u.s. department of energy university of california · 2016-10-21 · a monthly publication of the...

U . S . D E P A R T M E N T O F E N E R G Y

U N I V E R S I T Y O F C A L I F O R N I A

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A M O N T H L Y P U B L I C A T I O N O F 1 LOS ALAMOS NATIONAL LABORATORY

PRESENTS FROM HEAVEN

RESEARCHER TIES ANCIENT ORAL HISTORIES

TO TRANSIENT CELESTIAL EVENTS

E ach December images of the Star of Bethlehem shine across the nation and world as enduring

symbols of hope and peace. For many, the Star ofBethlehem needs no explanation, yet astronomers havetried to create a scientific explanation for this mysteriouscelestial event. Some scientists theorize the star wasseveral planets lined up in such a way that they allseemed to be in the same position — an arrangementcalled a conjunction. Other researchers conclude thatthe star that may have led the Magi could have been acomet or an exploding star.

A MONTHLY PUBLICATION OF THEPUBLIC AFFAIRS OFFICE OF

LOS ALAMOS NATIONAL LABORATORY

LOS ALAMOS NATIONAL LABORATORY, AN AFFIRMATIVE ACTION / EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER, IS OPERATED BY THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA FOR THE U.S. DEPARTMENT

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LOS ALAMOS NATIONAL LABORATORY PUBLIC AFFAIRS OFFICE, MS P355

LOS ALAMOS, NM 87545

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EDITORMeredith Coonley

(505) 665-3982 • E-Mail: [email protected]

CONTRIBUTING EDITORJohn A. Webster

CONTRIBUTING ILLUSTRATOREdwin Vigil

CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERSJohn Flower • Terrell Johnson

LeRoy N. Sanchez • Gary Warren

CONTRIBUTING WRITERSKathy DeLucas • Bill Heimbach

Ternel N. MartinezKay Roybal • Steve Sandoval

PRINTING COORDINATORG.D. Archuleta


PUBLIC AFFAIRS OFFICE, MS C177

LOS ALAMOS, NM 87545

The exploding star, or supernova theory, is a potentchoice since history tells us that in 1054 A.D. theM1 supernova that produced the present day CrabNebula was so bright, it could easily be seen duringthe day.

Two even brighter supernovae occurred earlier, in185 A.D. and 1006 A.D., were much more spectac-ular than the Crab Nebula. A few more near-Earthnovae were, briefly, even brighter, being comparedin magnitude with the full moon.

Whatever the cause, the star may be an example ofwhat scientists call cosmic transients.

These short-duration, one-time astrophysical eventslast anywhere from less than a second to as long asa few years and have been impacting civilizationslonger than was previously believed, according to aLos Alamos researcher.

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The general consensus was that early societies used the fixedcelestial heavens in their art, myths, religions and politics toregulate rituals and agricultural cycles. The cyclic world of regularcelestial events likely also fulfilled a psychological need by ancientcivilizations to link themselves with the surrounding universe.

But conventional researchers have overlooked linking thetransient celestial events to ancient beliefs and customs, accordingto Los Alamos archeologist Bruce Masse. Indeed, astronomershave even expressed doubts about the ability of most past culturesto recognize or at least categorize such events.

Like most archeologists, Masse was taught to avoid astronomy,mythology and oral histories. He had been taught that myths werelargely psychological and that oral history that was told for morethan six or seven generations could not be trusted because of toomany distortions.

Masse now believes that ancient cosmogonic myths and manyoral histories provide an accurate representation of ancient celes-tial events.

ÓArcheologistBruce Masse’sresearch hasl inked trans ientce lest ia l eventsto anc ientbel iefs andcustoms.Because imagessuch as theones on Page 5may st i l l holddeep re l ig iouss ignif icance forpeople today,says Masse,they should bev iewed by thereader with thesame deferenceand respectgiven otherimportantre l ig ious andcultura lsymbols such asthe Star ofBethlehem.

