Science

U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón’s New Poem To Fly Into Space Aboard NASA’s Europa Clipper Set To Launch In October 2024

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U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón

LIBRARY CONGRESS News:

U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón is revealing a new poem that will fly into space aboard NASA’s Europa Clipper mission on a year’s long journey to explore Jupiter’s icy moon Europa.

The poem, first shared publicly during a special reading at the Library of Congress, will be engraved on the spacecraft set to launch in October 2024.

Now members of the public are invited to add their names to fly with the poem — like a message in a bottle from Earth — traveling billions of miles as the mission investigates whether the ocean thought to lie beneath Europa’s Read More

Rock Out And Beat The Heat With Two New Mexico Museum Of Natural History & Science Special Summer Programs

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NMDCA News:

ALBUQUERQUE – For this summer season, the New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science (NMMNHS) has announced that a pair of much-loved programs – Mineral Mondays and Relaxed Nights – are returning for June and July, with a focus on geology and space science. 

“One of our priorities as a museum is ensuring that our high-quality space science and geology information is accessible to as many audiences as possible,” NMMNHS Executive Director Dr. Anthony Fiorillo said. “And these programs help us bring our educational material to a wide variety of visitors during the summer months.” Read More

LANL Materials Scientist Yu Seung Kim Named Battelle’s 2023 Inventor Of The Year

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Battelle President and CEO Lou Von Thaer, right, presents Battelle’s 2023 Inventor of the Year award to LANL Materials Scientist Yu Seung Kim. Courtesy/LANL

LANL News:

  • LANL’s Yu Seung Kim honored for innovative fuel cell research

Yu Seung Kim, a Los Alamos National Laboratory materials scientist, was recently honored as Battelle’s Inventor of the Year. The annual award is given by Battelle to recognize inventors from Battelle and the national laboratories it manages, which in addition to Los Alamos include Brookhaven National Laboratory, Idaho National Laboratory, the National Renewable Read More

UC Riverside: Biological Cleanup Process Discovered For Certain ‘Forever Chemical’ Pollutants

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UC RIVERSIDE News:

University of California, Riverside, chemical and environmental engineering scientists have identified two species of bacteria found in soil that break down a class of stubborn “forever chemicals,” giving hope for low-cost biological cleanup of industrial pollutants. 

These bacteria destroy a subgroup of per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, that have one or more chlorine atoms within their chemical structure, Yujie Men, an assistant professor in the Bourns College of Engineering, and her UCR colleagues, reported in the journal Natural Water.

Unhealthful Read More

UC Riverside: Non-Native Plant Thrives In Singed Soil

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Stinknet. Photo by John Scheuring

UC Riverside News:

Though prescribed burns reduce wildfire threats and even improve habitat for some animals, new research shows these fires also spread stinknet, an aptly named weed currently invading superblooms across the Southwestern U.S. 

Stinknet, also called globe chamomile, is native to South Africa, but is commonly seen in photos of California’s colorful superblooms. “Not all flowering plants are indicative of a healthy ecosystem,” Loralee Larios said, UC Riverside assistant botany professor and study co-author. “This one isn’t.”

In addition Read More

U.S. Army Awards Verus® Research $203 Million Contract

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VERUS RESEARCH News:

ALBUQUERQUE — Verus® Research, a New Mexico-based team of scientists and engineers specializing in advanced research and development, announces its largest contract to date.

The company was awarded a $203 million ceiling increase on its current indefinite delivery indefinite quality (IDIQ) contract with the U.S. Army’s Program Executive Office for Simulation, Training and Instrumentation (PEO STRI). The Test and Evaluation Non-Kinetic (TEN-K) contract enables Verus Research to further improve the U.S. Department of Defense’s ability to test the effectiveness Read More

LAF&SF To Sponsor Lectures By John Haught May 30-31

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John Haught, PhD
Emeritus Faculty
Distinguished Research Professor
Theology Dept. Georgetown University

LAF&SF News:

The Los Alamos Faith and Science Forum (LAF&SF) is honored to sponsor two lectures by John Haught based on his latest two books, God after Einstein (Yale University Press, 2021); and The Cosmic Vision of Teilhard de Chardin (Orbis Press, 2022), at 6:30 p.m. May 30-31 at Fuller Lodge.

Professor Haught has participated in numerous lectures and panels discussing the meaning behind the writings of Teilhard de Chardin. His books and lectures focus on a vision of reality Read More

AFRL, NASA Partner With Eight Universities For New Mission Concept Program

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University Nanosat Program students present their work to reviewers from the Air Force Research Laboratory, NASA, Missile Defense Agency, and Space Dynamics Lab in Albuquerque, N.M., Aug. 15, 2021. AFRL and NASA announced a collaboration with eight universities for a new Mission Concept Program from Jan. 5 to Feb. 3, 2023. The program, sponsored by AFRL’s Space Vehicles Directorate, is held under the University Nanosatellite Program, or UNP, which started in 1999 and has collaborated with over 40 universities since its inception. Photo by Jesse Olson/U.S. Air Force

AFRL News:

KIRTLAND Read More

Jennifer Hayden Named President And CEO Of National Museum Of Nuclear Science & History

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NMNSH President and CEO Jennifer J. Hayden

NMNSH News:

ALBUQUERQUE — The National Museum of Nuclear Science & History (NMNSH) Board of Trustees announced recently that Jennifer J. Hayden has been named president and chief executive officer. Hayden succeeds Jim Walther, who was executive director of the Nuclear Museum for 26 years. Walther retired in March of 2023.

Hayden has had several roles at the Nuclear Museum, most recently as deputy director. Hayden began her career at the museum in 2009 as the events and facility rental coordinator, transitioning to graphic designer and marketing Read More

LANL: Did Rising Seas Play Role In Viking Abandonment Of Greenland Settlements?

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Science: Did rising seas play a role in Viking abandonment of Greenland settlements?

The Vikings’ final disappearance from Greenland remains enigmatic. Historians and archaeologists attribute their departure to a range of environmental factors—worsening weather in a changing climate, flooding, erosion, shrinking markets for walrus ivory (a staple trade good) and ongoing conflict with the indigenous Inuit people. The story, it turns out, is a bit more complicated. New research adds another, surprising factor: Sea-level rise, driven counterintuitively by advancing glaciers, may
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