Hacker News: LAsteNERD

The Quantum Computing Breakthrough Hidden Inside Decoherence

LAsteNERD — Wed, 27 May 2026 15:15:26 +0000

Article URL: https://www.lanl.gov/media/publications/1663/the-race-to-build-a-quantum-computer

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48295620

Points: 3

# Comments: 0

New comment by LAsteNERD in "A 1955 Los Alamos computer experiment changed our understanding of chaos"

LAsteNERD — Tue, 19 May 2026 16:55:17 +0000

In 1955, Mary Tsingou helped run a computational experiment at Los Alamos that revealed unexpected behavior in nonlinear systems—work that later became foundational to chaos theory and computational science.

This piece traces that history from early supercomputers and the Fermi-Pasta-Ulam-Tsingou problem to modern AI systems used to explore uncertainty in scientific research.

A 1955 Los Alamos computer experiment changed our understanding of chaos

LAsteNERD — Tue, 19 May 2026 16:55:17 +0000

Article URL: https://www.lanl.gov/media/publications/1663/science-of-unpredictability

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48195941

Points: 71

# Comments: 3

New comment by LAsteNERD in "Strange crystals found inside wreckage from the first nuclear bomb test"

LAsteNERD — Mon, 18 May 2026 19:30:30 +0000

Trinity: https://www.lanl.gov/media/publications/1663/0922-revising-t...

The nuclear-physics infrastructure behind PET scans

LAsteNERD — Wed, 13 May 2026 14:13:12 +0000

Article URL: https://www.lanl.gov/media/publications/1663/proton-power-for-public-health

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48122172

Points: 60

# Comments: 4

New comment by LAsteNERD in "Los Alamos and the long path to detecting neutrinos"

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

Neutrinos were originally proposed as a “desperate remedy” to fix missing energy in nuclear decay, but turned out to be real—just incredibly hard to detect. Tens of quadrillions can pass through matter before one interacts. Los Alamos physicists (Reines and Cowan) confirmed their existence in 1956 using a nuclear reactor as a source. Since then, neutrino experiments have repeatedly exposed gaps in the Standard Model—like neutrino oscillations, which proved they have mass, and ongoing hints at possible “sterile” neutrinos. What’s interesting is how detection capability drove the science: better detectors led to unexpected anomalies which led to new physics. Today, neutrinos are used as probes of everything from stellar processes to matter–antimatter asymmetry, and experiments are still chasing open questions like whether neutrinos are their own antiparticles.

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: 45

# Comments: 5

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