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Masse has compiled a historical database of 1,200 naked-eyevisible transient events including novae, comets, meteor showersand storms, cosmic impacts as well as lunar and solar eclipses. Thedatabase can be used with written and oral histories and demon-strates direct comparison and relationships with these records anddetailed archeological records of many past civilizations.

The evidence from Hawaii and the American Southwest indicatesthat transient celestial events were not only recognized andcategorized, but formed a critical component of mythology,cosmology, politics, religion and early science.


T h e t e r m c o m e t i s f r o m t h e G r e e k w o r d k o m e t e s , “ l o n g - h a i r e d . ” W h e nmiss ionary Wi l l iam E l l i s f i rst v is i ted the Hawai ian Is lands in 1823, he recordedthis informat ion about the important god Ku ( from “Journal of Wi l l iam E l l i s , ”1979, Tutt le , Rut land, Vt . ) : “The nat ives were very des i rous to shew us thep l a c e w h e r e t h e i m a g e o f [ K u ] t h e w a r - g o d s t o o d , a n d t o l d u s t h a tf r e q u e n t l y i n t h e e v e n i n g h e u s e d t o b e s e e n f l y i n g a b o u t i n t h eneighbourhood, in the form of a luminous substance l ike a f lame, or l ike theta i l of a comet.” The image on the left i s one of the few surv iv ing woodenimages bel ieved to be that of Ku. The ha ir sty le and fac ia l express ion of th isimage i s remarkab ly s im i l a r to the coma of a comet , such as that on ther ight drawn in 1858 of Comet Donat i by George P. Bond of Harvard Col legeObservatory. I t i s l ike ly that the Ku image represents the passage of a 17th-18th century near -Ear th comet . (Ku image f rom “B i shop Museum and theC h a n g i n g W o r l d o f H a w a i i , ” N e l s o n F o s t e r , 1 9 9 3 , B i s h o p M u s e u m P r e s s ,Honolu lu. Repr inted by permiss ion of B ishop Museum Press . )


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Based primarily on research that Masse did in the HawaiianIslands, he asserts that ancient cultural traditions can be scruti-nized and fitted into a chronology of temporary celestial events.

Hawaiians have a rich oral history, closely tied to royalgenealogies extending back more than 95 generations. Theseaccounts describe 2,000 years of chiefly power. These fundamen-tals of Hawaiian life and religion Masse now directly ties totransient celestial events.

For example, a story about the coming of the volcano goddessPele to Hawaii now can be correlated with a series of spectaculargreat meteor showers and other celestial events between 900 and934 A.D.

These events include: a bright nova in the constellation Hercules;the first ever great Leonid meteor shower in 900 and the secondLeonid meteor shower in 902; a spectacular comet in 905 thatchanged abruptly from blood red to silky white; another novaevent in Hercules in 911; an appearance of Halley’s comet in 912;and a unique series of eight spectacular great meteor showers in10 years between 924 and 934. Pele was then transformed from asky goddess to a goddess of Hawaiian volcanoes.

A more recent legendary battle is told between Pele and a half-man, half-hog demigod named Kamapua’a, translated meaningthe sparkling bundle of eyes. This story is an accurate description,or encoding, of the coincidence of the 1301 appearance of Halley’sComet with the largest rift eruption in Kilauea volcano history.

Masse has applied this theory to the ancient civilizations like theAztec, Maya and even the Anasazi. Masse has found many similar-ities between the Hawaiian ancient culture and those that lived onthe American continents.

Similarities include the practice of naming the chief and royaltyafter spectacular transient events. Another similarity is that themyths of gods who battle each other are representations of tempo-rary celestial events.

An example is the Aztec myth about the creation of the fifth sun.The fifth sun is a story that describes an event that occurs after aworldwide catastrophe had destroyed the fourth sun and how two

ÕThese images

found onpottery and

rock art l ike lyrepresent so lar

ec l ipsephenomena

witnessed byPueblo Indians

in the FourCorners area of

the Southwestdur ing the 14th

century. Theimages above

are “stardemons” —

normal stars andconste l lat ions

transformedinto malevolent

spir i ts by theecl ipse. The

images at r ightare of the so lar

ec l ipsesthemselves.

gods sacrificed themselves to create the modern sun and moon.The imagery contained in the myth may encode a total, late afternoonsolar eclipse that happened in 750 A.D., leading to the destruction ofTeotihuacan, the largest city in the Americas at that time.

