National Laboratory

Energy Community Alliance Members Tour B Reactor

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The local contingent of community, business and civic leaders visiting Richland, Wash., this week as part of the Energy Alliance Committee conferance discussing the possible inclusion of Los Alamos, Oak Ridge and Hanford as a unit in the national park system had an opportunity to tour the B Reactor at Hanford today. Photo by Kevin Holsapple

The B Reactor is one of the most historic buildings at Hanford. It was given the code name, “105-B” during World War II. The B Reactor was the world’s first, full-scale nuclear reactor and produced the plutonium used in the “Fat Man” bomb dropped Read More

LAMS Student Wins Second Place in Supercomputing Challenge

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LANL News:

Los Alamos Middle School student Cole Kendrick took second place for his project, “Computer Simulation of Dark Matter Effects on Galaxy Collisions.”

Kendrick received a check for $500. He also received the $100 Crowd Favorite Award chosen by teachers and students and the Best Presentation Award.

Kendrick took the top prize in last year’s Supercomputing Challenge for his computer program to model the rotation of a galaxy including dark matter.

Jordan Medlock of Albuquerque’s Manzano High School took the top prize in the 22nd New Mexico Supercomputing Challenge for his computer Read More

DOE IG Again Calls for DOE Closures and Reprioritization of Cleanup Projects

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DOE News:

Testifying before the House Energy and Commerce Oversight and Investigation Subcommittee at a hearing on “Budget and Spending Concerns at DOE” last Thursday, April 18, DOE Inspector General Gregory H. Friedman reiterated his office’s recommendation that DOE consider:

  • (1) Closing national laboratories
  • (2) Reprioritizing environmental remediation efforts, and
  • (3) Reincorporating NNSA into DOE.

Friedman said DOE may not be able to sustain its complex of 16 Federally Funded Research and Development Centers (FFRDC) and should therefore convene a blue ribbon Read More

Mesa Public Library to Host Display of Historic J. Robert Oppenheimer Photographs

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MESA PUBLIC LIBRARY News:

J. Robert Oppenheimer. Courtesy Photo

A New Mexico Centennial Exhibit

The J. Robert Oppenheimer Memorial Committee (JROMC) will present an exhibit of historic photos entitled “J. Robert Oppenheimer: Photographs From His Life: 1904–1967” at the Mesa Public Library Gallery, 2400 Central Ave. from May 2 to May 30.

The photos and their captions show the full range of Oppenheimer’s life, from early childhood, through his youth, his professional life at Cal Tech, Los Alamos, University of California at Berkeley, and the Institute for Advanced Study which he directed Read More

Renowned Scientist George Cowan Has Died

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By Carol A. Clark

Internationally renowned scientist George A. Cowan has died. 

Cowan was a scientist, philanthropist and businessman who conducted early research for the Manhattan Project and went on to found Los Alamos National Bank and the Santa Fe Institute.

Los Alamos National Laboratory issued the following statement today on the death of the Laboratory’s Senior Fellow.

“Dr. Cowan was a central figure at the Laboratory for 39 years. As a Senior Fellow and Los Alamos National Laboratory Medal Winner, he set an example of service to the nation that we strive to follow today. Read More

Cancer Therapy Gets a Boost from New Isotope

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Los Alamos scientist Meiring Nortier holds a thorium foil test target for the proof-of-concept production experiments. Research indicates that it will be possible to match current annual, worldwide production of Ac-225 in just two to five days of operations using the accelerator at Los Alamos and analogous facilities at Brookhaven. Photo by Robb Kramer/LANL

A new medical isotope project at Los Alamos National Laboratory shows promise for rapidly producing major quantities of a new cancer-treatment agent, actinium 225 (Ac-225).

Using proton beams, Los Alamos and its partner Brookhaven Read More

New Scalable Green Protocols for Processing Carbon Nanotubes

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NIST News:

Summary: The overall aim of this project is to develop and validate general methods and protocols for purification, size-separation and dispersion of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) that will enable aqueous ‘biological’ applications. New NMR metrologies are also being developed and applied to characterize and compare the physio-chemical properties of various length/diameter sized separated CNTs in aqueous dispersions.

Description: Since the discovery of the C60 “buckyball” by the 1996 Nobel Prize laureates Robert F. Curl, Harold W. Kroto, and Richard

Read More

Students descend on Los Alamos National Laboratory April 23-24 for Supercomputing Challenge Expo and Awards Ceremony

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LANL News:

Research by student teams to be showcased during this month’s New Mexico Supercomputing Challenge. Courtesy/LANL

More than 200 New Mexico students and their teachers will convene at Los Alamos National Laboratory April 23 and 24 for judging and the awards ceremony in the 22nd annual New Mexico Supercomputing Challenge.

More than 60 teams of students from elementary, middle, and high school are participating in the event, said David Kratzer of the Laboratory’s High Performance Computer Systems group and LANL’s coordinator of the Supercomputing Challenge.

While at LANL, Read More

Ron Barber to Speak at Phi Beta Kappa Banquet Honoring Local High School Scholars

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By Joyce Ann Guzik

On Sunday evening, April 29, the Los Alamos Phi Beta Kappa Association will hold its 56th annual banquet to honor the top graduates of Los Alamos High School.

Phi Beta Kappa is the oldest undergraduate honors society in the United States and has about 275 members in Los Alamos County (1.5 percent of the county’s population.) 

The banquet for the honor graduates, Phi Beta Kappa Members and their guests, will be held at 5:30 p.m. at Fuller Lodge in Los Alamos starting and will be catered by Decadent Table.

The 43 students of the Class of 2012 who will be honored this year are: Peter Read More

SFI Colloquium: “On the Evolutionary Origins of the Egalitarian Syndrome”

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Sergey Gavrilets. Courtesy/SFI

Sergey Gavrilets will present his talk “On the Evolutionary Origins of the Egalitarian Syndrome” at 3:30 p.m. Monday April 23 in the Noyce Conference Room at the Santa Fe Institue.

Gavrilets works at the Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, Department of Mathematics, National Institute For Mathematical and Biological Systems, University of Tennessee.

Abstract: Humans exhibit strong egalitarian syndrome, i.e. the complex of cognitive perspectives, ethical principles, social norms, and individual and collective attitudes promoting Read More