National Laboratory

LANL: Brown Carbon’s Heating Effect in Climate Models Can Now Be Quantified

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Wildfire fuel being burned in the fire laboratory as the aerosols from the top are being sucked into inlets and sampled at the Missoula Fire Sciences Laboratory in Missoula, Mont., by Los Alamos and Carnegie Mellon University scientists. Courtesy/University of Montana and USFS
 
LANL News:
 
Scientists have uncovered key attributes of so-called “brown carbon” from wildfires, airborne atmospheric particles that may have influenced current climate models that failed to take the material’s warming effects into account.
 
The work was described by a collaborative team of
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Senators: WIPP’s Missed Inspections ‘Unacceptable’

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U.S. Sen. Tom Udall

U.S. SENATE News:

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich announced Monday that the Department of Labor has responded to their March request for an explanation detailing why the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) failed to conduct legally required regular safety inspections at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP).

The senators asked for the information after an investigation into a February truck fire at WIPP revealed that MSHA had done only two inspections during the three years before the accident.

U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich

A specialized Read More

Los Alamos Probes Mysteries of Uranium Dioxide’s Thermal Conductivity

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Illustration of anisotropic thermal conductivity in uranium dioxide (UO2). Scientists are studying the thermal conductivity related to the material’s different crystallographic directions, hoping to improve our understanding of UO2’s efficiency as reactor fuel. Courtesy/LANL

LANL News:

Nearly 20 percent of the electricity in the United States is generated by nuclear energy from uranium dioxide fuel, but mysteries still surround exactly how the material controls the electrical production: Poor thermal conductivity can limit the conversion rate of heat produced Read More

How Many Cells Are In The Human Brain?

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Neuroscientist Suzana Herculano-Houzel

TED.com News:

The human brain is puzzling — it is curiously large given the size of our bodies, uses a tremendous amount of energy for its weight and has a bizarrely dense cerebral cortex. But: why?

Neuroscientist Suzana Herculano-Houzel puts on her detective’s cap and leads us through this mystery. By making “brain soup,” she arrives at a startling conclusion.

View Herculano-Houzel’s talk here. Read More

Los Alamos Laser Selected For 2020 Mars Mission

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Courtesy/LANL

LANL News:

  • New ‘SuperCam’ instrument adds capabilities to successful ChemCam

NASA announced Thursday that laser technology originally developed at Los Alamos National Laboratory has been selected for its new Mars mission in 2020.

“We are extremely excited to be going to Mars again,” said Los Alamos National Laboratory planetary scientist Roger Wiens, Principal Investigator of the newly selected SuperCam team and current principal investigator of the Curiosity Rover’s ChemCam Team. “More importantly for the mission, I know SuperCam is the very best remote sensor that Read More

Energy Department Conditionally Authorizes Oregon LNG to Export Liquefied Natural Gas

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DOE News:

The Energy Department announced Thursday that it has conditionally authorized LNG Development Co., LLC (Oregon LNG) to export domestically produced liquefied natural gas (LNG) to countries that do not have a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the United States, from the Oregon LNG Terminal in Warrenton, Ore.

The Oregon LNG application was next in the order of precedence and review of the application was initiated before the Department issued the recent proposed procedural change. Subject to environmental review and final regulatory approval, the facility is conditionally authorized Read More

SFI: Genome Instability in Cancer – A Challenge or an Opportunity

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Catie Grasso, Oregon Health & Science University. Courtesy/SFI

SFI News:

Catie Grasso will present a talk at 12:15 p.m. Monday, Aug. 4, in the Collins Conference Room at Santa Fe Institute

Abstract: Lynn Margulis’ endosymbiotic theory postulated that the eukaryotic cell arose from the symbiosis of multiple bacteria over time, making it possible to create organelles, like the mitochondrion and the chloroplast, which make eukaryotic cells extremely efficient and able to be building blocks in multi-cellular life. Symbiosis has also been shown in genetic algorithm programming and Read More

Community and Historical Society Discuss First Episode of WGN’s Manhattan

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Discussion got underway following Sunday’s premiere of WGN’s new series, Manhattan, at Time Out Pizzeria. Photo by Carol A. Clark/ladailypost.com

LAHS News:

There was an amazing turnout for the Los Alamos Historical Society’s viewing of the premiere of WGN’s new series, Manhattan, a fictionalized look at life in Los Alamos during the Manhattan Project.

There was a great discussion following the show, and the Society has collected some of the common questions that we heard that night and on social media. Every week the Society will be updating a bulletin board in the Museum to continue Read More

SFI: The Joy of x … A Guided Tour of Math

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Steven Strogatz, Professor of Applied Mathematics at Cornell University

SFI News:

Steven Strogatz will speak at 7:30 p.m., Wednesday, Aug. 6 at the James a Little Theater – 1060 Cerrillos Road.

Abstract: Viewed through the right lens, the universal language of math connects to literature, philosophy, law, medicine, art, business, and even pop culture and current events. It underpins every aspect of our lives, from finding the perfect romantic partner to understanding how Google works.

Yet few of us understand math well enough to appreciate its beauty, prompting world-class mathematician Read More

DOE Shares Steps For Modernizing Natural Gas Infrastructure

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DOE News:

Building on the President’s Climate Action Plan, the White House and the Department of Energy hosted the fifth in a series of meetings on reducing methane emissions from natural gas systems.

Following the meeting, Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz announced several new initiatives as DOE’s part of the larger Administration Strategy to Reduce Methane Emissions.

“By expanding our discussions through these methane roundtables, we have heard from several different groups about the benefits to finding workable solutions to the problem of methane leakage,” Secretary Moniz said. Read More