Masse asserts that the construction of the famous FeatheredSerpent temple complex at Teotihuacan may be attributed tocelestial events that also were recorded in legends about the initialcolonization of Hawaii; the remarkable red-tailed comet in 178A.D. followed by a spectacular supernova in 185 A.D., as well aslocal solar eclipses.

Masse began studying more ancient myths and found that most ofthe myths he looked at were filled with celestial imagery. Realizingthat the Hawaiian myths encoded real environmental events,Masse assumed the other myths did too.

Masse’s melding of ancient myth with the cosmos is certain toinvoke criticism and debate. Unfortunately, Masse’s work is nothelped by some authors who have claimed that ancient mythsrepresented alien visitors. He is open to hearty discussion withfellow researchers who may not have recognized cosmic data andthe implications the data may have on myth and folklore.

In fact, in reviewing ancient myths, Masse discovered that everycivilization has a great flood myth. Masse’s latest research is divinginto these stories to see if the truth in the myth may actually be acollision by a comet that crashed into the ocean wreaking havocin the form of rain and floods.

Masse says that the study of these ancient stories can help demys-tify history. In ancient civilizations, science and religion had thesame basis and the information was written down in religioustexts or told by trained storytellers.

Even if Masse’s theory is only partially correct, he hopes thediscussion will break down communication barriers betweenscience and religion and various disciplines.

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THREE-DIMENSIONALIMAGING

NEW TECHNOLOGY HAS DEFENSE

AND INDUSTRIAL APPLICATIONS

Atechnology used to help scientists evaluate the nation’s nuclear stockpile by using three-dimensional imaging

also has industrial applications.Researchers in Los Alamos’ Measurement Technology Group havedeveloped the Flash 3-D computed tomography system, which can beused for structural evaluations, nuclear waste inspection, inspectionand verification of component assemblies, nondestructive materials

evaluation, detection of materialdefects, rapid flaw detection in oilfield pipes before insertion andother applications.

Outside the weapons arena, thesystem can be used in the airline,automobile and prosthetics indus-tries, and in ceramics manufacturing.

Flash three-dimensional computedtomography primarily supportsLos Alamos’ mission of stockpilestewardship by providing scientists

three-dimensional, near real-time data on weapons parts, assembliesand components.

The Los Alamos system takes an “image” of the interior of an object byelectronically detecting the variation in X-ray transmission through asection of the object at different angles.

With the Flash 3-D computed tomography system, the operator flashes anX-ray through the object being imaged; a large area (11 by 16 inches)amorphous silicon detection panel tied into a computer captures the flash.The panel contains millions of photodiodes, which collect and read the flash.

With this system, the object to be imaged is placed on a pedestal thatrotates so that sections or slices of the object can be viewed. A computercollects the data and forms a three-dimensional image of the object thatcan be displayed on a computer monitor.


ÕChar les H i l l s

demonstratesthe F lash 3-D

computedtomography

system with apiece of coral. The

reconstructedimage of the

cora l i s on thedata acquis i t ioncomputer display.The cover of the

detector hasbeen removed

to reveal theamorphous

si l icon detectorarray.

The new computed tomography system already has helped a companyoutside Los Alamos. Last year, a major defense contractor discovered amanufacturing problem with a large batch of its rocket motors. Researchersfrom the company flew out and asked the Laboratory to demonstrate thesystem on its motors. In less than half a day, the flash computed tomog-raphy system was able to detect misalignment of two parts, allowing thecompany to make corrections in its manufacturing process.

The Los Alamos-developed technology has a more dynamic range thanX-ray film, resulting in greater contrast.

With today’s faster, low-cost personal computers and availability ofimproved viewing software, three-dimensional computed tomographyhas become more practical.

