RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS

New Publication Looking at Global COVID-19 Variant Transition Dynamics Bette Korber, a Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and New Mexico Consortium scientist, along with a team of researchers at LANL recently published the most comprehensive study looking at global COVID-19 variant transition dynamics in eBioMedicine. This paper, titled SARS-CoV-2 variant transition dynamics are associated with

Bette Korber Publishes Report on NIH Prioritization of SARS-CoV-2 Variants Bette Korber, a scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory and the New Mexico Consortium, recently published an online report titled, US National Institutes of Health Prioritization of SARS-CoV-2 Variants, with the CDC’s Emerging Infectious Diseases journal. In an effort to overcome and stay on top

Dr. Sayre To Give Keynote Lecture at Molecular Biophysics and Bioimaging Retreat New Mexico Consortium Scientist Dr. Richard Sayre will be giving an invited keynote lecture for the annual Molecular Biophysics and Bioimaging Retreat at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory on May 3rd entitled “Remodeling Photosynthesis for Enhanced Carbon Capture and Sequestration” Addressing the dual challenges of

Rex Hjelm to Present at 9th International Conference on Polymeric Materials in Automotive PMA 2023 New Mexico Consortium scientist Rex Hjelm has been invited to present a keynote lecture at the 9th International Conference on Polymeric Materials in Automotive PMA 2023. This meeting focuses on various aspects related to plastics and rubber in the automotive

Dr. Elizabeth MacDonald Publishes on How Citizen Science is an Asset to Heliophysics. Dr. Elizabeth MacDonald and colleagues recently published a paper titled, Agile collaboration: Citizen science as a transdisciplinary approach to heliophysics, in Frontiers Journal. Dr. MacDonald, along with other colleagues from the New Mexico Consortium Aurorasaurus project, and 17 other institutions, have put

Dr. Alina Corcoran Presents at 2023 DOE Peer Review Dr. Alina Corcoran gave a talk at the 2023 DOE Peer Review Monday April 3, 2023 on her project, “Optimizing Selection Pressures and Pest Management to Maximize Algal Biomass Yield”. The goal of this project is to use a field-adapted industry strain and field-lab-field iterations across

Aurorasaurus project and STEVE research featured in Washington Post The Aurorasaurus project, supported by the New Mexico Consortium, was recently featured in the Washington Post in an article highlighting a new phenomenon they have been studying called STEVE. STEVE, or Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement, is an aurora-like phenomenon, but it is not an aurora.

NMC Scientist Bette Korber Publishes in Nature Communications New Mexico Consortium (NMC) scientist Bette Korber, recently published her work Characterization of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron BA.2.75 Clinical Isolates in Nature Communications. One variant of COVID-19, the Omicron subvariant BA.2.75, quickly increased and spread  in India and Nepal during the summer of 2022, and spread globally. This research

Garrett Kenyon Presents Work at INRC Forum Community Garrett Kenyon, a Los Alamos National Laboratory scientist and New Mexico Consortium affiliate, gave a presentation to the Intel Neuromorphic Research Community (INRC) Forum Community on Tuesday March 28, 2023. His talk was titled Sparse Coding with Locally Competitive Algorithm on Loihi 2. The Intel Neuromorphic Research

Karen Rieck Publishes in Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry New Mexico Consortium scientist, Karen Rieck, recently published her work titled, Depth profiling and standardization from the back side of a sample for accurate analyses: Emphasis on quantifying low-fluence, shallow implants in diamond-like carbon in the journal Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry. Dr. Rieck and colleagues

A Platform Non-GMO Technology for the Bacterial Diseases in Plants of Economic Importance Recently a publication, title: “Host-derived chimeric peptides clear the causative bacteria and augment host innate immunity during infection: A case study of HLB in citrus and fire blight in apple ”, appeared in the journal of Frontiers in Plant Science. This work was

