Science

High School Students From Across Nation Travel To Albuquerque For 60th Annual National Junior Science And Humanities Symposium April 22

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JSHS News:

ALBUQUERQUE — The 60th annual National Junior Science and Humanities Symposium (JSHS), a Tri–Service program administered by the National Science Teaching Association (NSTA), is 8 a.m. (MDT) Friday, April 22.

This Symposium will bring together the country’s emerging young leaders in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).

Regional finalists from across the country will have the opportunity to present their original research to judges from the Departments of the U.S. Army, Navy, and Air Force and their peers.

JSHS encourages high school students to hone Read More

LANL: Input Sought For Shift To Carbon-Neutral Economy

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Sangeeta Negi of Los Alamos National Laboratory holds a flask of algae, which can be used to make fuel, plastics and other products. Bioenergy and bioproducts are one example of new technologies that can support a carbon-neutral economy. Courtesy/LANL

LANL News:

From wind farms to electric cars, the movement of global markets away from conventional fossil fuels to more sustainable energy sources is gaining momentum. To identify options for the Intermountain West, a new coalition is asking the public for input on regional perspectives as part of a plan for making the shift to a carbon-neutral Read More

LANL: Using X-Rays To Analyze New Mexico State Artifacts

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LANL News:

Coronado Historic Site in Bernalillo received a Community Technical Assistance grant from Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) to study two New Mexico state artifacts that were then provided to the laboratory to be analyzed.

X-ray analysis techniques were used to study the morphology, shape, composition and atomic information.

One of the artifacts was a copper quarrel (arrowhead) that provides more evidence of Coronado’s presence in the area.

LANL produced video interview with the two scientists can be viewed here. Read More

LANL News Roundup For Week Of April 11, 2022

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Spooky Action at a Distance? Not a Chance!:

Quantum mechanics has a way of taking your mind to places it just doesn’t want to go. Famously hard to understand and impossible to intuit, concepts such as quantum entanglement and superposition really make sense only when viewed through a mathematical lens. Plain language most often leads you down dead ends or false paths that end miles away from reality, with carelessly chosen words propagating misunderstandings at the speed of the internet. Read the full article in Real Clear Science. Courtesy/LANL

LANL News:

Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Read More

PEEC Gears Up For Earth Day With Family Friendly Planetarium Movie Night April 16

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This trash compactor named WALL-E, romances a sleek, high-tech android is the family friendly Oscar-winning CGI-animated film, 4:40-6 p.m. today in the planetarium at the Los Alamos Nature Center. Courtesy/PEEC

PEEC News:

Join the Pajarito Environmental Education Center (PEEC) for a screening of the Oscar-winning CGI-animated film, WALL-E, 4:40-6 p.m. today, April 16 in the planetarium at the Los Alamos Nature Center.

Set on a wasteland Earth circa 2800, where the last robot on the planet, a centuries-old trash compactor named WALL-E, romances a sleek, high-tech android.

Prior to the Read More

Rodents Of Unusual Size – NMMNHS Publishes Study On ‘Island Gigantism’ In Voles

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Example of a meadow vole. Photo by Phil Myers

NMMNHS News:

ALBUQUERQUE — Scientists with the New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science (NMMNHS) published new research this week in the scientific journal Oikos.

They found a pattern common to isolated systems where small organisms often get larger (gigantism) and large organisms typically get smaller (dwarfism), known as the Island Rule or Island Syndrome.  

“Research such as this at the NMMNHS furthers our understanding of the environment and provides opportunities for students to engage with the museum curators to gain significant Read More

James Kunetka Speaks On ‘Los Alamos: Robert Oppenheimer’s Greatest Legacy’ April 18

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James W. Kunetka

By BECKY SHANKLAND
J. Robert Oppenheimer Memorial Committee

James W. Kunetka, leading historian of Oppenheimer and the wartime creation of the Los Alamos Laboratory, will speak on “Los Alamos: Robert Oppenheimer’s Greatest Legacy” at the Duane Smith Auditorium 7 p.m. April 18, co-sponsored by the J. Robert Oppenheimer Memorial Committee and the Los Alamos Historical Society.

Kunetka’s talk is part of the Oppenheimer Committee’s celebration of its 50 years of honoring Oppenheimer’s influence on the city he founded.

Kunetka is a renowned writer about the development of Read More

LANL: 70 Years Of Electronic Computing

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Lois Cook (Leurgans) was a programmer, operator, and problem analyst. She is pictured here next to the MANIAC’s arithmetic unit in the 1950s. Courtesy/LANL

The MANIAC’s chassis under construction in 1950. Courtesy/LANL


By NICHOLAS LEWIS
Historian
National Security Research Center

Seventy years ago this spring, the first fully electronic computer at what is today Los Alamos National Laboratory came online. Called the MANIAC, it was constructed when electronic computing and its associated industry were still in their infancy.

Early computer centers like Los Alamos had to build their Read More

LANL: Curiosity Rover ChemCam Engineering Team Awarded Explorers Club Citation Of Merit

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The ChemCam Engineering Team at Los Alamos National Laboratory, from left, Cindy Little, Margie Root, Tony Nelson, Nina Lanza, Amanda Sheridan and Roberta Beal. Courtesy/LANL

LANL News:

The Curiosity Rover ChemCam Engineering Team was awarded the Citation of Merit by the Explorers Club, a society that promotes exploration and scientific field study. The team was nominated for their hard work to recover the use of the ChemCam laser on Mars after the high-voltage power supply started behaving off-nominally in 2021.

The ChemCam Engineering Team members from Los Alamos are Roberta Beal, Nina Read More

‘The Periodic Table’ Resumes At Bathtub Row Brewing With Organic Chemist Amanda Evans Monday April 18

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Organic Chemist Amanda Evans

LANL News:

Amanda Evans, a synthetic and physical organic chemist by training, utilizes both batch and continuous flow chemistry approaches for making molecules.

Evans will continue “The Periodic Table” gathering 5:30-7 p.m. Monday, April 18 at the Bathtub Row Brewing Co-Op at 163 Central Park Square.

She will discuss establishing more innovative, scalable and sustainable enabling methodologies for creating chiral molecules and making molecules on demand.

The Periodic Table is a free science-outreach event organized by the Bradbury Science Museum. Read More