For companies in production mode, the Los Alamos-developed systemcan save time and money by producing computed tomography imagesfaster and more cheaply than conventional radiographic facilities.

The system developed at Los Alamos is portable and can be assembledand become fully operational in less than one hour, while it takes daysto set up and align a conventional computed tomography system.

Los Alamos researchers say the next generation of computed tomographywill include the technology to do three-dimensional computermodeling, another Los Alamos strength and a cornerstone of theLaboratory’s stockpile stewardship program through the AcceleratedStrategic Computing Initiative.

A Los Alamos-based design engineering firm, HYTEC Inc., has aCooperative Research and Development Agreement with the Laboratoryfor Flash CT. HYTEC is collaborating with other Department of Energysites to implement this technology.

The technology was one of 17 submitted by Los Alamos to this year’sR&D 100 Award competition, sponsored by the Illinois-based

R&DMagazine. (See the September/October 1999 issue of Dateline: Los Alamos.)

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CONGRESS CUTSLDRD FUNDING

LABORATORY WORKING TO ENSURE

LONG-TERM SUPPORT FOR THE PROGRAM

The August issue of Dateline: Los Alamos explored the challenges and accomplishments of Laboratory-initiated

research and development, which focuses resources — for thepast decade 6 percent of the Laboratory’s overall budget — onthe early exploration of creative science in areas that addressthe Lab’s core national security mission and support emergingnew mission objectives of the Department of Energy.In the past 10 years, Laboratory-Directed Research and Development(LDRD) projects have accounted for 40 percent of the Lab’s patents and60 percent of its R&D 100 awards, presented yearly by Illinois-basedR&D Magazine to the nation’s top technological achievements.

Projects detailed in the special issue werein areas including weapons and thestockpile, accelerator technologies, threatreduction, bioscience and biotechnology,and environmental sciences.

The LDRD program at all threedefense labs was reduced for FiscalYear 2000 to 4 percent of the labs’overall budgets by Congress.

However, the Los Alamos programhas retained projects in all of themajor areas highlighted in theDateline issue. And Los Alamos isworking with Sandia and Livermorenational laboratories and the DOEto convince decision-makers thatfunding should be restored to itsprevious level in future budgets.

“LDRD has a sustained history of producing science and technologythat’s valuable to the Laboratory’s core mission,” said new LDRD

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Program Director David Watkins. “Eighty percent of the Laboratory’sfunding is provided by national security programs, and 90 percent of itsLDRD projects have direct relevance to the needs of these programs.While the remaining projects may not initially seem to have suchrelevance, our experience often shows that they ultimately do.”

In FY 99, the LDRD program spent just over $71 million on more than200 projects involving 1,652 individual employees who worked on theprojects, on average, a quarter of their time.

“Most of these people are well integrated into other programmaticactivities, and we certainly don’t want to lose the ability to transfer theskills and knowledge they gain from LDRD projects to programmaticefforts,” Watkins said.

“It has been extremely difficult to cut $25 million of first-rate researchafter investing months in a careful, peer-reviewed planning process forselecting and assessing our LDRD project portfolio,” said DeputyLaboratory Director Bill Press. “The process has caused significantdisruption for many of our best scientists.”

While he is optimistic that the LDRD program will be able to weatherthis year’s funding setback, Press said he continues to believe that the6-percent level is essential for the long-term health of the Los Alamosdefense programs and the national labs generally.

“As a consequence of the 4-percent budget, we have become concernedabout the long-term prospects for sustaining Los Alamos’ position as afirst-class scientific organization,” Press said. “It’s essential that this beturned around and that we get back to where we can invest in ourfuture through a program that has proven its value in the past.”

