budget impasse, Los Alamos would complete the transition to closure as of the end of business Friday, Oct. 18, however the shutdown was averted in the nick of time. https://ladailypost.comcontent/nnsa-directs-labs-begin-preparing-possible-closure https://ladailypost.comcontent/its-back-business-lanl-monday
New Los Alamos Police Chief Dino P. Sgambellone. Photo by Carol A. Clark/ladailypost.com
New Police Chief: The County Council unanimously approved the appointment of Dino P. Sgambellone as the new police chief of the Los Alamos Police Department. Sgambellone assumes his new duties Nov. 12. https://ladailypost.comcontent/council-approves-appointment-new-police-chief https://ladailypost.comcontent/qa-talking-chief-dino-sgambellone https://ladailypost.comcontent/dino-sgambellone-offered-los-alamos-police-chief-position www.ladailypost.com/content/meet-short-list-los-alamos-police-chief
Middle School staff and students make their way into the gym. Photo by Salvador Zapien/ladailypost.com
LAMS Construction Completed: Students moved into the new Los Alamos Middle School Sept. 17. McCarthy Construction continued to work on the exterior through Dec. 23. Construction began in Spring 2012. The project included refurbishment of some parts of the school as well as new construction. https://ladailypost.comcontent/los-alamos-middle-school-moving-day https://ladailypost.comcontent/lams-construction-completed-time-school www.ladailypost.com/content/school-board-extends-middle-school-construction-completion-date-nov-26
The crowd assembled in the lobby of the Municipal Building to hear the Mil Levy election results. Photo by Carol A. Clark/ladailypost.com
UNM-LA Mil Levy Fails: In a close vote, Los Alamos residents failed to pass the UNM-LA 2 Mil Levy by a 52.21 to 47.79 percent margin. Results from the Los Alamos County Clerk’s Office showed 2,662 ballots in favor of the Mil Levy and 2,908 against it on Sept. 17. https:////ladailypost.drupalgardens.com/content/unm-la-mil-levy-fails
Educators listen to fellow teachers express frustrations with New Mexico Teacher Evaluation System. Photo by Salvador Zapien/ladailypost.com
New Mexico Teacher Evaluation System: More than 50 Los Alamos teachers and their supporters, many wearing red to signify their support for Los Alamos teachers, attended an Oct. 8 meeting of the Los Alamos School Board to voice frustration with the New Mexico Teacher Evaluation System implemented this year. The end result was that the Los Alamos School Board sent a letter to New Mexico Secretary of Education Hanna Skandera Dec. 13, sharing the Los Alamos School District’s perspectives on the Public Education Department’s (PED) recent initiatives and asking permission to implement some one-year modifications to the new teacher evaluation system. https://ladailypost.comcontent/frustration-teacher-evaluation-system-boils-over
Det. Brian Schamber
County Settles Detective Suit: Los Alamos County and Los Alamos Police Department employee (Det.) Brian Schamber reached a $600,000 settlement agreement Dec. 10. https://ladailypost.comcontent/los-alamos-county-settles-detective-suit-600000 www.ladailypost.com/content/attorneys-respond-los-alamos-countys-settlement-detective https://ladailypost.comcontent/more-los-alamos-police-officers-filing-lawsuits
Los Alamos County Firefighters examine the remains of a small plane that crashed in lower Los Alamos Canyon Dec. 8. Photo by Greg Kendall/ladailypost.com
Plane Crash: A small plane crashed the morning of Dec. 8 into Los Alamos Canyon south of Los Alamos County Airport. Pilot Mike Fjetland, 51, of Harmony, Minn., and his sole passenger Kevin Burrs, 52, of Corwith, Iowa died in the crash. https://ladailypost.comcontent/breaking-news-plane-crashes-south-los-alamos-canyon https://ladailypost.comcontent/eyewitness-recalls-moments-los-alamos-plane-crash https://ladailypost.comcontent/iowa-radio-station-reports-identity-los-alamos-plane-crash-victims https://ladailypost.comcontent/ntsb-releases-preliminary-report-los-alamos-plane-crash
Improvements to Ashley Pond Park were completed in November. Photo by Leland Lehman/ladailypost.com
Ashley Pond Park Improvements: The Ashley Pond Park Improvements Project was completed in November and the Duck Buddies returned the ducks to the pond. The County will host a grand opening event around mid-May, when the wetland plantings will be completed. https://ladailypost.comcontent/ashley-pond-improvements-project-nearly-complete https://ladailypost.comcontent/ducks-return-ashley-pond
