National Laboratory

Frisbee Shooting Robot Bagged and Ready to Ship

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Members of the Los Alamos FIRST Robotics Team 4153 from left, Jacob Marks, Ariel Koh, Steve Anton, Simon Redmond and George Barnum conduct the final assembly Feb. 19 of this year’s robot, which throws frisbees at targets and climbs pipe pyramids. It’s a lot more complicated than last year’s bot that shot basketballs and balanced on treadles. This year’s robot had to be completed by midnight, Feb. 19 and locked into a plastic bag with locker ties. The team will compete in Lubbock, Texas the end of February and then on to Salt Lake City in March. Photo by TK Thompson/ladailypost.com
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US, UK, Russian Federation Hold Trilateral Nuclear Security Best Practices Workshop

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NNSA News:

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Representatives from the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), the United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defence and Russia’s State Atomic Energy Corporation (Rosatom) met this week in Vienna, Austria, for their Seventh Annual Nuclear Security Best Practices Exchange.

The two-day workshop focused on overcoming challenges associated with securing nuclear materials worldwide.

NNSA Deputy Administrator for Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation Anne Harrington.

These workshops grew out of commitments in a 2005 U.S.-Russian Joint Statement on Nuclear Read More

NIST, DOJ Form Commission to Develop Guidelines for Forensic Labs

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NIST News:

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) have announced the establishment of a National Commission on Forensic Science as part of a new initiative to strengthen and enhance the practice of forensic science.

The National Commission on Forensic Science will be composed of approximately 30 members, bringing together forensic science service practitioners, academic researchers, prosecutors, defense attorneys, judges and other relevant stakeholders to develop policy recommendations for the Attorney General.

The Read More

NNSA Completes Facilities and Infrastructure Recapitalization Program

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NNSA News:

  • FIRP modernized NNSA sites, executed nearly 800 projects

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) today announced the successful completion of the Facilities and Infrastructure Recapitalization Program (FIRP).

FIRP was created to reduce a substantial accumulation of backlogged facility maintenance, repair and demolition projects across NNSA’s eight sites. NNSA has enhanced mission reliability, improved safety and working conditions and reduced operating costs across the national nuclear security enterprise.

“One of the primary goals Read More

Computer Modeling Reveals How Surprisingly Potent Hepatitis C Drug Works

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LANL News:

A study by researchers from Los Alamos National Laboratory and a multinational team reveals how daclatasvir, a direct-acting antiviral agent in development for the treatment of hepatitis C virus (HCV), targets one of its proteins and causes the fastest viral decline ever seen with anti-HCV drugs – within 12 hours of treatment.

Chronic infection with hepatitis C virus affects about 150 million people worldwide. It is the leading cause of cirrhosis, liver cancer and liver transplants and results in some 350,000 deaths worldwide every year.

The team’s work reveals that daclatasvir Read More

They Did It Again … LAHS Students Head to DOE National Science Bowl!

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Los Alamos High School regional winners, from left, Willie Zhao, Aaron Bao, Kevin Gao, Alex Swart, Alex Wang and their coach Kathy Boerigter. Courtesy/SNL

SANDIA LABS News:

  • Los Alamos High School Students Headed to DOE National Science Bowl

ALBUQUERQUE – Students from Los Alamos High School will represent New Mexico at the Department of Energy’s National Science Bowl in April.

The team took first place Saturday, Feb. 16, at the New Mexico Regional High School Competition after besting 28 teams representing 14 New Mexican high schools.

Students answered questions related to astronomy, biology, Read More

SFI Colloquium: ‘Earth’s Energy Imbalance, Climate Change, and Implications for Young People’

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SFI News:

SFI Colloquium

Thursday, Feb. 21 • 3:30 p.m. • Noyce Conference Room in the Santa Fe Institute at 1399 Hyde Park Road in Santa Fe.

James Hansen, Columbia University Earth Institute will present, “Earth’s Energy Imbalance, Climate Change, and Implications for Young People.”

Abstract: Improving observations of ocean heat content show that Earth is absorbing substantially more energy from the Sun than it is radiating to space as heat, implying that more global warming is in the pipeline.

Paleoclimate data and observations of ongoing climate change imply that continued business-as-usual Read More

SFI: ‘Efficient Coordination in Weakest Link Games’ By Martin Strobel of Maastricht University

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SFI News:

Wednesday, Feb. 20 • 12:15 p.m. • Collins Conference Room in the Santa Fe Institute at 1399 Hyde Park Road in Santa Fe.

Martin Strobel, Department of Economics, Maastricht University, will present “Efficient Coordination in Weakest Link Games.”

Abstract: Coordination problems resembling weakest-link games are ubiquitous in the economy and society. Since they possess Pareto ranked equilibria it is important to understand if and when agents are able to coordinate on the efficient equilibrium.

Existing research on weakest-link games shows an overwhelming inability Read More

CryoSat-2 Mission Reveals Major Arctic Sea-Ice Loss

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Sea ice scape photo by Dr. Katherine Giles, a research fellow at the Centre for Polar Observation and Modeling at University College London (UCL) and a member of the scientific team studying sea-ice loss. Courtesy/AGU

AGU News:

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Arctic sea ice volume has declined by 36 percent in the autumn and 9 percent in the winter between 2003 and 2012, an international team of scientists has discovered. 

Researchers used new data from the European Space Agency’s CryoSat-2 satellite spanning 2010 to 2012, and data from NASA’s Read More