National Laboratory

Magnetic Charge Crystals Imaged in Artificial Spin Ice

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A 3-D depiction of the honeycomb artificial spin ice topography after the annealing and cooling protocols. The light and dark colors represent the north and south magnetic poles of the islands. Image by Ian Gilbert, University of Illinois Department of Physics and Frederick Seitz Materials Research Laboratory

LANL News:

A team of scientists has reported direct visualization of magnetic charge crystallization in an artificial spin ice material, a first in the study of a relatively new class of frustrated artificial magnetic materials-by-design known as “Artificial Spin Ice.”

These charges Read More

New Season of Teen Café Scientifique NM Launches Sept. 5!

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Students learn about robotics from LANL post doc Steve Anton during a Café last year. Courtesy photo 
 
Courtesy photo 
 
TCSNM News:
 
Teen Café Scientifique New Mexico is launching its first program of the season at 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 5 at the Los Alamos Research Park, 4200 West Jemez Road. The program is free and open to all teens.
 
Dr. Steven Brumby of Los Alamos National Laboratory, who studies neuroscience models for computer vision and develops computer codes to simulate vision, will present “Can You See Me Now? Teaching Computers to See.”
Read More

NIST Ytterbium Atomic Clocks Set Record for Stability

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NIST’s ultra-stable ytterbium lattice atomic clock. Ytterbium atoms are generated in an oven (large metal cylinder on the left) and sent to a vacuum chamber in the center of the photo to be manipulated and probed by lasers. Laser light is transported to the clock by five fibers (such as the yellow fiber in the lower center of the photo). Photo by Burrus/NIST

NIST News:

A pair of experimental atomic clocks based on ytterbium atoms at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has set a new record for stability.

The clocks act like 21st-century pendulums or metronomes that could Read More

LANL: Reliability Technology Earns Prestigious Los Alamos Award

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Terry Wallace, right, Los Alamos National Laboratory Principal Associate Director for Global Security, congratulates Harold Martz, second from right, and Michael Hamada, second from left, for winning the Laboratory’s first-ever Richard Feynman Prize for Innovation Achievement while David Pesiri, left, director of Los Alamos’ Technology Transfer Division looks on. Martz, Hamada and a team of Los Alamos researchers developed Reliability Technology, a system that has been used by Procter & Gamble to save billions of dollars each year through increased industrial Read More

Robotics Night @ the Museum Dazzles Crowd

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Los Alamos Police Sgt. Oliver Morris describes the capabilities of the hazardous duty robot used to investigate unpredictable and dangerous environments. Photo by Carol A. Clark/ladailypost.com

LANL’s Hazardous Devices Team joined members of the Los Alamos Bomb Squad in robot demonstrations Friday night at the Bradbury Science Museum. Photo by Carol A. Clark/ladailypost.com

BRADBURY News:

Robots from LANL’s Hazardous Devices Team and the Los Alamos Bomb Squad demonstrated impressive skills such as frisbee throwing during Friday’s Robotics Night @ the Museum. Read More

NNSA, China Sign Agreement to Prevent Nuclear Smuggling

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NNSA News:

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) recently signed an agreement with the People’s Republic of China’s General Administration of China Customs (GACC) to renew cooperative efforts to deter, detect and interdict the illicit smuggling of special nuclear and other radiological materials.

The agreement was signed by Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz and China’s Minister of the GACC, YU Guangzhou, during the annual U.S.–China Strategic and Economic Dialogue in Washington.

“China plays a key role securing both regional and international maritime Read More

New Gamma-Ray Observatory Begins Operations at Sierra Negra Volcano in Mexico

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The HAWC Observatory taken in August 2013 from the summit of Sierra Negra. The image has been digitally altered to show HAWC as it will appear when construction is complete in 2014. The 111 Cherenkov detectors currently installed (100 Cherenkov detectors in operation) are colored white and located in the upper right quadrant of the array. Courtesy/LANL

LANL News:

  • New site to observe supernovas and supermassive black holes

The High-Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) Gamma Ray Observatory has begun formal operations at its site in Mexico. HAWC is designed to study the origin of very high-energy Read More

Robotics Night at the Bradbury Friday

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HIVE News:

The Hive will hold a Mini Sumo Robot competition 5-8 p.m. Friday, Aug. 23 in the theater of the Bradbury Science Museum in downtown Los Alamos.

The competition is open to all robots that meet the size and weight requirements.

Come by the museum to try your hand at a robot obstacle course, get “Bradbury” to throw a Frisbee, watch a live demonstration of bomb squad robots at work, visit the Arduino zoo, see the mini sumo robots battle it out, and get a chance to run the robotic arm on display in the defense gallery.  

Admission is free. Read More

LANL: Meltwater from Ice Sheet Less Severe for Sea Level Rise Than Feared

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A stream of meltwater on the surface of the Greenland Ice Sheet enters a moulin connecting to the glacier’s bed, 700 meters below. Surface meltwater lubricates the bed and temporarily speeds up the ice sheet’s movement toward the sea every summer. From left, Blaine Morriss (Dartmouth College) and Lauren Andrews (University of Texas). Location: west coast of the Greenland Ice Sheet. Photo by Matt Hoffman/LANL

LANL News:

The effects of increased melting on the future motion of and sea-level contribution from Greenland’s massive ice sheet are not quite as dire as previously thought, according Read More

SFI’s Science on Screen Presents ‘Zardoz’

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Doyne Farmer

SFI News:

The popular Science on Screen series continues at 7 p.m. today, Aug. 20 at the Center for Contemporary Arts, 1050 Old Pecos Trail, in Santa Fe.

Santa Fe Institute External Professor Doyne Farmer will illuminate John Boorman’s 1974 sci-fi cult classic Zardoz from his unique perspective as a physicist, complexity theorist, and “rogue economist.”

Sean Connery stars as Exterminator Zed in a postapocalyptic future featuring a flying stone head, revered as a god but with murderous intent, and two classes of inhabitants leading very different lives. Read More