Deputy Fire Chief Justin Grider, left, with NNSA’s Bill Gentile, center, listen as Council approves a 10-year cooperative agreement between LAFD and NNSA. Photo by Carol A. Clark/ladailypost.com
Los Alamos Fire Chief Troy Hughes
Council Approves Cooperative Fire Services Agreement With NNSA: Los Alamos County Council approved a 10-year cooperative agreement between Los Alamos Fire department and NNSA for fire services to Los Alamos National Laboratory. Council voted 7-0 to authorize County Administrator Harry Burgess to sign acceptance of the 10-year financial assistance award from NNSA for a cooperative agreement to provide fire services for the protection of LANL and Los Alamos County with a County cost share not to exceed $59.3 million for the 10-year period. https://ladailypost.comcontent/council-approves-cooperative-fire-services-agreement-nnsa
LANL – Noteworthy Science Achievements for 2013:
HIV vaccine under development
The range of Los Alamos research on HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, is significant, from groundbreaking vaccine concepts that are about to move into human trials, to computer modeling approaches to better understand how the virus moves through different populations. The Laboratory has long maintained the national HIV research database, in addition to the original research, and this year millions of readers worldwide had the chance to learn more.
HIV virus spread and evolution studied through computer modeling
New global HIV vaccine design shows promise in monkeys
Antibody evolution could guide HIV vaccine development
Research deciphers HIV attack plan
Climate impacts: forest mortality/wildfire contribution to global warming
Understanding how trees eventually fail in periods of drought and warming climate has been the focus of teams in the Earth and Environmental Sciences division. Computer modeling, as well as spectroscopic analysis of wildfire smoke plumes is providing additional insight into the broader effects of fires as they sweep across drought-stressed forests. Understanding the chemical components of wildfires, such as carbon-rich tar balls carried in the smoke, is among the advances made by Los Alamos researchers this year.
Rising global temperatures accelerate drought-induced forest mortality
Wildfires may contribute more to global warming than previously predicted
Nature climate change features Los Alamos forest research
Mars Curiosity Rover and ChemCam uncover Red Planet’s watery past
ChemCam, the laser-wielding rock-sampler aboard the Curiosity rover, continues to prove its worth in NASA’s ongoing mission to determine the habitability of Mars. Already delivering more than 100,000 laser blasts since landing on Mars a year and a half ago, ChemCam has shown scientists that the Martian surface was once home to lakes and running streams, and that the planet’s rusty dust still contains enough water to possibly sustain future astronauts. With at least another year ahead in the mission, who knows what other secrets ChemCam and the other nine instruments aboard Curiosity will reveal as the SUV-sized science laboratory lumbers toward the towering Mount Sharp?
Water for future Mars astronauts?
Martian laser surpasses 100,000 zaps
ChemCam follows the ‘Yellowknife Road’ to martian wet area
Los Alamos science sleuth on the trail of a martian mystery
Roadrunner, world’s 1st supercomputer to achieve a petascale, decommissioned after successful string of accomplishments
Roadrunner, the first supercomputer to break the once-elusive petaflop barrier—one million billion calculations per second—was decommissioned on Sunday, March 31. During its five operational years, Roadrunner, part of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Advanced Simulation and Computing (ASC) program to provide key computer simulations for the Stockpile Stewardship Program, was a workhorse system providing computing power for stewardship of the U.S. nuclear deterrent, and in its early shakedown phase, a wide variety of unclassified science. The IBM system achieved petaflop speed in 2008, shortly after installation. LANL will continue to push the frontiers of computer performance with its next machine, Trinity, slated to arrive at LANL in 2015. Trinity will be approximately 50 times more capable than Roadrunner.