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LOCAL NESTING OWLSINSPIRE MOLECULARECOLOGY PROJECT

RESEARCHERS USE FEATHERS

TO STUDY MEXICAN SPOTTED OWL GENETICS

A pair of Mexican spotted owls nesting in Los Alamos have

inspired a unique molecular ecologyproject that may help preserve manyother endangered species.With technology developed through theLab’s Center for Human Genome Studies,researchers are using modern molecularbiology methods to study the geneticcharacteristics of the spotted owl. Their

work could provide valuable information about the birds’ habits towildlife researchers interested in stabilizing endangered species popula-tions through non-invasive, in-depth analyses of their DNA.

A team with extensive experience studying bird genetics is developing amethod of analyzing the DNA characteristics of spotted owls nesting inthe Jemez Mountains and tracking their habits by collecting andanalyzing their feathers.

Jon Longmire and Mary Maltbie of the Lab’s new Bioscience Division,Leslie Hansen of the Ecology Group and contract wildlife biologistTerrell Johnson also are comparing their discoveries about the Jemezowl population with information gleaned from the feathers of birdsfrom the Sangre de Cristo and other adjacent mountain ranges.Eventually, they hope to draw conclusions about the species’ range andthe genetic ties between different populations.

Longmire and Maltbie began working together on bird genetics projectsas graduate students at Texas Tech University. They developed a methodof DNA analysis to sex birds including California condors, emus, geeseand falcons, which have no visible distinguishing sexual characteristics.Maltbie is now a postdoctoral fellow in Longmire’s lab. Over the years,they have built a reputation for molecular biology studies on variousspecies of birds including peregrine falcons and whooping cranes.

ÈA molt ing

Mexicanspotted owl .

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“We decided to propose an LDRD project that might have a positiveimpact on a species of local importance,” Longmire said.

Laboratory-Directed Research and Development (LDRD) allows the Lab toinvest in innovative research to extend its science and technology capabil-ities. The project addresses the Laboratory’s civilian national mission,while expanding its core technical competency in bioscience and biotech-nology. Part of the Laboratory and the Department of Energy’s jointresponsibility is to provide stewardship of the environment, and the owlDNA project is an outgrowth of that responsibility. (For more informationon the LDRD program, see the August 1999 issue of Dateline: Los Alamos.)

The Mexican spotted owl (Strix occidentalis lucida) was listed as feder-ally threatened in 1993. This subspecies of the spotted owl is found innorthern Arizona, southeastern Utah and southwestern Colorado souththrough New Mexico, west Texas and into Mexico. The Mexicanspotted owl generally inhabits mixed conifer, pine-oak and riparianhabitat in mountains and canyons.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s recovery plan for the subspeciesrequires research on population biology, gene flow and genetic isolationof populations. To gain such information in the past, researchers neededto capture and handle the birds to take blood or tissue samples.Studying the feathers the birds have molted in and around their nestseliminates concerns of hurting the owls or changing their behavior.

Johnson has collected nearly 600 Mexican spotted owl feathers from 16identified territories in the Jemez Mountains over the past 17 years.Hansen has built a database of feathers, after photographing each one,giving it a number for tracking purposes and placing it in a bag to ensureno cross contamination occurs.

Maltbie works with the feathers in thelab where she isolates the DNA foranalysis. She takes the end of a feather,dices it up and places it in a solution thatruptures the cells and releases the DNA.After eliminating the proteins and othercontaminants, she is left with a relativelypure form of DNA that looks like water.

“We examine the sample for a specific setof repeats, usually one to six base pairsrepeated over and over,” Maltbie said.

Researchers areable to obta inDNA from owl

feathers ,instead of fromblood or t issue

samples.

Ô

“These sets of repeats areknown as microsatellites.”

A library has been constructedfrom a DNA sample of aMexican spotted owl housedin a rehabilitation center inAlbuquerque. The libraryprovides a way to archive aseries of DNA fragments thattogether constitute multiplecopies of the entire genome ofthe spotted owl.

Maltbie has isolated individual microsatellite clones from the library andis building sets of locus-specific primers to use with the polymerasechain reaction to analyze microsatellites from the feather DNA.

The process has been laborious thus far, and Maltbie has filled severalnotebooks with columns of data, but she expects the pace to quickensoon. “Once the primers are made and fine-tuned, the data will beproduced pretty fast,” she said.

