Hacker News: LAsteNERD

Los Alamos and the long path to detecting neutrinos

LAsteNERD — Wed, 06 May 2026 14:21:07 +0000

Article URL: https://www.lanl.gov/media/publications/1663/from-ghost-particle-to-cosmic-messenger

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48036622

Points: 37

# Comments: 4

New technology will help satellites avoid collisions in space

LAsteNERD — Thu, 19 Mar 2026 18:52:17 +0000

Article URL: https://www.lanl.gov/media/news/0220-satellites-avoid-collisions

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47444084

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

Portable 1MV X-ray system combines Cockcroft–Walton with Van de Graaff dome

LAsteNERD — Thu, 12 Feb 2026 15:51:07 +0000

Article URL: https://www.lanl.gov/media/publications/1663/0624-x-rays-light

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46990308

Points: 19

# Comments: 6

LANL Begins $1B Modernization of Aging Proton Accelerator

LAsteNERD — Thu, 29 Jan 2026 15:01:10 +0000

Article URL: https://www.lanl.gov/media/publications/1663/eric-brown-lansce

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46811097

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

New comment by LAsteNERD in "Event-Mode Neutron Imaging Enables Isotope-Resolved, Time-of-Flight Radiography"

LAsteNERD — Wed, 14 Jan 2026 15:25:13 +0000

Story about how Los Alamos is reinventing neutron imaging — think “x-rays with neutrons” — using new event-mode cameras that record each neutron interaction with nanosecond-level precision.

Traditional neutron imaging works like a long-exposure photo: useful, but blurry. The new system (based on a camera called LumaCam) timestamps every photon from neutron events and uses techniques like event centroiding and pulse-shape discrimination to clean up noise and sharpen images dramatically.

Why neutrons? Because they reveal things x-rays can’t — like light elements, isotopic composition, and crystal structure. This is especially powerful for materials science and nuclear diagnostics, where understanding what something is made of (not just where it is) really matters.

Event-Mode Neutron Imaging Enables Isotope-Resolved, Time-of-Flight Radiography

LAsteNERD — Wed, 14 Jan 2026 15:25:13 +0000

Article URL: https://www.lanl.gov/media/publications/1663/crystal-clear

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46617084

Points: 1

# Comments: 1

New comment by LAsteNERD in "LANL's ICE House Tests Microelectronics for Cosmic Radiation Exposure"

LAsteNERD — Thu, 08 Jan 2026 16:12:13 +0000

Article from Los Alamos is about the ICE House, a facility where they test electronics by blasting them with neutrons that mimic what you’d get flying at 35,000 feet for decades. One hour of testing = 100 years of cosmic radiation.

It’s part of a larger effort to make electronics rad-hard — so that microchips don’t randomly glitch or die in flight (or in orbit). Especially relevant as chips shrink and transistor counts hit hundreds of billions (i.e. more chances for failure).

Some highlights:

Neutrons from space can flip bits or cause “latch-ups” (think: permanent short circuits).

These upsets can lead to weird bugs, BSODs, or worse — especially at altitude.

The ICE House runs ~24/7 and still can’t keep up with demand from avionics and chip companies.

They’re now planning a third beamline to expand testing capacity, and even working on proton-based testing for space use cases.

If you’re into hardware reliability, aerospace, or just cosmic-ray horror stories for computers, this is worth the read.

LANL's ICE House Tests Microelectronics for Cosmic Radiation Exposure

LAsteNERD — Thu, 08 Jan 2026 16:12:13 +0000

Article URL: https://www.lanl.gov/media/publications/1663/ice-house-heats-up

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46542693

Points: 11

# Comments: 3

Lidar is being used to modernize complex infrastructure

LAsteNERD — Tue, 09 Dec 2025 16:18:40 +0000

Article URL: https://www.lanl.gov/media/publications/1663/lidar-at-lansce

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46206718

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

Can AI keep particle accelerators in line?