End of the road for Roadrunner
Quantum communications network/Quantum cryptography for electric grids
A Los Alamos National Laboratory quantum cryptography (QC) team successfully completed the first demonstration of securing control data for electric grids using quantum cryptography. Quantum cryptography provides a means of detecting and defeating an adversary who might try to intercept or attack communications. Single photons are used to produce secure random numbers between users, and these random numbers are then used to authenticate and encrypt grid-control data and commands. Because the random numbers are produced securely, they act as cryptographic key material for data authentication and encryption algorithms.
Quantum cryptography put to work for electric grid security
Los Alamos celebrates Golden anniversary for space-based treaty verification, while Los Alamos instruments aboard Van Allen Probes unveil strange mysteries Earth’s radiation belts
October 2013 marked the 50th anniversary of the launch of the first Vela satellite to monitor a ban on nuclear weapons testing by the former Soviet Union, the United Kingdom and the United States. The event paved the way for improved science-based treaty-monitoring capabilities and helped keep the peace throughout the Cold War and into the modern age.
Space-based treaty monitoring technology also helped scientists discover insights into space, such as gamma-ray bursts, lightning and other phenomena. Last year, a Los Alamos instrument aboard the Van Allen Probes—a pair of twin satellites cruising in the hostile space environment within Earth’s radiation belts—detected an anomaly within the belts that gave researchers clues into how the belts form and change over time. These observations may help scientist develop effective ways of protecting sensitive satellites used for communications and other tasks from the ravages of high-energy particles that can destroy spacecraft without warning.
Van Allen probes pinpoint driver of speeding electrons
A golden anniversary for space-based treaty verification
A golden anniversary for space-based treaty verification
Using laser-driven neutrons to stop nuclear smugglers
Researchers successfully demonstrated for the first time that laser-generated neutrons can be enlisted as a useful tool in the War on Terror. An international research team led by Los Alamos scientists used the short-pulse laser at Los Alamos’s TRIDENT facility to generate a neutron beam with novel characteristics that interrogated a closed container and confirmed the presence and quantity of nuclear material inside. The successful experiment paves the way for creation of a table-top-sized or truck-mounted neutron generator that could be installed at strategic locations worldwide to thwart smugglers trafficking in nuclear materials.
Using laser-driven neutrons to stop nuclear smugglers
Black hole birth captured by RAPTOR project’s cosmic voyeurs
Los Alamos has successfully developed a system of smart telescopes that scan the skies for anomalous events—which could provide clues to clandestine nuclear weapons tests or breathtaking cosmic events such as supernovae. This year, the RAPTOR system captured and recorded the extremely rare occurrence of a star transforming into a supersized black hole that resides relatively close to our galactic home.
Black hole birth captured by cosmic voyeurs
New device can ease airline travel misery associated with liquid scanning
Tired of segregating all those little bottles of liquid in plastic bags for airline travel? Los Alamos scientists have developed a revolutionary scanner that combines X-ray technology with Magnetic Resonance Imagining (MRI) to screen liquids during airport security procedures. The machine can quickly and accurately distinguish between identical looking liquids that could be very different and potentially deadly. If implemented, the MagRay bottle scanner could eliminate the need to limit travelers to carrying miniature portions of their favorite liquids and personal hygiene items.
Advance in bottle scanning could enhance airport security and benefit passengers
Los Alamos is a leader in alternative energy development
For years, scientists have been seeking efficient means to convert non-food-based biomass into fuels and chemical feedstocks, reducing fossil-fuel dependence and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. One of the stumbling blocks is finding ways to efficiently unravel the extremely tough fibrous materials within biomass and extract useful chemicals that can be converted into biofuels.
Numerous developments are underway at Los Alamos to fine-tune chemical processes that will yield sugars that can be distilled into fuel-ready alcohols, or to open chemical rings so that may be easily converted into biofuel precursors. Simplifying these processes makes biofuel conversion more energy efficient and environmentally friendly.
Los Alamos improves biomass-to-fuel process
Los Alamos improves biomass-to-fuel process
Novel cellulose structure requires fewer enzymes to process biomass to fuel