The data produced by this project will allow the researchers to gain abetter understanding of several aspects of spotted owl biology.

“We don’t yet know how far these birds travel, how long they live, howsuccessful they are at reproducing or whether they are site-specific,”Longmire said. “When our database is complete, we will be able toidentify every individual bird within the population and begin to answersome of these questions.”

A comparison of DNA from different populations will be useful in makingmanagement decisions should the numbers of one group begin to decline.

“We would want to know which of the available healthy populations aregenetically similar to one that’s crashing so wildlife managers can makeinformed decisions on restocking,” Longmire said. “We also may findout that there’s not enough genetic variation present within a populationfor it to be healthy, and managers may want to introduce birds that willadd genetic diversity.”

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ÕJon Longmire

and MaryMaltb ie

examine anX-ray f i lm froman exper iment

to ident i fyc lones with inthe l ibrary of

spotted owlDNA that

conta in themicrosate l l i te

sequencesthey’re

searching for .

EXPERIMENTAL STATIONAIMS TO OPEN IN 2001

SURVEY REVEALS HIGH DEMAND

FOR STRUCTURAL BIOLOGY

NEUTRON DIFFRACTION EXPERIMENTS

U.S. scientists are eager to take advantage of a planned structural biology neutron diffraction station inside Los

Alamos’ Manuel J. Lujan Neutron Scattering Center that willuse neutrons produced by its most powerful accelerator forfundamental studies of biological structures.The Laboratory recently completed a survey designed to gauge the needsof the U.S. structural biology community for neutron diffraction instru-mentation. The results will help in planning for the anticipated high

user demand when the exper-imental station becomesoperational in mid-2001.The station, currently underconstruction, will be used tostudy protein crystals, mem-branes, biological fibers andother biological structures.

“This neutron diffractionstation will be the onlyresource of its kind in thenation serving the structuralbiology community fordetermining macromolec-ular structures, once it’scompleted,” said programmanager Paul Langan.

With neutron diffraction, a beam of neutrons passes through a materialunder study and scatters into a pattern that reveals the relative positionsof the atoms in the target material. Neutron diffraction’s big advantageover X-ray diffraction is that neutrons can pinpoint the positions ofhydrogen atoms. Hydrogen atoms are crucially important to the catalyticactivity of enzymes and the macromolecular structure of proteins.

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ÓA v iew downone of thegrooves of theDNA doublehel ix . The DNAatoms arerepresented bya ske leta lmodel . The ova lshapesrepresentorderedwater , asdeterminedfrom neutrondiffract ionstudies , whichstabi l izes theDNA moleculein one of i tsb io logica limportantforms.

The survey went out to more than 700 researchers in the structuralbiology community at more than 100 universities, laboratories andprivate businesses nationwide.

Among major findings of the survey were:

• Seventy-seven percent of all respondents said they expect to useneutron diffraction techniques in the future. In fact, 72 percent ofrespondents who currently do not use neutrons stated they anticipateusing neutron diffraction in the future.

• Forty percent said they plan to be major users of neutron diffraction,and 37 percent plan to use neutron diffraction occasionally.

• Forty-three percent of respondents want to be represented on aStructural Biology Diffraction User Group that will recommend whichstructural biology and biochemistry neutron experiments should receivepriority to the overall LANSCE Program Advisory Committee.

The station will be able to serve only about one-fifth of the anticipateddemand, which is why the survey results also are being sent to OakRidge National Laboratory, where the Department of Energy’s SpallationNeutron Source is to be built.

“We hope that the anticipated high demand for neutron diffractionrevealed in the survey will convince Oak Ridge to build two neutrondiffraction instruments within SNS,” said principal investigatorBenno Schoenborn.

The DOE’s Office of Biological and Environmental Research is funding theconstruction of Los Alamos’ experimental station.

