Science

Promising New Wildfire Behavior Model May Aid Fire Managers In Near Real Time

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NASA Global Fire Map. Courtesy/NASA

HSNW News:

Wildfires continue to scar California beyond the normal fire season in what’s been a particularly catastrophic year for natural disasters across the U.S. But a new big-data solution for predicting wildfire spread is also heating up, and it may become a useful tool in the firefighters’ arsenal, according to wildfire researchers attending the 2017 American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting.

The more readily available updates of wildfire behavior are, the more informed the decisions of fire managers, according to the researchers. Fire Read More

AGU: Scientists Engineer Microbes To Form ‘Memories’ Of Their Environment

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Inserting chemically sensitive genes into the DNA of bacteria can produce lasting ‘memories’ of their environment and show scientists how they communicate. Courtesy/Pixabay
 
AGU News:
By JEREMY REHM
 
Microbes like bacteria aren’t conscious enough to form memories, but a group of scientists in Texas developed a new way for them to do so at the genetic level.
 
Researchers report they’ve successfully engineered microbes to report on their environments and form genetic “memories” of the event. It’s a tool that could help scientists better understand chemical cycling on
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AGU: Algae Growth Reduces Reflectivity, Enhances Greenland Ice Sheet Melting

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AGU News:
 
WASHINGTON, D.C. — New research shows algae growing on the Greenland ice sheet, the Earth’s second-largest ice sheet, significantly reduce the surface reflectivity of the ice sheet’s bare ice area and contribute more to its melting than dust or black carbon.
 
The new findings could influence scientists’ understanding of ice sheet melting and projections of future sea level rise, according to the study’s authors.
 
Glaciologists have long known materials such as mineral dust and black carbon can darken the surface of large ice sheets. Scientists study these impurities
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Texas A&M Representatives Meet With Local Leaders On LANL Managing And Operating Contract

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Texas A&M representatives meet with Los Alamos community leaders and Regional Coalition of LANL Communities staff Friday morning at La Cocina Restaurant in Espanola. Photo by Maire O’Neill/ladailypost.com

Los Alamos County Council Chair David Izraelevitz, left, chats with Assistant Vice Chancellor Scott Sudduth of Texas A&M University’s Office of Federal Relations and Senior Advisor Diane Hurtado for Strategic Initiatives at the Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station Friday in Espanola. Photo by Maire O’Neill/ladailypost.com

 

By MAIRE
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Manhattan Project Unsung Hero: Mathematician Ulam

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Mathematician Stanislaw Ulam is featured in a display in the Hans Bethe House, part of the Los Alamos History Museum. Courtesy photo

Ulam used this slide rule–before calculators were invented–to solve many mathematical problems. Courtesy photo

 
By HEATHER MCCLENAHAN
Los Alamos Historical Society
  • A mathematician does something on a piece of paper & then lo & behold a big explosion may occur. —Stanislaw Ulam, 1967, written in his desk drawer.
 
Stan Ulam may be one of the least known of the leading Manhattan Project scientists. A Polish-born
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Four Scientists Win Los Alamos Medal

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The Los Alamos Medal was established in 2001 to honor those who have contributed to the Laboratory at the highest level. Courtesy/LANL

LANL News:

  • Cram, Deaven, Menlove and Moyzis receive Laboratory’s highest honor

Los Alamos National Laboratory will award four former researchers with the Los Alamos Medal for their scientific contributions. Scott Cram, Larry Deaven, Robert Moyzis and Howard Menlove will receive the award, the highest honor bestowed by the Laboratory.

The team of Cram, Deaven, and Moyzis are recognized for their work sequencing the human genome and Menlove for his work on Read More

AGU: New Simulations Suggest Meteors Explode From The Inside

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AGU News:
 
NEW ORLEANS, LA — Researchers have identified an explosive new mechanism that breaks down meteors as they hurtle toward Earth.
 
New simulations of falling meteors suggest air particles penetrate the space rocks’ porous interiors as they careen through the atmosphere. These air particles create pockets of high pressure that ultimately lead the rock to explode from the inside, tens of kilometers above the Earth.
 
By uncovering this new way in which Earth’s atmosphere breaks up meteors, the new finding suggests the atmosphere may provide better protection against
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New Mexico History Museum And Santa Fe Opera Presentations Recognize State’s ‘Atomic Histories’

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Test of Atomic Bomb at Trinity Site, New Mexico, July 16, 1945, near Alamogordo, NM. Palace of the Governors Photo Archives. Courtesy/National Park Service
 
General Leslie Groves walks across the Trinity Site in September 1945, 45 days after the first nuclear bomb was tested there. Courtesy/Historical AP News Features Photo
 
NMHM News:
 
SANTA FE ― The New Mexico History Museum and the Santa Fe Opera will each feature presentations exploring New Mexico’s Atomic Histories during 2018 and 2019.
 
The History Museum’s Atomic Histories exhibition
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National Institute Of Justice Examines Use Of 3D Printers In Crime-Solving

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DOJ News:
 
WASHINGTON, D.C. ― The Office of Justice Programs National Institute of Justice has published an article online that provides an overview of how 3D printing technology is being used by criminal justice practitioners in firearm identification.
 
The NIJ-funded research determines best practices and provides credibility for use of the technology in a forensic science capacity:
 
The Next Generation of Crime Tools and Challenges: 3D Printing
  • Researchers who developed a 3-D imaging system for analyzing cartridge casings say their latest work is
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LAMS Hawks Sweep Robotics Tournament

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Alpha Hawks are generally on the left and top row and the Beta Hawks are on the right middle and bottom in similar T-shirt styles and Logos. Photograph by Heath Watkins
 
By ANN COOKE
Los Alamos
 
Los Alamos Middle School’s two robotics teams travelled to Phoenix over the weekend to compete in Glendale’s FIRST Technical Challenge (FTC) Qualifying Tournament.
 
The Alpha Hawks, a team comprised of mostly eight graders, and the Beta Hawks, a team comprised of seventh graders, competed in a field of over twenty robotics teams, and were two of only three middle school teams
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