National Laboratory

NSEC News:

Dr. Liviu Popa-Simil, president of LAVM, will give a talk on “Harmony in Science and Engineering” 3:30-5 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 5, at Los Alamos Research Park, Conference Room 203A (second floor.)

“Micro-nano technology is much more than a fashionable term,” Popa-Simil writes in his abstract. “In the case of nuclear materials, this new scientific field may represent the path toward accelerated progress, yielding a fantastic increase in performance as well as application range.”

Read the full abstract here. This talk is unclassified and open to the public. Read More

NNSA News:

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) announced Thursday that it has reaffirmed the award to Consolidated Nuclear Security, LLC (CNS), to be the management and operating contractor for the Y-12 National Security Complex (Y-12) in Oak Ridge, Tenn., and the Pantex Plant near Amarillo, Texas.

The contract includes project management of the Uranium Processing Facility (UPF) at Y-12 and an unexercised option for Savannah River Tritium Operations at the Savannah River Site near Aiken, S.C.

“Our nuclear production capabilities are critical to our Read More

SFI News:

This week the Santa Fe Institute (SFI) will offer three lunchtime talks at 12:15 p.m. in the Collins Conference Room at the Santa Fe Institute, 1399 Hyde Park Road. The public is welcome and invited to bring a lunch to the talks.

Eric Deeds

Monday, Nov. 4, Eric Deeds from the University of Kansas will present “The Dynamics of Assembly in Biological Networks.” Click here to read his abstract and learn more.

Luis F. Seoane

Thursday, Nov. 7, Luis F. Seoane of Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Spain will present “Multiobjective Optimization and Phase Transitions.” Click here to read his abstract Read More

Bette Korber of Los Alamos National Laboratory, who developed a component of a new vaccine against HIV, now being tested in monkeys. Courtesy/LANL

LANL News:

• Preclinical study provides strong rationale for clinical trials

The considerable diversity of HIV worldwide represents a critical challenge for designing an effective HIV vaccine. Now, it appears that that a vaccine bioinformatically optimized for immunologic coverage of global HIV diversity, called a mosaic vaccine and designed by Bette Korber and her team at Los Alamos National Laboratory, may confer protection from infection. Read More

Courtesy/LANL

LANL News:

• Talk begins at 7 p.m. and is open to public

Los Alamos National Laboratory scientist Vincenzo Cirigliano asks the question, How did we survive the big bang? in a series of Frontiers in Science lectures beginning Monday, Nov. 4, in the Duane Smith Auditorium at Los Alamos High School.

“Particles and antiparticles were produced in equal numbers in the aftermath of the big bang,” according to Cirigliano. “As the primordial soup cooled, they should have completely destroyed each other, leaving behind a universe with no matter. Instead, an imbalance of matter over antimatter Read More

The Vela-5A/B Satellite in its cleanroom. The two satellites, A and B, were separated after launch. Image/wikipedia.com

NNSA News:

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) this month commemorated the 50th Anniversary of the Vela satellite launch, the U.S.’s first treaty monitoring satellite. The purpose of Vela was to monitor compliance with the 1963 Limited Test Ban Treaty, a cornerstone arms control treaty which prohibits nuclear weapons testing in the atmosphere, in outer space and under water.

“The Vela Project is a great success story,” said NNSA Deputy Read More