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CHALLENGINGSUPERCOMPUTING

GOVERNOR RECOGNIZES HIGH SCHOOL CONTEST

New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson recently recognized the Laboratory’s High School Supercomputing Challenge

for helping to expose high school students to sciencethrough use of the Lab’s super computers and improving thequalify of life for all New Mexico residents. In proclaiming October as “Supercomputing Month” in New Mexico, thegovernor said the challenge gives high school students the opportunityto work with peers on a statewide basis in a nonselective atmosphere. Hedescribed students’ access to powerful supercomputers as “a benefitunique to New Mexico and not found anywhere else in the world.”

David Kratzer, coordinator of the supercomputing challenge, received acertificate of appreciation from the governor for his “outstandingservice to the children, educators and citizenry of New Mexico. Yourefforts in making a difference have served as an example for us all, andthe citizens of the state of New Mexico owe you a debt of gratitude foryour commitment and devotion,” the certificate states.

The goal of the New Mexico High SchoolSupercomputing Challenge is to increaseknowledge of science and computing,expose students and teachers to computersand applied mathematics, and instillenthusiasm for science in high schoolstudents, their families and communities.Any New Mexico high school student ingrades 9-12 can enter the SupercomputingChallenge, now in its 10th year.

Unlike other computing competitions, the New Mexico High SchoolSupercomputing Challenge is unique because it offers supercomputeraccess to students at every level of expertise and stresses student activityover work by teachers and coaches.

The Challenge also has allowed Los Alamos to partner with the computingindustry and academia. A number of local, national and regional compa-nies, including Intel Corp., Microsoft, SGI (formerly Silicon Graphics),

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ÕMembers of

last year ’sf i rst-p lace

SupercomputingChal lenge teamare interv iewed

by a te lev is ionnews reporter .

CISCO Systems, Kinko’s and New Mexico Technet Inc., have acted assponsors or supported the challenge by providing computer software andhardware and other items as prizes for the winning student teams.

Sandia National Laboratories, the Air Force Research Laboratory, NewMexico Institute of Mining and Technology, New Mexico StateUniversity, University of New Mexico, Eastern New Mexico University,the New Mexico Department of Education, New Mexico HighlandsUniversity, San Juan and Santa Fe community colleges and the Councilfor Higher Education Computing Services also have partnered with LosAlamos on the Supercomputing Challenge.

The Challenge also has served as a recruiting tool to attract high schoolstudents to work at the Lab. Employees who participated in theChallenge have credited it with increasing their interest in Los Alamosas a potential employer.

“I’ve hired several personally,” said Kratzer. “One of the judges who is agroup leader was impressed enough that she contacted me to contact astudent to offer her a job [last] summer.”

The Supercomputing Challenge was conceived in 1990 by former LosAlamos Director Sig Hecker and Tom Thornhill, president of NewMexico Technet Inc., a not-for-profit company that in 1985 set up acomputer network to link New Mexico’s national laboratories, universi-ties, state government and some private companies.

Jeff Hay of Los Alamos’ Network Engineering Group participated in theChallenge during the 1992-93 school year while attending the CareerEnrichment Center, a computer and information technology magnetschool in Albuquerque. Hay teamed with other students on a computa-tional fluid dynamic problem involving wind tunnel modeling.

His experience in the challenge, Hay said, spurred his interest in theLab. “I realized that the Lab does a lot of really neat computer research,and that’s what I wanted to go into.”

More information about the Challenge also can be found on the WorldWide Web at http://www.challenge.nm.org online.

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C O M P U T I N G , I N F O R M A T I O N

A N D C O M M U N I C A T I O N S D I V I S I O N

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VISUALIZE THISVIRTUAL-REALITY THEATER

LETS SCIENTISTS SEE IN DETAIL

Last summer’s blockbuster movie “The Phantom Menace” dazzled audiences with its flights of special-effects fancy.

