Friday, August 22, 2014



10Best: Los Alamos, N.M., without security clearance

The Bradbury Science Museum. From USA Today.

Los Alamos is home to Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), a secure government lab that is still responsible in part for the nation's nuclear arsenal. But Los Alamos is also a community that is happy to share its history with visitors from all over the world, be it the 1940s or the 1200s, when ancestors of today's New Mexico Pueblo tribes called the forested canyons here home. Here are the 10 best things to enjoy in and near this storied northern New Mexico city that don't need a security clearance. (Full Story)



Training bees to detect diabetes

Robert Wingo on KRQE News13.

A New Mexico researcher is helping train honeybees to detect a deadly disease. It could be a new, low-cost way for developing countries to catch the disease early.

A group of foreign graduate students called Bee Healthy teamed up with a Los Alamos National Lab researcher to test whether bees can in fact detect diabetes.

Dr. Robert Wingo said he started working with bees about 10 years ago, training them like search dogs to detect explosives. (Full Story)

Also from WBZ-TV Boston



A safire in the rough

Safire developers Dipen Sinha (left) and Anirban Chaudhuri of Materials Synthesis and Integrated Devices. LANL Photo.

A multi-phase flow meter, Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Safire provides noninvasive, real-time and accurate estimates of oil production for every well. Jointly developed with Chevron ETC and GE Measurement & Control, Safire achieves measurement rates as high as 100 readings/sec, including computation time.

Safire is based on SFAI, swept frequency acoustic interferometry. SFAI uses frequency-chirp signal propagation (wideband ultrasonic frequency) through a multi-phase medium to extract frequency-dependent physical properties of said medium. (Full Story)

Also from R&D Magazine:

Nuclear reactor reliability: Fast test proves viable


Tandem accelerator exposed the metal sample to a barrage of charged iron atoms. From R&D.    

Univ. of Michigan’s Gary Was, the Walter J. Weber, Jr. Professor of Sustainable Energy, Environmental and Earth Systems Engineering at UM, and colleagues from Los Alamos National Laboratory, Idaho National Laboratory and TerraPower sought to confirm theories for reproducing the degradation seen in reactors with beams of charged atoms, or ion beams. This method takes a matter of days to produce the same amount of damage. (Full Story)




TA-21 towers come tumbling down

West tower, LA Monitor photo.

The Department of Energy’s Environmental Projects Office took down the water tower at the west end of Technical Area 21 (TA-21) Monday beginning at about noon. The tower to the east came down today.

“By bringing down these towers, we are making a noticeable difference in the skyline at TA-21,” said Pete Maggiore, assistant manager for Environmental Programs at the Los Alamos Field Office. “This is another positive step toward eventual transfer of this property to Los Alamos County.” (Full Story)

The story also appeared in the Los Alamos Daily Post

Also this week in the Los Alamos Monitor:

Robots take center stage

The public can see and drive a variety of different robots at “Robotics Night” from 5 to 8 p.m., Friday at the Bradbury Science Museum. Robots from Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Hazardous Devices Team, the FIRST Robotics Clubs (high school and middle-school students), University of New Mexico-Los Alamos, First LEGO League and other local robotics enthusiasts are scheduled to be at the museum. (Full Story)


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