Science

The Science Behind ‘Silent Sky’

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Henrietta Leavitt (Katrina Koehler) studies a photographic plate of star images from among the many boxes of plates she has had shipped to her to continue her studies while helping her family at their home in Wisconsin. Photo by Elena E. Giorgi
 
By GALEN GISLER 
Los Alamos

“Where are we?” This is the question driving the passion of the astronomer Henrietta Leavitt in Lauren Gunderson’s play Silent Sky, to be presented
by the Los Alamos Little Theatre.

Copernicus taught us that the solar system is centered on the Sun, not our Earth. To understand our Solar System’s place in the larger
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AAUW Hosts Fall Luncheon Saturday Sept. 15

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AAUW News:
 
The American Association of University Women (AAUW) will host its Fall Luncheon 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 15, at the Bethlehem Lutheran Church at 2390 North Road in Los Alamos.
 
The lunch will be catered by Ruby K’s and the cost is $15, payable by cash or check made out to AAUW.
 
There will be a slide show featuring Tech Trek (an AAUW sponsored program encouraging girls to go into science based fields of study).
 
Young women who have attended Tech Trek at NM Tech for a week long summer camp will speak to their experiences.
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Free Computer Science Clubs At Los Alamos Makers

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Kids learning the fundamentals of how a computer works by building marble-operated mechanical computers during CoderDojo for kids ages 7 to 12 at Los Alamos Makers. Courtesy photo

LOS ALAMOS MAKERS News:

Digital technology is all around us. Although not everyone aspires to be an engineer or a developer, we all wish we had more control over the technology we use.

“Manufacturers today want you to think that hardware is a black box. You shouldn’t work on it! If it breaks you should throw it away or you should pay somebody a lot of money. The maker movement is changing that,” said Akkana Peck during her Read More

AGU: Polluted Groundwater Likely Contaminated South Pacific Ocean Coral Reefs For Decades

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Rarotonga. Photo by Dirk Erler
 
AGU News:
 
Groundwater containing excess nitrogen from agricultural fertilizers likely contaminated coral reefs on the Cook Islands during the second half of the 20th century, continuing for years after fertilizer use stopped, according to a new study.
 
The finding suggests human activities have long-lasting impacts on coral reef communities and could be contributing to their decline.
 
Coral reefs are some of the most diverse and valuable ecosystems on Earth, supporting more species per unit area than any other marine environment,
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American Geophysical Union Announces Recipients Of 2018 Union Medals, Awards And Prizes

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AGU News:
 
33 individuals are recognized this year for their dedication to science for the benefit of humanity and their achievements in Earth and space science.
 
The recipients represent many areas of Earth and space science and come from a variety of backgrounds including early career researchers, climate scientists, data scientists, and journalists. Their passion, vision, creativity, and leadership have helped to expand scientific understanding, pave the way to new research directions, and have made Earth and space science accessible, relevant, and inspiring to audiences
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LANL: High-Impact Los Alamos Innovations Honored As R&D 100 Award Finalists

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Ten Los Alamos National Laboratory innovations are finalists for the 2018 R&D 100 Awards, including the Universal Bacterial Sensor developed by the team led by Harshini Mukundan. The sensor mimics biological recognition of bacterial pathogens to identify infections even before the patient’s symptoms are evident. Courtesy/LANL
 
Cristian Pantea and Dipen Sinha with the Acoustic Collimated Beam (ACCObeam). Courtesy/LANL
 
LANL News:
 
Ten Los Alamos National Laboratory innovations are finalists for the 2018 R&D 100 Awards, which honor the top 100 proven
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Getting The Next Generation Science Standards Into The Classroom

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LAHS Science teachers met during the summer to decide how to implement the NGSS. Courtesy/LAPSF

 

By MORRIE PONGRATZ
LAPSF

In the Rogers and Hammerstein musical, “Oklahoma”, the returning cowboy sang, “Everything’s up to date in Kansas City”. Similarly, the Los Alamos High School (LAHS) Science Department wanted to keep up to date with the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), so Department Chair Liz Bowden turned to the Los Alamos Public Schools (LAPS) Foundation for help.

The NGSS is a multi-state effort to create new education standards that are “rich in content and practice, Read More

SFI: ‘How Beauty Leads Physics Astray’ Talk Tonight

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The Cretish Labyrinth, 1558, Hieronymus Cock (ca. 1510-1570), etching on paper​. Courtesy photo
 
SFI News:
 
SFI Community Event: How Beauty Leads Physics Astray by Sabine Hossenfelder at 7:30 p.m., today, Aug. 28 at the Lensic Performing Arts Center, 211 W. San Francisco St. in Santa Fe.
 
To develop new laws of nature, physicists routinely rely on arguments from beauty. This method has worked badly and has resulted in 40 years of stagnation in the foundations of physics. Dozens of costly experiments were commissioned but failed to confirm any of the physicists’ beautiful
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NIST: Many Arctic Pollutants Decrease After Market Removal And Regulation

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Persistent Organic Pollutants, also known as POPs, can having lasting impacts on both people and wild animals in the Arctic. Research shows some POPs are decreasing in the region after being pulled from market or regulated around the globe. Courtesy/Arturo de Frias Marques (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Polar_Bear_AdF.jpg)
 
NIST News:
 
Levels of some persistent organic pollutants (POPs) regulated by the Stockholm Convention are decreasing in the Arctic, according to an international team of researchers who have been actively monitoring the northern regions
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