National Laboratory

SFI Seminar: Noise-Induced Phenomena in One-Dimensional Maps

SFI News:

The next SFI Seminar is set for 12:15 p.m., Friday, Sept. 6, in the Collins Conference Room at the Santa Fe Institute, 1399 Hyde Park Road.

Yuzuru Sato of Hokkaido University, Japan will present the seminar: Noise-Induced Phenomena in One-Dimensional Maps.

Abstract: Noise-induced phenomena arise out of interaction between deterministic dynamics and stochastic noise. Stochastic resonance, noise-induced synchronization, and noise-induced chaos are typical examples in statistical and nonlinear physics. The central problem in this research area is in which way the asymptotic Read More

LANL’s Hazardous Waste Facility Permit Community Relations Plan Available Year-Round for Comments

LANL News:

Los Alamos National Laboratory revises its Hazardous Waste Community Relations Plan annually in compliance with its Hazardous Waste Facility Permit (EPA ID No. NM0890010515.) 

The website is available year round and LANL revises the plan in August to include necessary changes and comments it has received during the year. LANL welcomes public comments, which can be provided online via the Plan Comments Form

The updated  Hazardous Waste Facility Permit Community Relations Plan and responses to comments will be posted Sept. 1. 

The attached Read More

B61-12 Life Extension Program Radar Drop Tests Completed Successfully

Pantex production technicians prepare a B61 for a surveillance test. The B61 is a tactical thermonuclear gravity bomb. Courtesy/NNSA

NNSA News:

WASHINGTON, D.C. – As part of the ongoing effort to refurbish the aging B61 nuclear bomb without resorting to underground nuclear testing, two successful B61-12 radar drop tests were successfully completed at the Tonopah Test Range in Nevada on Aug. 14 and 15, 2013, by engineers from Sandia National Laboratories.

Current B61s use decades-old vacuum tubes as part of their radar system. The new radar system, which had not been tested outside of a laboratory Read More

Magnetic Charge Crystals Imaged in Artificial Spin Ice

A 3-D depiction of the honeycomb artificial spin ice topography after the annealing and cooling protocols. The light and dark colors represent the north and south magnetic poles of the islands. Image by Ian Gilbert, University of Illinois Department of Physics and Frederick Seitz Materials Research Laboratory

LANL News:

A team of scientists has reported direct visualization of magnetic charge crystallization in an artificial spin ice material, a first in the study of a relatively new class of frustrated artificial magnetic materials-by-design known as “Artificial Spin Ice.”

These charges Read More

New Season of Teen Café Scientifique NM Launches Sept. 5!

Students learn about robotics from LANL post doc Steve Anton during a Café last year. Courtesy photo 
 
Courtesy photo 
 
TCSNM News:
 
Teen Café Scientifique New Mexico is launching its first program of the season at 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 5 at the Los Alamos Research Park, 4200 West Jemez Road. The program is free and open to all teens.
 
Dr. Steven Brumby of Los Alamos National Laboratory, who studies neuroscience models for computer vision and develops computer codes to simulate vision, will present “Can You See Me Now? Teaching Computers to See.”
Read More

NIST Ytterbium Atomic Clocks Set Record for Stability

NIST’s ultra-stable ytterbium lattice atomic clock. Ytterbium atoms are generated in an oven (large metal cylinder on the left) and sent to a vacuum chamber in the center of the photo to be manipulated and probed by lasers. Laser light is transported to the clock by five fibers (such as the yellow fiber in the lower center of the photo). Photo by Burrus/NIST

NIST News:

A pair of experimental atomic clocks based on ytterbium atoms at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has set a new record for stability.

The clocks act like 21st-century pendulums or metronomes that could Read More

LANL: Reliability Technology Earns Prestigious Los Alamos Award

Terry Wallace, right, Los Alamos National Laboratory Principal Associate Director for Global Security, congratulates Harold Martz, second from right, and Michael Hamada, second from left, for winning the Laboratory’s first-ever Richard Feynman Prize for Innovation Achievement while David Pesiri, left, director of Los Alamos’ Technology Transfer Division looks on. Martz, Hamada and a team of Los Alamos researchers developed Reliability Technology, a system that has been used by Procter & Gamble to save billions of dollars each year through increased industrial Read More

Robotics Night @ the Museum Dazzles Crowd

Los Alamos Police Sgt. Oliver Morris describes the capabilities of the hazardous duty robot used to investigate unpredictable and dangerous environments. Photo by Carol A. Clark/ladailypost.com

LANL’s Hazardous Devices Team joined members of the Los Alamos Bomb Squad in robot demonstrations Friday night at the Bradbury Science Museum. Photo by Carol A. Clark/ladailypost.com

BRADBURY News:

Robots from LANL’s Hazardous Devices Team and the Los Alamos Bomb Squad demonstrated impressive skills such as frisbee throwing during Friday’s Robotics Night @ the Museum. Read More

NNSA, China Sign Agreement to Prevent Nuclear Smuggling

NNSA News:

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) recently signed an agreement with the People’s Republic of China’s General Administration of China Customs (GACC) to renew cooperative efforts to deter, detect and interdict the illicit smuggling of special nuclear and other radiological materials.

The agreement was signed by Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz and China’s Minister of the GACC, YU Guangzhou, during the annual U.S.–China Strategic and Economic Dialogue in Washington.

“China plays a key role securing both regional and international maritime Read More

New Gamma-Ray Observatory Begins Operations at Sierra Negra Volcano in Mexico

The HAWC Observatory taken in August 2013 from the summit of Sierra Negra. The image has been digitally altered to show HAWC as it will appear when construction is complete in 2014. The 111 Cherenkov detectors currently installed (100 Cherenkov detectors in operation) are colored white and located in the upper right quadrant of the array. Courtesy/LANL

LANL News:

  • New site to observe supernovas and supermassive black holes

The High-Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) Gamma Ray Observatory has begun formal operations at its site in Mexico. HAWC is designed to study the origin of very high-energy Read More