National Laboratory

LANL: Project ATHENA Creates Surrogate Human Organ Systems

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Courtesy/LANL

LANL News:

  • Surrogate human organs could revolutionize the way biologists and medical personnel screen new drugs or toxic agents

The development of miniature surrogate human organs, coupled with highly sensitive mass spectrometry technologies, could one day revolutionize the way new drugs and toxic agents are studied.

“By developing this ‘homo minutus,’ we are stepping beyond the need for animal or Petri dish testing: There are huge benefits in developing drug and toxicity analysis systems that can mimic the response of actual human organs,” said Rashi Iyer, a senior scientist Read More

Global Samples From Nuclear Contamination Sites Reveal Unpredicted Uranium And Plutonium Behavior

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Workers on a cleanup site at DOE’s Hanford Site in southeastern Washington State, one of several sites sampled for uranium and plutonium variations. Courtesy/DOE

LANL News:

  • Los Alamos Analysis Shows Elements Not Acting In Nature As Previously Modeled

Knowing how a chemical in soil reacts and transforms over time in response to neighboring elements, weather and heat is essential in determining whether that chemical is hazardous.

This is especially important when that chemical is radioactive.

In a collaborative, international effort led by Los Alamos National Laboratory, researchers Read More

LANL Partners With American Red Cross On Smoke Alarm Installations

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Debbi Wersonick, center, of LANL’s Community Programs Office speaks Friday with Clare Ryan of the American Red Cross and Dan Shields of Los Alamos’ Weapons Physics Group, a volunteer installer. Courtesy/LANL
 
LANL News:
 
Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Vecinos Volunteer Match program partnered with the American Red Cross to install smoke alarms in residences Friday.
 
Nearly a dozen Lab employees installed more than 30 smoke alarms in Tsikamu Park, a 55-and-over residential community that recently witnessed a fire that resulted in injuries
Read More

UPDATE: LANL Approximates WIPP Explosion

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Drum 68660 at Panel 7 Room 7, Row 16, Column 4 in the WIPP underground photographed after the radiological release. Courtesy/DOE

UPDATE:

In response to a query by the Los Alamos Daily Post, Los Alamos National Laboratory provided the following clarification of the experiments related to the breached LANL container at the Waste Isolation Pilot Project, noting that the experiment on an unvented drum at elevated temperatures was expected to cause a reaction. Yet to be determined is whether a drum that is vented, like the one that came open at WIPP, and at a significantly lower temperature, as that Read More

Martian Glass: Window Into Possible Past Life?

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Spectral signals: Researchers have found deposits of impact glass preserved in Martian craters like Alga (above) using data from NASA’s Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM). Green indicates the presence of glass. (Blues are pyroxene; reds are olivine.) Such deposits could be a good place to look for signs of past life. Courtesy/NASA/JPL-Caltech/JHUAPL/University of Arizona

The search for impact glass: A possible Martian site (white circle) is the Nili Fossae trough. The blue-tinted Hargraves crater at the right (blue indicates a low topography) is known Read More

Regional Coalition Of LANL Communities Meets June 12

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RCLC News:
 
Regional Coalition of LANL Communities meets 9-11 a.m., June 12, at the Rio Arriba County Chambers, 1122 Industrial Park Road in Espanola.
 
Agenda:
 
Call to Order by Espanola Mayor Alice Lucero – 9 a.m.
 

Discussion/Action Items (1hr 20 min.) 9:15-10:40 a.m.

 
NM Congressional Delegation Updates (5 mins) 9:15-9:20 a.m.
 
Presentation by Christine Gelles, Acting Manager of the Environmental Management Los Alamos Field Office, DOE (30 mins) 9:20-9:50 a.m.
 
Presentation by Albert Jirón, IT Program Manager at Los
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SOC-LA Guard Union Reaches Contract Agreement

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IGUA Local 69 Business Agent Christopher Mandril

 

By CAROL A. CLARK
Los Alamos Daily Post

The International Guards Union of America Local 69 (IGUA) has reached an agreement on its contract with SOC-Los Alamos, the company that provides security services at Los Alamos National Laboratory.

IGUA Local 69 Business Agent Christopher Mandril spoke with the Los Alamos Daily Post today and confirmed that the agreement was reached at about 9 p.m. Monday by the membership.

“We agreed to pay 15 percent of our medical in exchange for a boost in our 401k,” Mandril said. “Given the way things are ‘now

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Los Alamos’ Descartes Labs Is Teaching Computers To See The World

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Descartes Labs. Inc. co-founders Mark Johnson, left, and Steven P. Brumby in their offices at 1350 Central Ave., Suite 204 in downtown Los Alamos. Photo by Carol A. Clark/ladailypost.com

 
By CAROL A. CLARK
Los Alamos Daily Post

From their offices on the second floor of the Museum Parke Building in downtown Los Alamos, a team of scientists led by Descartes Labs co-founders Mark Johnson and Steven P. Brumby are on a mission to better understand planet Earth by analyzing massive amounts of imagery.

Brumby is the company’s Chief Technology Officer and a theoretical physicist who led a machine-learning

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Energy Department And Edison Electric Institute Sign Agreement To Advance Electric Vehicle Technologies

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DOE News:
 
NEW ORLEANS — Monday June 8, during a speech at the Edison Electric Institute (EEI) Annual Convention in New Orleans, LA, Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Department and EEI, strengthening collaborative action to accelerate plug-in electric vehicle (PEV) and charging infrastructure deployment.
 
Building on the President’s goal and the Department’s EV Everywhere Grand Challenge to develop plug-in electric vehicles by 2022 as affordable as a 2012 gasoline-powered vehicle, this partnership advances
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SFI: Identity And Social Preferences… June 15

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Seth Sanders
Duke University
 
SFI News:
 
The Santa Fe Institute (SFI) seminar “Identity and Social Preferences: Inferences from Choices and Response Time Data” is 12:15 p.m. Monday, June 15, at Collins Conference Room. 
 
Abstract: This paper presents a novel experiment on identity and individual social preferences. Using a within subject design and new empirical methods, we find more than twenty percent of subjects destroy total income – at personal cost – to earn more than subjects outside their group.
 
Minimal groups divide subjects according
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