Science

LANL: High-impact Innovations Honored As R&D 100 Award Finalists

August 29, 2017 by Submitted by Carol A. Clark

Carl Gable, left, and Hari Viswanathan discuss R&D 100 finalist selection Discrete Fracture Network Modeling Suite (dfnWorks): Transforming simulations of flow and transport through fractured rock. Courtesy/LANL

LANL News:

Los Alamos National Laboratory snags eight nominations for health, computer modeling, materials, engineering and energy technologies

Eight Los Alamos National Laboratory innovations were selected as finalists for the 2017 R&D 100 Awards, which honor the top 100 proven technological advances of the past year as determined by a panel selected by R&D Read More

Scenes From Robotics Night At Bradbury Museum

August 26, 2017 by Submitted by Carol A. Clark

Bradbury Science Museum was buzzing inside and out Friday during Robotics Night. The museum log book shows 795 people signed in for the popular event at which regional school robotics teams, and others, demonstrate their robots to the public. The free event is brought to the community by the Bradbury Science Museum Association (BSMA) and generously supported by New Mexico Bank & Trust. Visitors had an opportunity to see the robots used by organizations such as Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos County Police Department and the University of New Mexico-Los Alamos. Photo by Maire Read More

EPFL: Urban Butterflies Under Threat Of Extinction

August 26, 2017 by Submitted by Carol A. Clark

Small white butterfly (Pieris rapae). Photo/©Magali Deschamps-Cottin

By SANDRINE PERROUD

EPFL

According to an École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) study, butterflies living in urban areas face the threat of consanguinity and potential extinction. The research drew on the fields of genetics and urban development to quantify the trend across an entire city.

“Our research illustrates what is probably a widespread phenomenon: a drastic reduction in biodiversity in urban areas. We were able to quantify this trend and show that it’s a problem that needs to be taken seriously,” Read More

DNA Detectives Crack Case On Biothreat Look-alikes

August 24, 2017 by Submitted by Carol A. Clark

Principal investigator Jean Challacombe, left, assisted by Cheryl Gleasner who runs the sequencing machines, and who participated in the sequencing of most, if not all, of the Francisella genomes sequenced at Los Alamos. The device shown is an Illumina NextSeq 500, used in high-throughput sequencing in the laboratory. Courtesy/LANL

LANL News:

Distinguishing virulent from harmless bacteria could aid biological surveillance

Scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory are improving the identification of the bacterium that causes tularemia (“rabbit fever”) and considered a “Category Read More

AGU: Elevated Zinc And Germanium Levels Bolster Evidence For Life On Mars

August 24, 2017 by Submitted by Carol A. Clark

This view from the Mast Camera (Mastcam) on NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover shows a site with a network of prominent mineral veins below a cap rock ridge on lower Mount Sharp. The APXS instrument on Curiosity discovered unusual material in these veins that has the highest germanium concentrations found in Gale Crater. Courtesy/NASA

AGU News:

New data gathered by the Mars Curiosity rover indicates a potential history of hydrothermal activity on the red planet, broadening the variety of habitable conditions once present there, scientists report in a new study.

Northern Receives $433,000 National Science Foundation Grant To Develop Cybersecurity Program

August 23, 2017 by Submitted by Carol A. Clark

NNMC News:

The College of Engineering and Technology (CET) at Northern New Mexico College (NNMC) has been awarded $433,689 by the National Science Foundation to develop a cybersecurity concentration in its ABET-accredited Bachelor in Information Engineering Technology (IET).

The Principal Investigator of the project is Dr. Jorge Crichigno, chair of the CET. The project is the result of several years of preparation that include state-of-the-art laboratory technology and advanced instruction capability in cybersecurity.

Dr. Crichigno’s collaborators

World’s Tech Leaders Call On UN To Ban Killer Robots

August 23, 2017 by Submitted by Carol A. Clark

Courtesy/Element Al

HSNW News:

An open letter by 116 leaders of robotics and artificial intelligence companies from 26 countries urges the United Nations against opening the “Pandora’s box” of lethal robot weapons.

A key organizer of the letter, Toby Walsh, Scientia Professor of Artificial Intelligence at UNSW, released it at the opening of the International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI 2017) in Melbourne, the world’s pre-eminent gathering of top experts in artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics. Walsh is a member of the IJCAI 2017’s conference committee. Read More

Los Alamos Folks Travel Far Afield For Solar Eclipse

August 22, 2017 by Submitted by Carol A. Clark

Los Alamos residence gather for a total eclipse party in Sun Valley, Ida., from left, Larry Maassen, Bill Heinz, Chris Ortega, Bill McArthur, Stan Heinz, Jennifer McArthur, JoAnn Heinz and Helen Ortega. Photo by Mary Beth Maassen

James Gourdoux of Los Alamos traveled to Oregon to view the solar Monday witnessed and experienced the eclipse in the ‘totality’ zone in Madras. Photo by James Gourdoux

In Madras, Ore., Monday when wildfire smoke from 30 miles away blew in, the partially eclipsed sun took on a reddish glow. Photo by James Gourdoux Read More