Search NASA⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “LABS”

Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 451 records · Page 25

Watch former Lab Director and Manhattan Project Veteran Harold Agnew’s 1985 speech

From the first nuclear reactor to the weapon development to the bomb delivery in war, Harold Agnew was there. The only two atomic bombs to ever be used in combat – Little Boy, a uranium gun-type weapon, and Fat Man, a plutonium implosion weapon – were released above Japan 75 years ago on Aug. 6 and Aug. 9, respectively. World War II ended not long after. And, according to The New York Times, Agnew was the only person to witness the whole undertaking, from reactor to Hiroshima: Years earlier, on a frigid December day in 1942 in Chicago, a 21-year-old Agnew was one of a few dozen gathered to see atoms split in two. Not long after, Agnew came to Los Alamos as a graduate student to work on the development the atomic bomb. Then, on Aug. 6, 1945, Agnew was a part of the delivery of Little Boy; he flew as a scientific member on the mission to Hiroshima to film the mushroom cloud and measure the shockwave. It is the only existing footage of the Hiroshima bombing from the air; other footage was taken, but was most likely not handled properly and was unusable, according to Agnew.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗

A look back 75 years at Little Boy, the crew, the plane and the Lab’s first mission

Hours before the sun would rise over Tinian island on the morning of August 6, 1945, a B- 29 airplane was positioned above a specially built bomb-loading pit, as crews readied it with cargo unlike anything the world had ever known. Preparations on the tiny Pacific island—nearly 6,600 miles from Los Alamos and about 1,500 miles from its intended target in Japan—had begun months before on April 3. And months before that, pilot Paul Tibbets Jr. and his crew had practiced dropping dummy concrete bombs on targets in Utah. Even years before that, development of this cargo destined for Japan began in secrecy under the direction of a physicist and an Army general in the mountains of Northern New Mexico. It was all leading to one day that would help end years of bloodshed and change the world forever.

45 MILITARY TECHNOLOGY, WEAPONRY, AND NATIONAL DEF↗

Strategies for seeking a job at a national lab [Slides]

Understanding the job market from the hiring side can help you develop better strategies for seeking a job. National laboratories represent a substantial source of jobs in the U.S. in engineering and science. High school, college, and graduate student internship positions are all available, but you can be more successful in finding one of these positions if you use a targeted search. Likewise, reaching out to individual researchers and/or knowing how to respond to job ads can increase your chances of getting an interview for a permanent job or positions, such as postdoc and postbac appointments, that can lead to permanent jobs. In my career as a research scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory, I have hired people into all of these job categories, as well as served on many hiring committees for all levels of appointments. I will offer Polonius*-type advice for jobseekers and discuss the hiring process and how you can optimize your own job search.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗

Ghost particles and Project Poltergeist: Long-ago Lab physicists studied science that haunted them

A neutrino is a tiny, almost massless particle that travels at near light speeds. They were first formed in the early universe and are continually being produced in the nuclear reactions of stars, like the sun, and nuclear reactions on earth. The existence of these “ghost particles” was incredibly difficult to detect, but doing so has helped scientists better understand fundamental principles in physics. Los Alamos Manhattan Project scientist Frederick Reines, along with his colleague Clyde Cowan, is credited with the experimental discovery of the nearly massless elementary particle after his team definitively proved the neutrino’s existence in 1956. Reines received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1995.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

Ghost particles and Project Poltergeist: Long-ago Lab physicists studied science that haunted them

A neutrino is a tiny, almost massless particle that travels at near light speeds. They were first formed in the early universe and are continually being produced in the nuclear reactions of stars, like the sun, and nuclear reactions on earth. The existence of these “ghost particles” was incredibly difficult to detect, but doing so has helped scientists better understand fundamental principles in physics. Los Alamos Manhattan Project scientist Frederick Reines, along with his colleague Clyde Cowan, is credited with the experimental discovery of the nearly massless elementary particle after his team definitively proved the neutrino’s existence in 1956. Reines received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1995.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Deeply Virtual Compton Scattering on the Proton in Hall A at Jefferson Lab

The structure of nucleons as they are composed of quarks and gluons is not well understood. Non-perturbative methods (such as lattice-QCD) describing quark/gluon interactions are ongoing in development, but still cannot fully reproduce the structure of hadrons. Among the observables which describe longitudinal momentum and transverse position of partons, generalized parton distributions (GPDs) describe the correlations between the two, and are accessible through p(right-arrow e;e'y)p scattering experiments in the Bjorken limit when factorization holds. A complete understanding of these functions will help us to better understand the structure of nucleons. Experiment E12-06-114 was performed by JLab's DVCS Hall A Collaboration in 2014 and 2016. Using a polarized electron beam and a liquid hydrogen target, the collaboration measured cross sections for the exclusive reaction p(right-arrow e;e'y)p at xB=0.36, 0.48, and 0.60,3 .2 lte Q2 lte 9.00, and -1.28 lte t lte -0.69. This dissertation details the analysis and results of measuring the p(right-arrow e;e'y)p cross section at xB=0.48. The measured cross section results allow us to demonstrate the validity of factorization in our kinematic regime, and extract Compton Form Factor combinations important for understanding GPDs. Additionally, the cross section results are used to test existing GPD models, KM10a and KM15.

