National Laboratory

NIST: Through The Looking Glass

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Futuristic touchscreen. Courtesy/NIST

NIST News:

Through The Looking Glass
By STACEY WAGNER

In the 2012 movie, “The Avengers”, Tony Stark, aka Ironman, uses a 3-D hologram to manufacture weaponry.

And although many movie-goers thought this was pure fantasy, the scene’s similarity to next generation manufacturing is much closer than most of us imagine.

Both Apple and Samsung are battling for 3-D screen dominance, but Disney (yes, Walt Disney) announced last year that its research and development department created “swept frequency capacitive sensing” that makes virtually any material Read More

NeuroX: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of Pop-Neuroscience

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SFI News:

NeuroX: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of Pop-Neuroscience sponsored by the Krasnow Institute for Advanced Study at George Mason University is set for May 8-10 at Founders Hall on the GMU Arlington, Va., campus.

Perspectives and applications from neuroscience are increasingly being applied to work in other areas, spawning new, interdisciplinary fields of the name “neuroX” where X can be almost anything from ethics to marketing.

 
What new insights can they provide? How much of neuroX is substantive? In this May 2013 symposium, scientists, decision-makers, and members of
Read More

Tiny Subject, Big Fun With NanoDays at Bradbury Science Museum

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Courtesy/LANL

LANL News:

The tiny, strange world of nanoscale science is a big subject at the Bradbury Science Museum these days, as the organization celebrates NanoDays 2013.

NanoDays is a national campaign, engaging people of all ages in learning about the emerging field of nanoscale science and engineering.

The Bradbury marks NanoDays 2013 with interactive demonstrations and activities on the museum floor on such apparently magical themes as a real-life invisibility cloak and metals with memory-all possible with nanoscience, the field of very, very tiny technology.

  • When: March 25-28
Read More

SFI Seminar: Large-Scale Power Restoration

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Pascal Van Hentenryck, NICTA

SFI News:

The Santa Fe Institute presents the seminar, Large-Scale Power Restoration, by Pascal Van Hentenryck.

The seminar is 12:15 p.m., Friday, March 22 in the Collins Conference Room at 1399 Hyde Park Road in Santa Fe.

Abstract: This talk considers how to restore a transmission system after significant disruptions.

It presents hybrid optimization models, combining mathematical programming, constraint programming, and local search, that scale to large transmission systems and reviews the underlying technology to achieve these results.

Experimental Read More

LANL: ChemCam Data Abundant at Planetary Conference

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This image shows the ChemCam mast unit mounted on the Curiosity rover as it is being prepared in the clean room prior to the launch of NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory mission. ChemCam fires a powerful laser that can sample Martian rocks and provide critical clues about the Red Planet’s habitability. Courtesy/LANL

LANL News:

  • Laser instrument aboard Curiosity rover provides well over 40,000 shots so far

Members of the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover ChemCam team will present more than two dozen posters and talks next week during the 44th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference Read More

LANL’s New Culturing Tool Reveals a Full Genome From Single Cells

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Two GMD containing gut-community microcolonies are shown, with green fluorescence marking the DNA. Photo by A. Dichosa/LANL

LANL News:

  • Gel microdroplet culturing reveals intraspecies genomic diversity within the human microbiome

A new technique for genetic analysis, “gel microdroplets,” helps scientists generate complete genomes from a single cell, thus opening the door to understanding the complex interrelationships of bacteria, viruses and eukaryotes that form “microbiome” communities in soil, in humans, and elsewhere in the natural world.

Microbes live in complex communities Read More

LANL: Documenting Stone Age Cleverness By Tool Development

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Ancient stone tools showing the pace of remarkable technological enhancements over time – 1.75 to 0.85 million years ago. Courtesy/LANL

LANL News:

  • Ancient handaxe craftsmanship gives insight into mental advances

Stone Age man’s gradual improvement in tool development, particularly in crafting stone handaxes, is providing insight into the likely mental advances these early humans made a million years ago.

Better tools make for better hunting, and better tools come from more sophisticated thought processes. Close analysis of bits of chipped and flaked stone from across Ethiopia Read More

LANL Foundation Names New Executive Director for Northwest New Mexico First Born® Program

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LANLF News:

The Los Alamos National Laboratory Foundation announced its new executive director for the Northwest New Mexico First Born® Program at a press conference Tuesday at the State Capitol.

Regina Huffman, former director of the Family Infant Toddler Program (FIT) in Gallup, has been named executive director.

Huffman has a master’s degree in counseling from Western New Mexico University and a bachelor of university studies degree in early education and psychology from the University of New Mexico.

The W.K. Kellogg Foundation has announced a $1.8 million grant to the Los Alamos National Read More

LANL Economic Impact Focus of Successful House Memorial

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RCLC News:

  • Memorial focused on the critical importance of New Mexico’s National Laboratories and DOE facilities to state’s economy

SANTA FE – Last week, House Memorial 71 introduced by Rep. Stephanie Garcia Richard (D- Los Alamos) won unanimous passage from the New Mexico House of Representatives.

The House Memorial recognized the critical importance of New Mexico’s National Laboratories and DOE facilities to the state’s economy.

The Regional Coalition of LANL Communities supported passage of the House Memorial and provided expert testimony on behalf Read More

SFI Seminar: On the Foundations and Philosophy of Info-Metrics

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SFI News:

SFI Seminar: On the Foundations and Philosophy of Info-Metrics

Thursday, March 14 at 12:15 p.m. in Collins Conference Room at the Santa Fe Institute, 1399 Hyde Park Road in Santa Fe.

Amos Golan of the Department of Economics, American University

Abstract: Info-metrics is the science and art of quantitatively processing information and inference. It crosses the boundaries of all sciences and provides the universal mathematical and philosophical foundations for inference with finite, noisy or incomplete information.

Info-metrics lies in the intersection of information theory, Read More