LAsteNERD — Wed, 03 Dec 2025 16:56:40 +0000

Article URL: https://www.lanl.gov/media/publications/1663/can-ai-keep-accelerators-in-line

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46136842

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

The Curious Conservative War on Beer

LAsteNERD — Mon, 29 Sep 2025 17:50:10 +0000

Article URL: https://slate.com/life/2025/09/beer-sales-decline-bud-light-donald-trump-news.html

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45416686

Points: 7

# Comments: 2

New comment by LAsteNERD in "Los Alamos is building a "breath profile" to detect disease non-invasively"

LAsteNERD — Wed, 03 Sep 2025 14:31:50 +0000

LANL researchers are cataloguing the molecules in healthy human breath to create a baseline profile that could enable new non-invasive diagnostics.

Some details:

Method: Using tandem mass spectrometry, the team has identified 227 distinct compounds across 31 volunteers, narrowing to 48 common features that may define “healthy breath.”

Patterns: Certain metabolites correlated with sex and time of day; others trace back to environmental contaminants or microbiome interactions.

Partnerships: Collaborating with the University of New Mexico to expand sampling (including both breath and blood data).

Goal: Easy-to-use diagnostic tests where a patient might one day “just breathe” to screen for illness, fatigue, or impairment.

The approach echoes the original breathalyzer’s leap in the 1950s but applies it to a far wider range of health conditions.

Los Alamos is building a "breath profile" to detect disease non-invasively

LAsteNERD — Wed, 03 Sep 2025 14:31:50 +0000

Article URL: https://www.lanl.gov/media/publications/1663/1224-just-breathe

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45116287

Points: 4

# Comments: 3

How to learn just as much in half the time: watch videos at 2x speed

LAsteNERD — Tue, 02 Sep 2025 15:33:53 +0000

Article URL: https://www.inc.com/jeff-haden/science-says-this-is-how-to-learn-and-retain-just-as-much-in-half-the-time/91234310

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45104433

Points: 3

# Comments: 1

Scientists Create Molecule That Stores Energy Like Plants Do

LAsteNERD — Tue, 26 Aug 2025 15:37:35 +0000

Article URL: https://thedebrief.org/artificial-photosynthesis-breakthrough-scientists-create-molecule-that-stores-energy-like-plants-do/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45028037

Points: 4

# Comments: 0

New comment by LAsteNERD in "Animation: Proton radiography sees through explosions (boom)"

LAsteNERD — Tue, 26 Aug 2025 15:02:57 +0000

Los Alamos's proton radiography (pRad) facility uses beams of high-energy protons to capture images of dynamic, high-density events — think explosions. A clear, animated explainer of how it works.

Animation: Proton radiography sees through explosions (boom)

LAsteNERD — Tue, 26 Aug 2025 15:02:57 +0000

Article URL: https://www.lanl.gov/media/publications/1663/how-prad-works

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45027577

Points: 2

# Comments: 1

Scientists turn spin loss into energy, unlocking ultra-low-power AI chips

LAsteNERD — Mon, 25 Aug 2025 16:36:43 +0000

Article URL: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/08/250825015633.htm

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45015725

Points: 4

# Comments: 0

New comment by LAsteNERD in "Los Alamos discovers a "quantum butterfly effect" – and its surprising opposite"

LAsteNERD — Wed, 20 Aug 2025 14:04:25 +0000

Chaos theory gave us the butterfly effect: tiny changes that balloon into massive consequences (Lorenz’s weather simulations, or Bradbury’s time-travel butterfly). But Los Alamos researchers just showed that quantum systems don’t always play by those rules.

Using theory, simulations, and IBM’s quantum processors, physicists explored whether small quantum-level disruptions would spiral out of control over time. The result? At the quantum scale, entanglement actually heals damage. A particle “sent back in time” and deliberately altered can return to the present nearly unchanged.

In other words:

Lorenz-style chaos does exist at the quantum level (slight variations can diverge wildly). But there’s also a quantum anti-butterfly effect: in sufficiently entangled systems, information “damaged” in the past can be restored in the present. This has direct implications for quantum computing (a new way to measure “how quantum” a computer really is) and potential applications in information security and error correction. As lead scientist Bin Yan put it: “At the quantum scale, reality is self-healing.”

Los Alamos discovers a "quantum butterfly effect" – and its surprising opposite

LAsteNERD — Wed, 20 Aug 2025 14:04:25 +0000

Article URL: https://www.lanl.gov/media/publications/1663/0821-the-quantum-butterfly-effect

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44962092

Points: 5

# Comments: 1