Science

LANL: El Niño–Linked Decreases In Soil Moisture Could Trigger Massive Tropical-Plant Die Offs

Figure 6: In the Los Alamos National Laboratory team’s analysis of soil moisture changes during ‘Super El Niño’ events in 1982-83, 1997-98 and 2015-16, cell colors indicate the magnitude of change shown in the corresponding histograms. More consistent strong decreases relative to normal for these seasons are typical for red cells and more consistent strong increases relative to normal for these seasons are typical for green cells. The top map shows October to December and the bottom map shows January to March. Courtesy/LANL

 

LANL News:

  • New insights could help farmers, water managers
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2020 Supercomputing Challenge Award Winners Announced

LAHS student Charles Strauss wins Judges’ Special Award

EDUCATION News:

Three of the 9 finalists in the 2020 Supercomputing Challenge held virtually April 28 were from Los Alamos High school.

Twenty New Mexico schools participated including two from Los Alamos, 36 teams competed including five from Los Alamos, 27 awards were presented, and nine scholarships were awarded.

The Los Alamos finalists include:

Team 1005, Los Alamos High School Project Title: Comparing Sparse and Dense Neural Networks: Using AI to Detect Cancer – Team Member: Charles Strauss who won a Judges’ Special Award for

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NIST Helps Expand Genome Sequencing Of Marine Mammals

The bearded seal genome has been sequenced by the scientific consortium known as the DNA Zoo, thanks to a tissue sample supplied by NIST’s Biorepository in Charleston, SC. Courtesy/Allan Hopkins, Creative Commons

NIST News:

Researchers will soon have access to the full genomic sequences for 23 marine mammal species preserved by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), thanks to an ongoing collaboration between NIST and a scientific consortium called the DNA Zoo.

The specimens come from a longstanding project known as the National Marine Mammal Tissue Bank (NMMTB) Read More

Living In A Complex System: The Basics

By DON NEEPER
Formerly of Los Alamos

In our society, each new law or regulation is intended to fix a previous problem. Sure enough, it seems each new written legal rule generates at least one new problem. Why is that?

The new problem often occurs because most legal solutions address symptoms rather than the underlying social rules that generate the problem. President  Johnson’s war on poverty did not end poverty, but urban renewal moved some poor people out of their own neighborhoods into more crowded areas. Federal flood insurance encouraged the construction of more flood-prone houses after Read More

Los Alamos National Laboratory: Battling COVID-19 With Expertise, Technology And Materials

 

National Security Sciences Building at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Courtesy/LANL

LANL News:

  • A multidisciplinary effort

Los Alamos National Laboratory, like many of the Department of Energy national laboratories, is drawing on its rich history in the biological sciences to actively engage in the national effort to study, understand, and answer important questions about the COVID-19 outbreak.

Areas covered include disease detection and diagnostics, epidemic modeling, disease prediction and forecasting, decision support, data collection and integration, and medical Read More

AGU: New Study Predicts Doubling Of United States Population Exposed To Extreme Climate Events By 2050

The map displays projected changes in human exposure to extreme climate events at a 1-kilometer (0.6-mile) scale from 2010 to 2050, which range from minor decreases in rural and suburban areas to moderate and major increases in densely populated urban centers. Courtesy/Adam Malin/ORNL, DOE

AGU News:

WASHINGTON, D.C. — By 2050, the United States will likely be exposed to a larger number of extreme climate events, including longer droughts, more intense floods, and more frequent waves of extremely hot days and warm nights, which can lead to greater risks for human health, ecosystem stability Read More

How NIST Digitally Preserved JFK Assassination Bullets

The bullet that struck both President John F. Kennedy and Texas Gov. John Connally, carefully preserved inside its glass vial prior to scanning. Known as the ‘stretcher bullet’, it was found on Gov. Connally’s stretcher after he was taken to the hospital. Photo by J. Stoughton/NIST

By ROBERT M. THOMPSON
Senior Forensic Science Research Manager
NIST

They were long, round-nosed rifle bullets. Their copper metal jackets had the dull color of a worn penny, giving testimony to their age. The gun-barrel rifling impressions on their sides were typical of a bullet fired from a military weapon: four Read More

Annual Chemistry Olympiad Competition Moves Online

Los Alamos High School AP and Honors Chemistry student Karin Ebey is among more than 700 students nationwide to take the national qualifying exam for the annual Chemistry Olympiad Competition. Courtesy photo

Los Alamos High School AP and Honors Chemistry student Anthony Lestone received the highest score for the Central New Mexico ACS. Courtesy photo
By MICHELA OMBELLI
AP and Honors Chemistry Teacher
Los Alamos High School

Although schools in the country are not in session because of the Covid-19 pandemic, the American Chemical Society (ACS) U.S. National Chemistry Olympiad committee

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LANL And Texas A&M University System NLO Partner To Make Large Data Sets Easier To Handle

The LANL and NLO collaboration focuses on exploiting potential upcoming key-value flash devices to enable much more rapid analysis and insights of large data sets. Courtesy/LANL

LANL News:

The Texas A&M University System National Laboratories Office (NLO) and Los Alamos National Laboratory have formed a collaborative research effort to make extremely large data sets indexable and more easily searchable.

“We are excited to be partnering with our colleagues at Texas A&M on this important and potentially game changing research. This collaboration leverages extreme strengths Read More

Homeland Security News Wire: COVID-19 Weekly Roundup

HSNW News:

These four major developments on the coronavirus front in the past week caught our eye:

Difficult reopening. More and more countries are moving to reopen their economies, schools, and other parts of society, and each offers a different mix of measures aiming to balance economic recovery, societal (new) normalcy, and health security, with an eye to avoiding a second wave of infections in the fall.. They all share one thing: Their citizens are becoming restless.

Clinical success. The FDA om Friday allowed emergency use of remdesivir, the first drug that appears to help some COVID-19

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