los alamos national laboratory

Quantum Dots are marvelous little crystalline structures that work as electrical semiconductors and emit light.  But that's not all they do.  Dr. Jennifer Hollingsworth of the Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, talked about the many potential applications of these tiny wonders.  Veteran broadcast journalists Judy Muller and George Lewis moderated the talk with Dr. Hollingsworth. 

Can algae power cars? Biofuels are an often-overlooked green energy source. Los Alamos National Laboratory's Babs Marrone explains.

With a place-based approach that emphasizes community-level input, I-WEST is looking at how best to incorporate  technologies for decarbonization, such as clean hydrogen, carbon capture and storage, bioenergy, wind and solar, into the region’s economies. 

This podcast was produced by Los Alamos National Laboratory.

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On Perseverance's Martian "landiversary," relive the excitement of the rover's historic touchdown and hear about the fascinating discoveries that it's made — and what it could do next.

Mars Technica is produced by Los Alamos National Laboratory. Cover art by Joey Montoya. Photo illustration by JPL/NASA. With special thanks to Jennifer Talhelm, Laura Mullane and Camille Dickson.

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The National Security Science podcast is a spin-off of National Security Sciencemagazine at Los Alamos National Laboratory. We bring you stories from the Lab’s Weapons Program—stories that show how innovative science and engineering are the key to keeping America safe. Or, as we like to say, better science equals better security.

ReadNational Security Sciencemagazine online here. Request a print copy or provide feedback by emailing magazine@lanl.gov.

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Podcast artwork: 46680597© Elenadesigner | Dreamstime.com

Previous title: Holiday special featuring a 1964 holiday poem from "The Atom"

Evidence shows that there may have been massive flash floods on Mars billions of years ago.

Mars Technica is produced by Los Alamos National Laboratory. Cover art by Joey Montoya. Photo illustration courtesy JPL/NASA.  With special thanks to Jennifer Talhelm, Laura Mullane, Arthur Bishop and Camille Dickson.

Warmer temperatures, driven by climate change, are forcing animal habitats to change, and increasing human-animal interactions. In the first episode of Climatology — a podcast series on climate science at Los Alamos National Laboratory — researchers discuss climate change's role in disease spread.

Photo credit: Joey Montoya. Episode host: Lexi Petronis. Written and edited by Nick Njegomir. Special thanks to Joey Montoya, Lexi Petronis and Laura Mullane. This episode is part of Down to a Science: A LANL Podcast Series.

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The terrorist attacks on 9/11 changed the country and the way we approach national security. Experts explain efforts before, during and after.

Artwork created by Joey Montoya. Special thanks to Lexi Petronis, Joey Montoya and episode guests  Nancy Jo Nicholas (Associate Laboratory Director for Global Security),  John Browne (former LANL Director) and Terry Wallace (former LANL Director).

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For the first time ever, a spacecraft on another planet has recorded sound from an entirely separate spacecraft. Learn why scientists are surprised by what they heard.

Mars Technica is produced by Los Alamos National Laboratory. Cover art by Joey Montoya. Photo illustration courtesy JPL/NASA. With special thanks to Laura Mullane, Scott Faulk, Charles Poling, Nick Njegomir, Arthur Bishop and Camille Dickson.

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Los Alamos was so secret that in some cases, it didn’t even exist – like on the birth certificates of the babies who were born here during the Manhattan Project era. Relics is produced by Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Public Affairs. Joey Montoya is producer; Brye Steeves is writer and host. Special thanks to Alan Carr, Jim Kunetka, Chris C’de Baca, Andrew Gordon, Lexi Petronis, Riz Ali, and Scott Faulk. 

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Listen to audio of SuperCam's laser popping against Martian rock and wind as it whooshes past the rover. LANL principal investigator Roger Wiens explains what the sounds mean. 

Mars Technica is produced by Los Alamos National Laboratory. Cover art by Joey Montoya. Photo illustration courtesy NASA/JPL. With special thanks to Laura Mullane, Scott Faulk, Charles Poling, Arthur Bishop and Camille Dickson.

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Once upon a time at UC Santa Cruz, a group of renegade grad students started mixing physics with math and computers, determined to discover underlying patterns in the seeming-randomness of systems like the weather and roulette. Their research led to major insights in the emerging field of chaos theory, and eventually to the new discipline of complexity economics — which brings models from ecology and physics, cognitive science and biology together to improve our understanding of how value flows through networks, how people make decisions, and how new technologies evolve. As the human world weaves new global economic systems and sustainability looms ever-larger in importance, it is finally time to heed the warnings — and the promises — of this new paradigm of economics.

Welcome to Complexity, the official podcast of the Santa Fe Institute. I’m your host, Michael Garfield, and every other week we’ll bring you with us for far-ranging conversations with our worldwide network of rigorous researchers developing new frameworks to explain the deepest mysteries of the universe.

