World

RSF Condemns Dissident Journalist’s Arrest In Vietnam

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Pham Chi Dung is a well-known dissident journalist and one of the founders of the Independent Journalists Association of Vietnam. Courtesy/Dat Viet / IJAVN
RSF News:
 
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) condemns Thursday’s arrest of Pham Chi Dung, an outspoken Vietnamese journalist and leading press freedom defender who for years has been trying to help create an open and informed civil society in Vietnam that is not controlled by its Communist Party.
 
Included on RSF’s list of “information heroes” five years ago, Dung was arrested at his Ho Chi Minh City home by police, who
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AGU: Size Of Thunderstorm Dome Clouds May Predict Tornado Intensity

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Twin violent (EF4) tornadoes outside of Wisner, Nebr. June 16, 2014. Courtesy/NOAA/Ethan Schisler
 
Tornadoes typically form beneath a thunderstorm’s updraft and overshooting top. Courtesy/NOAA
 
AGU News:
 
The size of a bulge at the top of a thunderstorm’s anvil-shaped cloud may allow researchers to forecast the strength of tornadoes that spawn from such storms, according to a new study in AGU’s journal Geophysical Research Letters.
 
Tornadoes, particularly those with strong winds, pose a serious threat to the property and lives of people in their path. Yet scientists
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PEEC: Explore Cepheid Pulsating Variable Stars Tonight

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Join Joyce Guzik at 7 p.m. today in the Nature Center’s planetarium to explore the latest updates on Cepheid variable stars. PEEC also will show the full-dome film ‘Out There’ at 2 p.m., Saturday. Courtesy/PEEC
 
PEEC will show the full-dome film ‘Out There’ at 2 p.m., Saturday in the Nature Center’s planetarium. Courtesy/PEEC
 
PEEC News:
 
The community is invited to the Los Alamos Nature Center at 7 p.m., Friday, Nov. 22 to explore the latest discoveries related to Cepheid variable stars — the yardsticks of the universe.
 
At this talk, Joyce
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NIST: Fly Me (Partway) To The Moon

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NASA’s ER-2 taking off with air-LUSI moonlight collection equipment on board. Photo/Ken Ulbrich/NASA
 
NIST News:
 
Last week, scientists from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the United States Geological Survey (USGS) and the University of Guelph sent a telescope to the top of the sky, almost to space itself.
 
The trip was a moonlight-gathering mission that has yielded some of the best measurements ever taken of the brightness, or more specifically the surface reflectance, of Earth’s
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Native American Scientist Floy Agnes Lee Made History In Los Alamos And Beyond

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Floy Agnes Lee. Courtesy/AHF

 
By Heather McClenahan
Los Alamos Historical Society

Floy Agnes Lee, a Native American who worked on the Manhattan Project and whose career provided insights into cancer research and radiation biology, is an unsung hero of science.

We share her story in celebration of Native American Heritage month in hopes that her contributions will become more well known.

Lee’s father was from Santa Clara Pueblo and her mother descended from German-Americans in Indiana. She grew up in Albuquerque, where her parents taught at the Indian School. Lee had just finished a Read More

Los Alamos National Laboratory Commits To Advancing Gender Equality In Nuclear Policy

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LANL Director Thom Mason

LANL News:

Los Alamos National Laboratory is the first national lab to join Gender Champions in Nuclear Policy, a leadership network that brings together heads of organizations working in nuclear policy who are committed to breaking down gender barriers and making gender equality a reality in their spheres of influence.

“Nuclear policy, like many technological fields, has long been a male-dominated space,” LANL Director Thom Mason said. “As a result, women in the field have too often been marginalized. In joining Gender Champions in Nuclear Policy, the Laboratory Read More

NIST’s Light-Sensing Camera May Help Detect Extraterrestrial Life, Dark Matter

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Micrograph of NIST’s high-resolution camera made of 1,024 sensors that count single photons, or particles of light. The camera was designed for future space-based telescopes searching for chemical signs of life on other planets. The 32-by-32 sensor array is surrounded by pink and gold wires connecting to electronics that compile the data. Courtesy/V. Verma/NIST
 
NIST News:
 
Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have made one of the highest-performance cameras ever composed of sensors that count single photons, or particles of light.
 
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AGU: Earth’s Magnetic Song Recorded For First Time During Solar Storm

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In this image, Earth is the dot to the left of the image and the large arc around it is our planet’s magnetic bow shock. The swirling pattern to the right is the foreshock region where the solar wind breaks into waves as it encounters reflected particles from the bow shock. The image was created using the Vlasiator model, a computer simulation developed at the University of Helsinki to study Earth’s magnetic interaction with the solar wind. Courtesy/Vlasiator team, University of Helsinki
 
AGU News:
 
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Data from ESA’s Cluster mission has provided a recording of the
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Udall Amendment In NASA Bill Combats Space Junk

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U.S. Sen. Tom Udall
 
U.S. SENATE News:
 
WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.), a member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, has announced the passage of two Udall-authored amendments and two additional Udall-cosponsored amendments to the NASA Reauthorization Act of 2019.
 
The Committee accepted all four amendments on a unanimous voice vote and voted to advance the NASA reauthorization bill to the Senate floor.
 
“Outer space is both a strategic national security priority and an economic engine for communities in New Mexico
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Explore Climbing Adventures In Patagonia Nov. 19

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Josh Smith and Aaron Miller discuss climbing trip in Patagonia at Mountaineers meeting Tuesday at the Los Alamos Nature Center. Courtesy/PEEC
 
PEEC News:
 
Hear about Josh Smith and Aaron Miller’s adventures rock climbing in Patagonia at the November Los Alamos Mountaineers meeting Tuesday, Nov. 19 at the Los Alamos Nature Center.
 
The presentation starts at about 7:15 p.m., the meeting starts at 7 p.m. and covers information about upcoming outings.
 
This talk is free to attend and open to the public.
 
In January 2019, Smith and Miller packed their bags for Patagonia
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