(AGENPARL) - Roma, 15 Settembre 2023(AGENPARL) – ven 15 settembre 2023 A weekly compendium of media reports on science and technology achievements
at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Though the Laboratory reviews
items for overall accuracy, the reporting organizations are responsible for
the content in the links below.
….. LLNL Report, Sept. 15, 2023
NASA Astronaut and former LLNL engineer Jose Hernandez is the subject of a
new biopic coming out in September. Photo courtesy of NASA.**
… A star who’s seen stars is born
A film is set to debut about Jose Hernandez of Manteca, a one-time farmworker
who fulfilled his dream of flying into space.
“A Million Miles Away” will stream on Amazon Prime Video starting today
(Sept. 15). Michael Pena plays the adult Hernandez, who went on to become an
aerospace consultant.
The movie recounts how a 10-year-old Hernandez was first inspired by a 1972
telecast of the Apollo 17 moonwalk. At the time, he was helping his
Mexico-born parents pick crops up and down the Central Valley.
A year ago, Hernandez, who worked at LLNL as an engineer, talked about the
film project with The Modesto Bee. “The message there is that it’s OK to
dream big as long as you’re willing to work hard and convert that dream
into reality,” he said.
Read More
Cyclotron Radiation Emission Spectroscopy (CRES), seen here, is the key to a
totally new method that aims to pin down the mass of the elusive neutrino.
Photo by Alec Lindman, courtesy Project 8.
… Unraveling mysteries of the universe
https://news.yale.edu/2023/09/12/project-8-takes-mystery-neutrino-mass
Humble neutrinos — electrically neutral particles that glide through the
universe, unaffected by the forces of nature — have helped to shape the
cosmos. They play a role in nuclear fusion, radioactive decay and the
dispersal of heavy elements around the universe when stars go supernova.
Yet they’re elusive. Grabbing one to get a closer look is like grabbing a
handful of nothing.
Since 1998, when scientists proved that neutrinos could oscillate and
therefore must have mass, physicists around the world have devised elaborate
experiments aimed at getting an accurate neutrino mass measurement.
One of those experiments, Project 8, a long-term collaboration of
international scientists including Lawrence Livermore and Yale researchers,
just proved the viability of a new method to measure neutrino mass.
In a new, Project 8 researchers report that they can reliably track and
record a relatively infrequent natural occurrence called beta decay. Each
beta decay event emits a tiny amount of energy when a rare radioactive
variant of hydrogen — called tritium — breaks apart, creating three new
subatomic particles: a helium ion, an electron and a neutrino.
Neutrinos are major players in the universe’s evolution from a sea of hot,
dense matter to the landscape of galaxies we see today. Once we know the
neutrino mass, that number will enter into calculations that describe the
universe’s history and predict its future.
Read More
https://news.yale.edu/2023/09/12/project-8-takes-mystery-neutrino-mass
Sierra, one of the fastest supercomputers in the world, will serve the
National Nuclear Security Administration’s three nuclear security
laboratories, providing high-fidelity simulations in support of NNSA’s core
mission of ensuring the safety, security and effectiveness of the nation’s
nuclear stockpile. Photo by Randy Wong/LLNL
… We got the power
Most Powerful Computers in The World
The field of computing has grown by leap and bounds over the years, and the
demand for high-end computers that can process large amounts of data has
become increasingly prevalent in the modern world. Here are some of the most
powerful computers in the world.
Coming in at #1 is the Summit Supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
It currently is the most powerful computer in the world. With a processing
speed of 200 petaflops, it can perform over 200,000 trillion calculations per
second. Summit’s primary use is in scientific research, particularly in
cancer research and the development of new materials.
Standing in at the third most powerful computer in the world is the Sierra
Supercomputer, located at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. With a
processing speed of 71.6 petaflops, it serves the purpose of simulation
making the stockpile safe.
Read More
Layers of Earth’s atmosphere are shown in a view looking across Earth’s
surface from the International Space Station. Photo courtesy of NASA.
… It’s all clear up there
UCLA-Led Research Attributes Troubling Upper Atmosphere Changes to Human-Generated Greenhouse Gases
Human-driven climate change has caused large and concerning temperature
decreases in the stratosphere since at least 1986, according to a Lawrence
Livermore and UCLA study published recently.
That sustained stratospheric cooling, the authors report, is evidence that
the warming of Earth’s surface and lower atmosphere is not a natural
occurrence.
In particular, the study confirms the effects of human causes on the overall
climate: The temperature changes in the stratosphere were 12 to 15 times
greater than what could have been caused by nature.
The analysis for the first time demonstrates that extending
“fingerprinting” techniques — used to identify the human effects on
climate — to the mid-to upper stratosphere (25-50 kilometersa bove
Earth’s surface) improves the detection of human effects on climate by a
factor of five.
Read More
UCLA-Led Research Attributes Troubling Upper Atmosphere Changes to Human-Generated Greenhouse Gases
A school building damaged from shelling in the city of Chernihiv, Ukraine.
Photo by Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP via Getty Images.
… Seismometers have a sense for explosions
Existing seismometers in Ukraine — normally used to monitor nuclear weapons
tests or detect earthquakes — have been repurposed to detect the times and
locations of more than 1200 explosions in provinces near Kyiv. The explosive
power registered by the seismometers also provides clues about the ammunition
or weapons behind each blast.
Seismic monitoring holds the promise of tracking the number, timing and
relative sizes of explosions, said Michael Pasyanos at the Lawrence Livermore
National Laboratory. But he cautioned that the explosive yield estimates may
not yet be precise enough to definitively identify a particular weapon behind
each blast.
Seismic monitoring of conflicts also would be more difficult in the Middle
East, Africa and South America, where there are relatively few seismic
arrays, Pasyanos said However, other researchers suggest that portable
seismic sensors might fill the gap.
Read More
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