National Laboratory

Shrinking Horizons: Help Preserve Indigenous Human Societies in SFI’s First Crowdfunding Campaign

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SFI News:

Working with the SciFund Challenge, SFI has joined other scientists and science research centers in this emerging, social-networked way to generate financial backing for critical scientific research. The campaign runs through Dec. 15.

For SFI’s first cowdfunding campaign we are highlighting SFI Postdoctoral Fellow Marcus Hamilton and his collaborators at the University of Missouri, who are seeking better ways to understand how to preserve the rainforest land on which indigenous human groups depend.

Visit the SFI campaign page here.

There are an estimated 100 uncontacted

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Clouds Could Explain How Snowball Earth Thawed Out

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Giant snowball created by Oxford students. Courtesy photo

AGU News:

Glaciation events during the Neoproterozoic (524-to-1,000 million years ago) and Paleoproterozoic (1,600-to-2,500 million years ago) periods – events that
spawned ice ages that persisted for millions of years at a time – may have seen glacier ice encircle the planet in a frosty planetary configuration known as a
Snowball Earth.

Whether the planet could have existed in such a state, however, is a matter of considerable debate.

An elevated planetary albedo, caused by the planet being covered in reflective Read More

First Controllable Atom SQUID

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Researcher Kevin Wright checks part of the experimental apparatus. Courtesy/NIST

NIST News:

Scientists have created the first controllable atomic circuit that functions analogously to a superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) and allows operators to select a particular quantum state of the system at will.

By manipulating atoms in a superfluid ring thinner than a human hair the investigators were able for the first time to measure rotation-induced discrete quantized changes in the atoms’ state, thereby providing a proof-of-principle design for an “atomtronic” inertial Read More

Column: Insecurity with LANL Security Project

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ON THE MESA FACING NORTH

By Greg Kendall
 
When news broke out a few months ago that an 80-year-old nun and two retiree peace activist had defeated our nation's highest level security systems at the Y-12 site in Oak Ridge, Tenn., and had spent a leisurely evening throwing blood on the walls of a building that houses nuclear weapon components, I was glad that it had not happened here in Los Alamos. 
 
Los Alamos security had to be better – much better than the apparent joke that is security at Y-12, I thought to myself. I have now had to re-evaluate that thought.
 
Would
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OBITUARY: THOMAS ILG Sept. 9, 1958 – Nov. 2, 2012

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THOMAS ILG

Thomas Ilg of Los Alamos, N.M., passed away unexpectedly Friday Nov. 2, 2012. He died while perusing his passion of photographing the ruins of the Jemez Mountains.

He was born Sept. 30, 1958 in Suffern, N.Y. He was graduated from Northeastern University in Boston, Mass. in 1980 with an engineering degree.

He lived in the town of White Rock, with his wife Wendy, the love of his life for 17 years.

Tom was employed at Los Alamos National Laboratory for more than 20 years where he worked as a mechanical engineer.

He was an avid and accomplished photographer; he loved hiking, hockey, target shooting, Read More

Contractors Hear New LANL Cost Model Details

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LANL Budget Officer K. Aaron Menefee explains the new LANL budgeting formula to LANL contractors attending a Nov. 1 Chamber Business Breakfast at UNM-LA. Photo by Bonnie J. Gordon

By Bonnie J. Gordon

Los Alamos National Laboratory has adopted a new cost model for Fiscal Year 2013 and LANL contractors have expressed concern about the consequences the new model may have on their businesses.

The Los Chamber of Commerce organized a special Chamber Breakfast for LANL officials and contractors Nov. 1 at UNM-LA.

LANL Budget Officer K. Aaron Menefee gave a presentation designed to show why LANL has Read More

LANL’s Carl Beard Presents Talk to Rotarians

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Carl Beard presents a talk on LANL’s environmental stewardship program to local Rotarians. Photo by Hal Davis

By Carol A. Clark

Dr. Carl Beard presented a talk on the Los Alamos National Laboratory’s long-term environmental stewardship and sustainability strategy during Tuesday’s Rotary lunch meeting at the Dixie Girl Restaurant in downtown Los Alamos.

Beard is the Principal Associate Director for Operations and Business Services (PADOPS) at LANL.

PADOPS provides oversight of Business Services, Maintenance and Infrastructure Planning, Environment, Safety Read More

NNSA Completes 50th Shipment Under Threat Reduction Program

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NNSA Administrator Thomas D’Agostino. Courtesy/NNSA

NNSA News:

Cooperative Program Removes Highly Enriched Uranium from Uzbekistan

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) today announced the successful removal of 72.8 kilograms of highly enriched uranium (HEU) spent fuel from the Institute of Nuclear Physics (INP) in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

Today’s announcement marks the 50th shipment under NNSA’s cooperative program with Russia to return Russian-origin HEU.

Since the program began 10 years ago, NNSA and its Russian counterparts have closely cooperated Read More

LANL Demolishing DP Road Excavation Enclosures

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Los Alamos National Laboratory plans to demolish the enclosures used to safely excavate and clean up LANL’s oldest waste disposal site near DP Road in Los Alamos. Courtesy/LANL

LANL News:

LANL to Demolish Excavation Enclosures

  • Work is beginning this week

Los Alamos National Laboratory is about to begin demolishing the metal enclosures used to cover the excavation and cleanup of a decades-old waste disposal site at the historic Technical Area 21.

Pre-demolition activities are beginning this week and the work should be completed by the end of March 2013.

The project brings the Laboratory Read More

LANL Scientist Nate McDowell Presenting Nov. 1 Talk

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LAMG/LAEO News:

The Los Alamos Master Gardeners and Los Alamos Extension Office are sponsoring a program by Nate McDowell, a staff scientist in the Earth and Environmental Sciences Division at Los Alamos National Laboratory.

McDowell will share his research methods and results with the community at 7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 1 at Fuller Lodge.

McDowell studies the inter-dependency of plant and ecosystem water and carbon cycles and their response to climate and disturbance.

What are the exact physiological mechanisms that lead to tree death during prolonged drought and rising temperatures?

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