Science

LANL: Preserving Manhattan Project Historic Sites

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Nov. 11, 2020 marks the five-year anniversary of Manhattan Project National Historical Park. As part of the park’s mission, preservation experts removed excess vegetation that contributed to the erosion of the Concrete Bowl, a site that shares a lesser-known story from the Manhattan Project. Courtesy/LANL

This historic photo depicts the Concrete Bowl with its wooden tower. During the Manhattan Project era, the tower’s tank held water and a small-scale bomb prototype with a “stand-in” for plutonium. Upon detonation, the bowl captured the water, allowing researchers to filter out and Read More

Los Alamos National Laboratory And New Mexico State University Sign Agreement For Joint Appointments

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NMSU Chancellor Dan Arvizu and Director Thom Mason and Deputy Director John Sarrao of Los Alamos National Laboratory championed the new agreement. Courtesy/LANL

LANL News:

  • Staff-and-faculty exchange will build bottom-up collaborations and workforce pipeline

Los Alamos National Laboratory Director Thom Mason and Chancellor Dan Arvizu of New Mexico State University (NMSU) today announced the signing of a new institutional agreement to enable joint appointments. 

“The Laboratory is pleased to work with partners like NMSU to build scientific and engineering collaborations that mutually Read More

U.S. Fish And Wildlife Service Announces Winner Of National Prize Challenge To Defeat Bat-Killing White-Nose Syndrome

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A brown bat suffering with white-nose syndrome. Courtesy/USFWS

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service News: 

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) announced today that a team of six researchers from Oregon State University and the University of California, Santa Cruz are the winners of a national prize challenge to combat white-nose syndrome (WNS), a lethal wildlife disease that has killed millions of bats in North America and pushed some native bat species to the brink of extinction.

The Service’s White-nose Syndrome Program launched the challenge in October 2019 as part of a multi-faceted Read More

Los Alamos National Laboratory Works To Make Better, More Recyclable Plastics With New ‘BOTTLE’ Consortium

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A new science consortium will tackle how to degrade and upcycle today’s waste plastics in a way that incentivizes their reclamation, and work toward wholly redesigning tomorrow’s plastics to be recyclable-by-design. Courtesy/LANL

LANL News:

  • New Department of Energy program builds on strengths of multiple laboratories

Los Alamos National Laboratory is partnering with four other national laboratories and four academic institutions in a new program to tackle the problem of plastic pollution. The partnership has been dubbed the BOTTLE Consortium for “Bio-Optimized Technologies to Read More

SpaceX Invites Public To Ride Along On Historic First Operational Astronaut Launch For NASA Nov. 14

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SpaceX Crew-1 astronauts, NASA’s Shannon Walker, Victor Glover and Michael Hopkins and JAXA astronaut Soichi Noguchi, pose in front of their Dragon capsule, ‘Resilience’, at SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, Calif. Courtesy/©SpaceX

By MIKE WALL
space.com

SpaceX’s first operational astronaut launch for NASA is just nine days away, and the agency is inviting the public to go along for the historic ride.

The Crew-1 mission is scheduled to lift off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida on the evening of Nov. 14.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will send a Crew Dragon capsule carrying Read More

Newest AFRL Lab To Boost National Space Capabilities

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Members of the AFRL Space Vehicles Directorate and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers celebrate the opening of the Deployable Structures Laboratory Oct. 29 at Kirtland Air Force Base. The laboratory was constructed by Sky Blue Builders and designed by Studio Southwest Architects, both of Albuquerque, and will be used for testing novel deployable space structures. Photo by Airman 1st Class Ireland Summers

AFRL Space Vehicles Directorate Director Col. Eric Felt, left, and Research Engineer Benjamin Urioste prepare to break the satellite piñata, following the ribbon cutting ceremony celebrating Read More

NOAA Agreement With Google Explores Artificial Intelligence To Enhance Environmental Monitoring; Weather Prediction

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Under a three-year Other Transaction Authority (OTA) agreement, NESDIS and Google will pilot specific AI- and ML-related projects to amplify NOAA’s environmental monitoring, weather forecasting, climate research, and technical innovation. Courtesy/NOAA

NOAA News:

NOAA’s Satellite and Information Service (NESDIS) has signed an agreement with Google to explore the benefits of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) for enhancing NOAA’s use of satellite and environmental data.

Under this three-year Other Transaction Authority (OTA) agreement, NESDIS and Google Read More

AFRL Researchers Recognized As Early Career Leaders

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2020 Air Force Research Laboratory Science & Engineering Early Career Award recipient Dr. Mark Spencer, who is a senior research physicist in AFRL’s Directed Energy Directorate at KAFB. Courtesy/KAFB

KAFB News:

KIRTLAND AIR FORCE BASE — Air Force Research Laboratory Commander, Brig. Gen. Heather Pringle, recently announced the 2020 AFRL Fellows and the newest class of AFRL Science and Engineering Early Career Award (S&E ECA) recipients.

She welcomed 11 researchers as AFRL Fellows and nine scientists and engineers for Early Career Awards. Two of the S&E ECA honorees work Read More

Experts At biodiversity Conference Call For Linking Human And Livestock Health With Ecosystems

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The Monteverde Cloud Forest in Costa Rica. Photo by Jodi Crisp

Global Landscapes Forum News:

  • Addressing the wild meat trade and restoring landscapes, key to preventing the next pandemic

BONN Germany — Dr. Peter Daszak, Sir Robert Watson, Elizabeth Mrema and more than 250 other experts at the Global Landscapes Forum Digital Biodiversity Conference ‘One World, One Health’ Oct. 28-29, called for integrating biodiversity and landscape perspectives into efforts to prevent future outbreaks of zoonoses – diseases of animal origin such as COVID-19, SARS, Ebola and HIV.

The event, joined by 5,000 Read More

AFNWC Team Supports ICBM Test Launch

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An Air Force Global Strike Command unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile launches during an operational test at 12:27 a.m. Pacific Time, Oct. 29, 2020, at Vandenberg AFB. Photo/Michael Peterson-USAF

AFNWC News:

KIRTLAND AFB — A team of Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center experts supported the recent launch of an unarmed intercontinental ballistic missile to verify its accuracy and reliability, providing valuable data to ensure this safe, secure, effective nuclear deterrent is ready every day to defend the United States and its allies.

An unarmed LGM-30G Minuteman III Read More