This week on Complexity, we speak with SFI External Professor J. Doyne Farmer at INET Oxford, to tour his fifty years of pioneering work and current book-in-progress, The Complexity Economics Revolution. Topics include how ecology inspires novel forms of macroeconomics; how “bounded rationality” changes the narrative about rational self-interested economic actors; how leverage leads to greater instability; how new tools can help us predict emerging innovations and engineer a better banking system; the skewed incentives of science funding and venture capital; his take on cryptocurrencies; and more…

If you value our research and communication efforts, please rate and review us at Apple Podcasts, and/or consider making a donation at santafe.edu/podcastgive. You can find numerous other ways to engage with us at santafe.edu/engage. Thank you for listening!

Join our Facebook discussion group to meet like minds and talk about each episode.

Podcast theme music by Mitch Mignano.

Follow us on social media:
Twitter • YouTube • Facebook • Instagram • LinkedIn

Key Links:

Doyne Farmer’s Personal Website | SFI Page | INET Oxford Page | Google Scholar Page

Doyne Farmer and related talks on our YouTube channel

Complexity Economics from SFI Press

Related Complexity Podcast Episodes:

W. Brian Arthur on The History & Future of Complexity Economics

[Farmer’s PhD student] R. Maria del-Rio Chanona on Modeling Labor Markets
Matthew Jackson on The Science of Social Networks

Geoffrey West on Scaling and Superlinear Innovation
David Krakauer on Collapse & High-Beta Investment Strategies

Millions of miles and eight months of travel come to an end with a terrifying seven-minute landing. First things first: The rover starts on its to-do list.

Mars Technica is produced by Los Alamos National Laboratory. Cover art by Joey Montoya. Photo illustration courtesy NASA/JPL. With special thanks to Laura Mullane, Scott Faulk, Charles Poling, Arthur Bishop and Camille Dickson.

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The National Security Science podcast is a spin-off of National Security Science magazine at Los Alamos National Laboratory. We bring you stories from the Lab’s Weapons Program—stories that show how innovative science and engineering are the key to keeping America safe. Or, as we like to say, better science equals better security.

In this episode, siblings Joel and Candace Vargas siblings sing about some of the Laboratory's earliest computers. Read more about the Vargas siblings in “Math and music run in this family” in the winter 2020 issue of the National Security Science magazine. Read “Computing on the Mesa” for a comprehensive history of computing at Los Alamos National Laboratory.

The bulk of this podcast features mathematician Mary Tsingou (now Mary Tsingou Menzel). In the 1950s, Tsingou programmed the MANIAC computer to solve a problem that Enrico Fermi, John Pasta, and Stan Ulam came up with—their famous vibrating string experiment. She went on to become a coding expert, working on many Los Alamos projects during her accomplished 30-year career. Today, she and her husband still live in Los Alamos, and in May of 2020, she talked with NSS writer Virginia Grant about her work at the Laboratory. Read the full story, “We thank Miss Mary Tsingou” in the winter 2020 issue of the National Security Science magazine.

Request a print copy or provide feedback by emailing magazine@lanl.gov.

Photo for this episode's artwork:  Dreamstime ID 60149534 Romolo Tavini

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Previous title: Holiday special featuring Mary Tsingou

Nestled within its spacecraft millions of miles from Earth, SuperCam sent scientists an update.

Mars Technica is produced by Los Alamos National Laboratory. Cover art by Joey Montoya. Image courtesy NASA/JPL. With special thanks to Laura Mullane, Scott Faulk, Charles Poling, Arthur Bishop and Camille Dickson.

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Who shoots the lasers on Mars? These two scientists do.

Mars Technica is produced by Los Alamos National Laboratory. Cover art by Joey Montoya. Images courtesy NASA and NASA/JPL. With special thanks to Laura Mullane, Scott Faulk, Charles Poling, Arthur Bishop and Camille Dickson.

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Living microbes play a role in forming rock varnish on Earth. Could they play a role in Martian rock varnish, too?

Mars Technica is produced by Los Alamos National Laboratory. Cover art by Joey Montoya. Images courtesy NASA/JPL and NASA/JPL/Caltech. With special thanks to Laura Mullane, Scott Faulk, Charles Poling, Arthur Bishop and Camille Dickson.

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How do you drive a rover on another planet? Could life on Mars have gone underground?

Mars Technica is produced by Los Alamos National Laboratory. Cover art by Joey Montoya. Images courtesy NASA/JPL and  NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/JHU-APL. With special thanks to Laura Mullane, Scott Faulk, Charles Poling, Arthur Bishop and Camille Dickson.

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Billions of years ago, Mars was warmer and wetter. Could a dried-up lakebed harbor secrets of past life?

Mars Technica is produced by Los Alamos National Laboratory. Cover art by Joey Montoya. Photo illustrations courtesy NASA/JPL and NASA/JPL-Caltech/Arizona State University. With special thanks to Laura Mullane, Scott Faulk, Charles Poling, Arthur Bishop and Camille Dickson.

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It takes a special battery to power a rover on another planet.

Mars Technica is produced by Los Alamos National Laboratory. Cover art by Joey Montoya. Photo illustration courtesy JPL/NASA. With special thanks to Laura Mullane, Scott Faulk, Charles Poling, Arthur Bishop and Camille Dickson.

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