Science

LANL: Machine Learning Unearths Signature Of Slow-Slip Quake Origins In Seismic Data

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Using a machine learning model and historical data from the Cascadia region in the Pacific Northwest, LANL computational geophysicists have unearthed distinct statistical features marking the formative stage of slow-slip ruptures in the earth’s crust months before tremor or GPS data detected a slip in the tectonic plates. Courtesy/Galyna Andrushko/Shutterstock.com

LANL News:

Combing through historical seismic data, researchers using a machine learning model have unearthed distinct statistical features marking the formative stage of slow-slip ruptures in the earth’s crust months Read More

NIST: Call For Comments On First Draft Of Four Principles Of Explainable Artificial Intelligence

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NIST News:

A multidisciplinary team of computer scientists, cognitive scientists, mathematicians, and specialists in AI and machine learning who all have diverse background and research specialties, explore and define the core tenets of explainable AI (XAI).

The team aims to develop measurement methods and best practices that support the implementation of those tenets.

Ultimately, the team plans to develop a metrologist’s guide to AI systems that address the complex entanglement of terminology and taxonomy as it relates to the myriad layers of the AI field.

AI must be explainable to Read More

World Recognized Expert Deniece Korzekwa Named Los Alamos National Laboratory Senior Fellow

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Deniece Korzekwa, of LANL’s Sigma Division, has been named a Senior Fellow. Courtesy/LANL

LANL News:

Deniece Korzekwa, of Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Sigma Division, has been named Senior Fellow for outstanding leadership and seminal contributions to nuclear weapons manufacturing science, global security initiatives and international scientific exchanges involving plutonium and uranium.

Korzekwa is a world recognized expert in actinide casting with significant technical contributions across the entire Weapons Program including manufacturing, Directed Stockpile Work Read More

AGU Study Finds Widespread Electric Vehicle Adoption Would Save Billions Of Dollars, Thousands Of Lives

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A new study finds if electric vehicles replaced 25 percent of combustion engine cars on the road, the United States would save approximately $17 billion annually by avoiding damages from climate change and air pollution. Courtesy/Michael Movchin / Felix Müller / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)

AGU News:

WASHINGTON, D.C. — If electric vehicles replaced 25 percent of combustion engine cars currently on the road, the United States would save approximately $17 billion annually by avoiding damages from climate change and air pollution, according to new research. Read More

Neeper: Complexity And The Unspoken Rules

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By DON NEEPER
Formerly of Los Alamos

Established customs and social mores form most of our social rules. How to meet, how to greet, how to set the silverware on the dinner table.

These rules are rarely spoken—not even conscious—unless we are instructing a child in proper behavior. A few rules carry a caveat that says you can’t even talk about the rule itself—it’s unspeakable—like talking about sex in Sunday School.

What’s unspeakable in polite society? Death and disposal. How to manage immigration that becomes mass migration. Family relationships that appear as smiles in church but are resentful Read More

NOAA Awards Grants To Small Businesses For Technology

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Shellfish growers harvest farmed oysters from the Damariscotta River in Maine in 2017. NOAA awards grants to small businesses working to develop tools to advance sustainable U.S. aquaculture. Courtesy/C. Katalinas/Maine Sea Grant

NOAA News:

NOAA has awarded $3.1 million in grants to 21 small businesses from 14 states to support the development of innovative technology for aquaculture, commercial and recreational fisheries, weather prediction, earth and ocean observations and modeling. 

“Small businesses across our nation are catalysts for technology innovation, which can produce Read More

Bright Tiny Light: NIST Scientists Build Better Nanoscale LED

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The fin LED pixel design includes the glowing zinc oxide fin (purple), isolating dielectric material (green), and metal contact (yellow atop green). The microscopic fins, which the research team arranged into comb-like arrays, show an increase in brightness of 100 to 1,000 times over conventional submicron-sized LED designs. Courtesy/B. Nikoobakht, N. Hanacek/NIST

NIST News:

A new design for light-emitting diodes (LEDs) developed by a team including scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) may hold the key to overcoming a long-standing limitation in Read More

New Mexico Highlands University: Science Equipment Grant Gives Students More Hands-On Learning

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Highlands biology student Fabian Pescador conducts molecular research at Highlands. Courtesy/HU

NMHU News:

LAS VEGAS, NM — Science students at New Mexico Highlands University will increase hands-on learning with new state-of-the art science instrumentation and technology tools, thanks to a grant from the Sherman Fairchild Foundation.

The three-year grant totals $272,945 and began in July 2020. It was awarded to the Highlands University Foundation.

“The grant gives students the real-world experience with science technology that helps them envision the path to careers in science, Read More

Los Alamos National Laboratory Podcast Mars Technica Explains How Plutonium Powers Perseverance Rover

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Mars Technica podcast series discusses the science behind the Mars Perseverance mission. Courtesy/LANL

LANL News:

To have dependable power to explore the the frigid surface of Mars, NASA’s Perseverance rover is equipped with a type of power system called a radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG)—which is what the latest episode of Mars Technica will tell listeners all about.

“An RTG is essentially a nuclear battery that uses heat from the natural radioactive decay of plutomium-238 to generate electricity,” said Jackie Lopez-Barlow, the radioisotopes power system program manager Read More

Human-Generated Seismic Noise Quiets During Quarantine

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AGU News:

Decrease of seismic noise level, after reduction of traffic due to the COVID‐19 pandemia, has been observed worldwide.

The possibility of using seismic noise as another proxy to estimate social isolation was tested with a station within Rio de Janeiro. Researchers used the isolation index measured from smart‐phone movement to calibrate the seismic noise levels and estimated an Isolation Seismic Index, ISI (% of the population at home), using the seismic noise energy.

Noise levels best correlate with isolation measures in the frequency range 4‐8Hz. Small differences between Read More