Johnson, Alexa N.↗

Considerations for Distributed Energy Resource Integration in Puerto Rico: DOE Multi-Lab Grid Modeling Support for Puerto Rico; Analytical Support for Interconnection and IEEE Std 1547-2018 National Renewable Energy Laboratory (Task 3.0)

To ensure the sustainable long-term recovery of Puerto Rico's electric power grid from hurricanes María and Irma and to build capacity to manage future potential natural disasters in the most secure and resilient way, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) convened experts from multiple national laboratories to develop a comprehensive set of data, models, analytic tools, and studies, considering inputs from a wide variety of stakeholder groups, to support technically sound recommendations for Puerto Rico's energy investment decisions. A resilient electric grid is vital to Puerto Rico's security, economy, and way of life, and it will provide the foundation for essential services that people and businesses on the island rely on every day. This report shows progress for a grid modeling task under the DOE-sponsored project that is a collaboration among the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and other national laboratories. In Phase 1 of the multilab effort to support Puerto Rico's recovery, NREL provided the utility company Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) recommendations for a new framework of interconnection standards to accelerate the integration of utility-scale, transmission-connected renewable electrical generation and energy storage that ensure cross-technology compatibility and enable high deployment levels without compromising grid reliably, safety, or security. This Phase 2 report focuses on the interconnection of distributed energy resources (DERs) to the electric distribution system in Puerto Rico. This report is intended to familiarize the reader with Puerto Rico's distribution infrastructure and operational practices and procedures that are relevant to DER interconnection. The report also provides considerations for streamlining the interconnection process given the expected increase in deployments resulting from Puerto Rico's renewable portfolio standard (RPS) goal of 100% renewables by 2050. Accordingly, the report identifies considerations and concerns associated with the increase in intermittent generation, strategies for DER interconnection best practices, and the potential use of the latest technological solutions identified in the latest revision of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 1547-2018 interconnection standard.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

DDSTE Lab Overview March 2021 [Slides]

An overview of Los Alamos National Laboratory is given, primarily related to the Deputy Director of Science, Technology and Engineering (DDSTE) perspective.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Beyond the Manhattan Project: Books and documentaries that showcase Lab history after World War II

They are at it again, on this occasion just in time for National Library Week. Last year, staff members from the National Security Research Center (NSRC, the Laboratory’s classified library) recommended their favorite books and movies about Los Alamos National Laboratory during the Manhattan Project. This time out, NSRC Director Riz Ali and Senior Historian Alan Carr, joined by Historian Nicholas Lewis, tackle a greater challenge, recommending their favorite books, publications and documentaries that cover the Laboratory’s history after World War II.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗

Lab Home Testing of Residential Isolation Space Control to Minimize Infectious Disease Transmission in Existing Single-Family Homes

Existing evidence strongly suggests that viral infectious diseases can be transmitted via an airborne route across distances in indoor environments. Accordingly, the risk of airborne transmission within homes should be managed. The public health emergency associated with SARS-CoV-2 makes controlling airborne transmission of respired viruses in indoor environments critical, especially in poorly ventilated indoor environments. The effectiveness of engineering interventions requiring minor efforts that create a negative-pressure isolation zone (IZ) for a contagious person has yet to be tested for existing residential homes. To mitigate the risk of airborne virus transmission and maximize health protection for the population in existing single-family homes, the relative effectiveness of several control strategies are investigated in this report. While very high-efficiency MERV filtration, high ventilation rates, and other controls can help be effective, most occupants are not likely to have the time or means for advanced measures found in hospitals. This project focused on testing relatively simple efforts that utilize existing or easy to acquire materials and simple processes.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

NM Science, Technology and Telecommunications committee: State of the Lab [Slides]

Our priority throughout COVID has been protecting our employees and our communities. To this end, we stood up internal testing and vaccination programs; kept disease risk low via maximum teleworking; leveraged world-class expertise to support federal and state through disease modeling and forecasting; and stored vaccines for the school district. COVID-19 taught us there are many ways to leverage technology to work safely and effectively.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗

Lights, camera, commitment: Mick Greenbank’s 25 years as a Lab photographer

Mick Greenbank flips through a 3-ring binder as he sits in a TA-55 conference room, reminiscing about the nearly 25 years he’s spent working as a LANL photographer. Paging through certificates, noteworthy letters and emails, and old lists of goals and tasks, he explains that he’s stayed a TA-55 photographer for a quarter of a century because he “just wants to shoot.” Over that time, he became known as a trustworthy and committed team player who’s always ready to lend a camera-filled hand.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