World

US, UK, Russian Federation Hold Trilateral Nuclear Security Best Practices Workshop

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NNSA News:

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Representatives from the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), the United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defence and Russia’s State Atomic Energy Corporation (Rosatom) met this week in Vienna, Austria, for their Seventh Annual Nuclear Security Best Practices Exchange.

The two-day workshop focused on overcoming challenges associated with securing nuclear materials worldwide.

NNSA Deputy Administrator for Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation Anne Harrington.

These workshops grew out of commitments in a 2005 U.S.-Russian Joint Statement on Nuclear Read More

Meteorite Over Russia May Reap Benefit for Impoverished Residents

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The spectacular meteorite that exploded in a fireball over Russia’s Ural Mountains and sent shock waves through the city of Chelyabinsk Friday may have been a blessing in disguise for its impoverished residents. When the meteorite exploded, it showered the city with thousands of tiny black stones that may be worth more than their weight in gold. See more at https:////bennettsfinejewelry.tumblr.com/ Read More

Computer Modeling Reveals How Surprisingly Potent Hepatitis C Drug Works

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LANL News:

A study by researchers from Los Alamos National Laboratory and a multinational team reveals how daclatasvir, a direct-acting antiviral agent in development for the treatment of hepatitis C virus (HCV), targets one of its proteins and causes the fastest viral decline ever seen with anti-HCV drugs – within 12 hours of treatment.

Chronic infection with hepatitis C virus affects about 150 million people worldwide. It is the leading cause of cirrhosis, liver cancer and liver transplants and results in some 350,000 deaths worldwide every year.

The team’s work reveals that daclatasvir Read More

Astronomer Speaks on Eclipse Experiences

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Photos of the Nov. 14, 2012 eclipse taken from onboard a ship on the Coral Sea. Photos by Steve Becker

PEEC News:

Local astronomer Stephen Becker will share his eclipse experiences through photos and video, with a special focus on the total solar eclipse of November 2012 at a talk from 7-8 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 26 at the Pajarito Environmental Education Center (PEEC), 3540 Orange St. in Los Alamos.

Nov. 13-14, 2012 the sun, moon and earth were aligned to allow the sun to be blocked along a narrow path that intersected a little bit of northern Australia and a long stretch of the southern Pacific Ocean. Read More

Climate Change Presentation at Hive Thursday

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HIVE News:

Scientist Dr. Liviu Popa-Simil will give a presentation on the ramifications of climate change titled “The Challenges of the Future – A Fork in the Road” based on his book of the same name.

The talk is part of the Hive Brown-bag Lunch Series that starts at about 11:30 a.m. Thursday, Feb. 21 at the Hive, 134 N.M. 4 in White Rock.

Dr. Popa-Simil’s presentation will begin at noon. The meeting is open to the public at no charge. 

This is not a “doom and gloom” scenario and is based on data derived from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which Popa-Simil Read More

CryoSat-2 Mission Reveals Major Arctic Sea-Ice Loss

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Sea ice scape photo by Dr. Katherine Giles, a research fellow at the Centre for Polar Observation and Modeling at University College London (UCL) and a member of the scientific team studying sea-ice loss. Courtesy/AGU

AGU News:

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Arctic sea ice volume has declined by 36 percent in the autumn and 9 percent in the winter between 2003 and 2012, an international team of scientists has discovered. 

Researchers used new data from the European Space Agency’s CryoSat-2 satellite spanning 2010 to 2012, and data from NASA’s Read More

Ali MacGraw Moderates Discussion on Women’s Empowerment

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Staff Report

New Mexico PBS (Ch. 5.1), International Folk Art Market – Santa Fe, and The Lensic Performing Arts Center will host a special free screening of a 40-minute-segment of New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn’s documentary “Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women,” focusing on women’s economic empowerment.

The screening will take place 7-9 p.m. Thursday, March 7 at the Lensic Performing Arts Center, 211 W. San Francisco Street in Santa Fe.

This segment features actress Olivia Wilde visiting Rebecca Lolosoli, Folk Art Market Read More

ChemCam Follows ‘Yellowknife Road’ to Martian Wet Area

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This graphic from NASA’s Curiosity mission shows close-ups of light-toned veins in rocks in the ‘Yellowknife Bay’ area of Mars together with analyses of their composition. The top part of the image shows a close-up of the rock named ‘Crest,’ taken by the remote micro-imager (RMI) on Curiosity’s Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument above the analysis of the elements detected by using ChemCam’s laser to zap the target. The spectral profile of Crest’s light-colored vein is shown in red, while that of a basaltic calibration target Read More

NNSA Holds Radiation Emergency Consequence Management Training in Israel

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Soreq Nuclear Research Center is an applied R&D Institute affiliated to the Israel Atomic Energy Commission. Courtesy/Soreq.gov

NNSA News:

WASHINGTON, D.C.–The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) this week conducted a training course on Consequence Management (I-CM) in Israel.

The training was held in the Soreq Nuclear Research Center and was attended by 25 Israeli participants.

“The training is part of an ongoing bilateral cooperation between NNSA and Israel,” said NNSA Associate Administrator for Emergency Operations Joseph Krol. “The training provided participants Read More

Sig Hecker to Talk on Los Alamos and Kazakhstan

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Sig Hecker
 
Dr. Siegfried S. Hecker, PhD, is an Austrian-Polish-American nuclear scientist and metallurgist who served as director of Los Alamos National Laboratory from 1986 until 1997.

On Jan. 19, Hecker will present a public talk titled, “One of the Greatest Nuclear Stories Never Told – Los Alamos and Kazakhstan.”

Hecker works at Stanford University’s Center for International Security and Cooperation.
 
He explains that in 1992, the Russians pulled out of their former huge nuclear test site at Semipalatinsk, now in the newly independent Republic of Kazakhstan.
 
Read More