Some of those special effects were created using infinite-reality graphics pipes built by SGI Inc., formerly SiliconGraphics. Here at Los Alamos, Luke Skywalker isn’t chasingintergalactic bad guys. Rather, scientists are using the state-of-the-art technology to help visualize large sets of datagenerated from supercomputers. The Laboratory’s so-calledvisualization theater is a physics tool for researchers involvedin stockpile stewardship and management.Scientists need better visualization techniques to analyze the largevolumes of data generated by computer simulations. In the weaponsarena, they want to see what happens during the implosion process andsee in detail what goes on in a complex multiphysics calculation.

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ÈResearchers

examine aRay le igh-Tay lor

mix ings imulat ion

disp layed onthe v iewing wal l

of Los A lamos’v isua l izat ion

theater .

The visualization theater helps scientists do just that with the help ofLos Alamos’ vast supercomputing capabilities.

The Los Alamos Visualization SuperCorridor is part of the AcceleratedStrategic Computing Initiative, a key component of the Department ofEnergy’s stockpile stewardship program involving Los Alamos, SandiaNational Laboratories in Albuquerque and Lawrence Livermore NationalLaboratory in California.

The heart of the visualization theater is a system designed by FakespaceInc., of Mountain View, Calif. A 15-foot-by-9-foot, high-resolutionscreen shows three-dimensional images flashed onto the screen by sixrear projection screens. A control console in the theater allows scientiststo remotely manipulate images on the screen to view them fromdifferent angles.

Through the infinite-reality graphics pipes scientists can read thesimulation data and generate visualization data and transmit it viafiber optic cable to 18 locations throughout Los Alamos’ AppliedPhysics Division.

In addition to the viewing wall, the Visualization SuperCorridorincludes two immersive workbench virtual-reality display devices. Theworkbenches, also built by Fakespace Inc., provide a 6-foot-by-5-footviewing screen to display data.

Researchers can manipulate the data by using a virtual-reality pinchglove, similar to a mouse on a computer. When wearing virtual-realityglasses, or goggles, researchers can see their manipulations of the data inthree-dimensional form.

The present visualization theater is an outside-looking-in environment.A next-generation theater currently under construction will allow scien-tists to look at data from the inside out. Scientists could, for example,look at the individual cells in a 100-million-cell calculation and find anaberration in a single computational cell.

C O N T A C T : R O B E R T K A R E S

P L A S M A P H Y S I C S

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A MONTHLY PUBLICATION OF THEPUBLIC AFFAIRS OFFICE OF


Nonprofit Organization U.S. Postage Paid Albuquerque, NM

Permit No.532

IN THIS ISSUE:

PRESENTS FROM HEAVENP A G E 1

3-D IMAGINGP A G E 7

CONGRESS CUTS

LDRD FUNDINGP A G E 9

OWLS INSPIRE

ECOLOGY PROJECTP A G E 1 1

EXPERIMENTAL STATION

AIMS TO OPEN IN 2001P A G E 1 4

CHALLENGING

SUPERCOMPUTINGP A G E 1 6

VISUALIZE THISP A G E 1 8

LALP 99-1-12

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BRIEFLY …

RAYMOND JUZAITIS HAS BEEN NAMED TO A NEW DUAL ROLE AT LOS ALAMOS. He will serve asdeputy associate Laboratory director for nuclear weapons and director for the Department of Energy’sDefense Programs Office National Hydrodynamic Testing Program. In both jobs, Juzaitis will oversee thedevelopment and execution of advanced hydrodynamic testing, part of the U.S. science-based stockpilestewardship program, which strives to ensure the safety and reliability of nuclear weapons without nucleartesting by using nonnuclear hydrodynamic tests, and computer modeling and simulation. Juzaitis willfocus on two major areas. The first will involve the development and use of X-ray and proton technologiesas advanced radiographic instruments applied to visualizing dynamic processes deep inside weapons-relevant experiments. The other will be to structure and coordinate the hydrodynamic testing programand ensure a broad national approach is taken to integrate the existing programs at each of the weaponslaboratories and to establish the various Laboratory test facilities as national user facilities.

Dateline: Los Alamos is availableon the World Wide Web:

http://www.lanl.gov/worldview/news/dateline/.


u.s. department of energy university of california · 2016-10-21 · a monthly publication of the...

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