Science

Distinguished UC Riverside Faculty Weighs In On Firings Of 22-Person Board Overseeing National Science Foundation

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SCIENCE News: 

​Amidst the many attention-grabbing headlines of 2026, there is a recent one that may have flown under the radar but shouldn’t have. On April 24, the White House dismissed the entire 22-person board that oversees the National Science Foundation (NSF). The NSF is an independent federal agency that supports science and engineering in all 50 states and U.S. territories. 

To discuss the impact of the NSF more broadly, its significance for university research, and the likely consequences of this move, UC Riverside News turns to a distinguished faculty member who has extensive experience Read More

PEEC Nature Club Develops Autonomous AI ‘PumaGuard’ System

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PEEC Nature Club members who developed a 3-year ‘PumaGuard’ project combining wildlife biology, AI, and field engineering, from left, Gavin Bent, Seb Koglin, Phoebe Reid, Celia Pesiri, Adis Bock, Aditya Viswanathan, Suchi Jha, and Tate Plohr. Not pictured is Zoe Bent, who graduated in 2025. Courtesy/PEEC

By MARK MACINNIS
Los Alamos Daily Post

At a recent evening presentation at the Los Alamos Nature Center, a group of Los Alamos High School (LAHS) students in the Pajarito Environmental Education Center’s (PEEC) Nature Club unveiled something far beyond a typical high school science club Read More

AstroTour [AR] At Museum Of Indian Arts & Culture May 17

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STEMarts Lab News:

The community is invited to attend an interactive Star Party where art, astronomy, and cultural storytelling come together through augmented reality, 6-10 p.m. on Sunday, May 17, at the Museum of Indian Arts & Culture.

The STEMarts Lab AstroTour [AR] project is an innovative collaboration with the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture developed with students from the Santa Fe Indian School to transform the night sky into a living canvas.

Using generative code, astronomy, and cultural narratives, participants will explore constellations in new ways—bridging scientific Read More

Explora Unveils New Exhibition On The Science Of Kindness

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EXPLORA News:

ALBUQUERQUE — Explora Science Center and Children’s Museum of Albuquerque (Explora) is pleased to announce the opening of a new exhibition, The Science of Kindness in “Grandma’s Casita.”

The newly-unveiled exhibition takes visitors on an immersive journey through Grandma’s house. Grandma, a retired social scientist, world traveler, and proud New Mexican, gives guests in her home the chance to hear tales of kindness from around the world, participate in kindness experiments–like studying the ripple effects of kindness and exploring how facial features convey emotion–and Read More

New Mexico Consortium Celebrates 20 Years Of Collaborative Success

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New Mexico Consortium marked its 20th anniversary May 1 at Sandia Resort. Courtesy/NMC

NMC News:

The New Mexico Consortium (NMC) marked its 20th anniversary on Friday, May 1, with a celebratory evening at Sandia Resort, bringing together leaders in science, research, and the local community to honor two decades of collaboration and achievement.

The event, held from 5-9 p.m., was attended by all living NMC CEOs, all current members of the NMC Board of Directors, and many former Board members. Also in attendance were members of the upper administration from New Mexico Tech (NMT), New Mexico Read More

Los Alamos Historical Society May Lecture: Ralph L. Hollis

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Los Alamos Historical Society  News:

The Los Alamos Historical Society will host the final lecture of its season from 7-9 p.m. on Tuesday, May 12, in the Pajarito Room at Fuller Lodge.

The evening will feature guest speaker Ralph L. Hollis Jr., author of Countdown to Launch!: Rockets, Computers, and Coming of Age in the Cold War. Following the lecture, Hollis will sign copies of his book. Copies are currently available in the Museum Shop and will also be available for purchase at the event.

Hollis’s talk, “Countdown to Launch! A Cold War Story of Minuteman III,” explores the history and technology Read More

PEEC To Present ‘Artemis And The Moon: Exploring NASA’s Return To Lunar Exploration’ May 8 At Nature Center

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‘Artemis and the Moon’ presentation 7-8 p.m. May 8 at the Los Alamos Nature Center. Courtesy/PEEC

PEEC News:

The Pajarito Environmental Education Center (PEEC) invites the community to a special planetarium program, “Artemis and the Moon”, 7-8 p.m., Friday, May 8, at the Los Alamos Nature Center.

This engaging presentation will explore NASA’s Artemis missions, which aim to return humans to the Moon more than 50 years after the Apollo era.

The program will highlight what has changed in lunar science and space exploration over the past five decades—from new technologies and spacecraft to Read More

New Mexico’s Next Generation Radio-Astronomy: A New Era Of Discovery In A Crowded Sky 

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Figure 1. Twenty seven huge antennae are mounted on rails, and a network of remote radiotelescopes is woven together to probe the skies. Courtesy/NRAO

By Mark A. MacInnes
Los Alamos Daily Post

World-Class Radio-Astronomy

For more than four decades, the radiotelescope dishes of the New Mexico Very Large Array (VLA) have stood on the plains of San Agustin, as New Mexico’s most recognizable and world-class scientific landmark. At an evening town hall on April 15 at the Bradbury Science Museum, this was the introductory pitch, according to the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) Director Read More

An Open Book: I, Robot, Vacuum

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By DAVID IZRAELEVITZ
Los Alamos

While finishing graduate school in the 1980s, I knew a few people involved in robotic vision, or how to build robots that recognize objects to pick up or avoid. Instead of a humanoid robot, think of a single eyeball mounted near a disembodied arm to find and manipulate simple objects. If your robot could pick up a torus (i.e. a donut), and dunk it in a container (i.e., a coffee cup), you’d have a prize-winning doctoral thesis. It is not far from the truth to say that one could see a graduate student dunking a donut in a coffee cup while programming a robot to do the same. Kind Read More