Science

LANL: Students Showcase Projects At 27th Annual Supercomputing Challenge

Los Alamos National Laboratory. The Supercomputing Challenge is project-based learning geared to teaching a wide range of skills: research, writing, teamwork, time management, oral presentations and computer programming. Courtesy/LANL

LANL News:

  • Team-based research highlights a wide range of skills

More than 200 New Mexico students and teachers from 55 different teams will come together April 24-25 at the  Jewish Community Center in Albuquerque to showcase their computing research projects at the 27th annual New Mexico Supercomputing Challenge expo and awards ceremony. Read More

Letter To The Editor: Science, Policy And Earth Day

By KHALIL SPENCER
Los Alamos

In Honor of Upcoming Earth Day: Are Science and Politics Immiscible Quantities?

“Americans have reached a point where ignorance, especially of anything related to public policy, is an actual virtue,” the scholar Tom Nichols writes in his timely new book, “The Death of Expertise.” “To reject the advice of experts is to assert autonomy, a way for Americans to insulate their increasingly fragile egos from ever being told they’re wrong about anything. It is a new Declaration of Independence: No longer do we hold these truths to be self-evident, we hold all truths to be Read More

Rally For Science In Santa Fe … But Not Los Alamos

By JODY BENSON
Los Alamos

Los Alamos isn’t hosting a Rally or a March for Science. Santa Fe is, though. It will begin at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, Earth Day, at the Roundhouse. Get out there with your dedication and brilliance. Remember, there is no planet B, and scientists can prove it. 

The organizers of the March state: “The mischaracterization of science as a partisan issue, which has given policymakers permission to reject overwhelming evidence, is a critical and urgent matter. It is time for people who support scientific research and evidence-based policies to take a public stand and be Read More

Science On Tap: Seeing Inside Fukushima April 20

LA CREATIVE DISTRICT News:

In March 2011, a tsunami slammed into the coast of Japan and initiated the meltdown of three reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Radiation levels inside the buildings there are still lethal, but the cleanup needs to proceed.

Come and listen to Chris Morris, of the Lab’s Los Alamos Neutron Science Center, talk about how our scientists are using people-friendly particles called muons to help assess the status of the nuclear fuel inside the damaged reactors. Accurate answers to questions about the fuel rods could help reduce recovery efforts by more Read More

Periodic Model Predicts Spread Of Lyme Disease

SIAM News:
 
PHILADELPHIA, PA — Lyme disease is among the most common vector-borne illnesses in North America, Europe, and some parts of Asia. A spirochete bacterium called Borrelia burgdorferi causes the disease, and blacklegged ticks (Ixodes scapularis) are responsible for the majority of North American transmissions.
 
Commonly known as deer ticks, blacklegged ticks exhibit two-year life cycles with the following four stages: eggs, larvae, nymphs, and adults. Larvae primarily attack white-footed mice, then become nymphs upon obtaining a blood meal.
Read More

Letter To The Editor: Let’s Stand Strong Against Anti-Science Forces

By STEPHANIE NAKHLEH
Los Alamos

This Saturday, April 22, people from all over northern New Mexico will gather in Santa Fe in support of science. As the event organizers put it, “The March for Science champions science as a pillar for the advancement of human knowledge, progress and prosperity. We unite on April 22, Earth Day, as a diverse, nonpartisan group to call for the freedom of science in the interest of the common good, and for political leaders and policymakers to enact evidence-based policies in the public interest.”

In Los Alamos, we benefit especially from federally-funded science,

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March For Science – Santa Fe April 22

 
SCIENCE News:
 
SANTA FE  In the wake of the Women’s March on Washington comes the March for Science, this Saturday, April 22.
 
People across the world have been posting photos of their poster board signs proclaiming #WhyIMarch (for science): I march for the planet. I march for truth. I march for clean water for BEER. Other signs elaborate: Climate change is not a Chinese hoax. Science is real. Science is not a liberal agenda. Earth needs thinkers not deniers. And so many more!
 
Scientists and non-scientists from across New Mexico are
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Fifty Taos 2nd Graders Tour Bradbury Science Museum

Fifty Ranchos Elementary School 2nd graders on a field trip Thursday to the Bradbury Science Museum, made possible by the generous sponsorship of Los Alamos National Bank. Photo by KayLinda Crawford

Staff Report

Fifty 2nd graders from Ranchos Elementary in Taos took a field trip to the Bradbury Science Museum Thursday, April 13 thanks to the generous sponsorship of bus transportation provided by Los Alamos National Bank.

The Bradbury Science Museum Association, the museum’s non-profit education outreach partner, in collaboration with Los Alamos National Bank, is providing the Read More

NASA’s MAVEN Mission Reveals Mars Has Metal In Its Atmosphere

AGU News:
 
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Mars has electrically charged metal atoms (ions) high in its atmosphere, according to new results from NASA’s MAVEN spacecraft. 
 
The metal ions can reveal previously invisible activity in the mysterious electrically charged upper atmosphere (ionosphere) of Mars.
 
“MAVEN has made the first direct detection of the permanent presence of metal ions in the ionosphere of a planet other than Earth,” said Joseph Grebowsky of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland and lead author of a new
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LANL: On-The-Range Detection Technology Could Corral Bovine TB

In cattle, Mycobacterium bovis causes the disease, which easily spreads among large herds, periodically resulting in the quarantine and destruction of thousands of cattle in the United States, Canada and abroad and restricting international shipments. Courtesy/LANL

LANL News:

  • Biomarker-based assay offers ranchers immediate, on-site test results

A research breakthrough allowing the first direct, empirical, blood-based, cow-side test for diagnosing bovine tuberculosis (TB) could spare ranchers and the agriculture industry from costly quarantines and the mass slaughter of animals Read More