Zhaoming Gan Presented his Work at AGU Fall Meeting Zhaoming Gan, a scientist at the New Mexico Consortium, recently attended the American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting where he presented his work on, The Near-Sun Turbulence Mediated by Parametric Decaying Instability of Alfvén Waves. AGU, a meeting dedicated to the advancement of Earth and space

Ahlem Jebali Presents at 2022 Algal Biomass Summit Ahlem Jebali, a scientist at the New Mexico Consortium, recently presented her work at the 2022 Algal Biomass Summit. The Algal Biomass Summit is an all virtual conference that took place October 2-28, 2022. This world’s largest algal event is where commercial leaders, entrepreneurs, scientists, policymakers, investors,

Feiyu Li Presents On Hybrid Simulation Tool for Studying Laboratory Alfvén Waves New Mexico Consortium scientist Feiyu Li recently gave a presentation on Alfven wave physics at the 64th Annual Meeting of APS Division of Plasma Physics held October 17-21, 2022 in Spokane, Washington. Alfven waves are of fundamental importance in space science, and they

Tom Terwilliger and Colleagues Show How to Include Implicit Experimental Information in AlphaFold Predictions Tom Terwilliger, a scientist with Los Alamos National Laboratory and the New Mexico Consortium, recently published his research showing how to include implicit experimental information in AlphaFold predictions in Nature Methods. This work, titled Improved AlphaFold modeling with implicit experimental information, was

Student Scientists Present at AVS International Symposium and Exhibition To build an interdisciplinary workforce pipeline in science and technology and to diversify its membership, the American Vacuum Society (AVS) encourages undergraduate student scientists to present at the AVS International Symposium and Exhibition and regional AVS chapter meetings. What is AVS? AVS is an organization that

Recent algal yield and stability research has recently produced a new publication. This research was co-lead by Alina Corcoran, New Mexico Consortium scientist, and Shawn Starkenburg and Blake Hovde, from Los Alamos National Laboratory. Major contributions came from LANL scientist Erik Hanschen, and New Mexico State University scientists Anthony Granite and F.O. Holguin, as well as from

A New Method for Understanding How Artificial Intelligence Works Haydn Jones, a Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) scientist, along with Garrett Kenyon, a LANL scientist and New Mexico Consortium affiliate, along with colleagues, recently came up with a new method for understanding how artificial intelligence works and published a paper which they presented at the

Ahlem Jebali Publishes Work on Trait Drift in Microalgae Ahlem Jebali, a postdoctoral research scientist at the New Mexico Consortium, along with Alina Corcoran, a scientist at the New Mexico Consortium, recently have published their work, Trait drift in microalgae and applications for strain improvement, in Biotechnology Advances. This review focuses on trait drift in microalgae

Rex Hjelm Presents at 14th Fall Rubber Colloquium Rex Hjelm, a scientist at the New Mexico Consortium, has been invited to present at the upcoming KHK Fall Rubber Colloquium in Hanover, Germany. His presentation is titled “Molecular-scale polymer melts response to shear in the linear and non-linear rheological domains: affects of molecular weight and complex

Xiangrong Fu Publishes Solar Wind Research in the Astrophysical Journal Xiangrong Fu, a scientist at the New Mexico Consortium, recently published his work, Nature and Scalings of Density Fluctuations of Compressible Magnetohydrodynamic Turbulence with Applications to the Solar Wind in the Astrophysical Journal. The solar wind is a high speed flow made of charge particles

Richard Sayre Publishes Work on Enhanced Biomass Production in Microalgae Richard Sayre, a scientist with the New Mexico Consortium and colleague Sowmya Subramanian of Thermo Fischer Scientific, have recently published their work titled,  The right stuff; realizing the potential for enhanced biomass production in microalgae, in Frontiers in Energy Research. The commercialization of eukaryotic microalgae

Geoff Reeves Participates in International Space Safety Program Geoff Reeves, a scientist at the New Mexico Consortium, has been asked to participate as an advisor in the FARBES project, a European Space Agency project supported by the European Horizon Program. The project is led by professor János Lichtenberger, of ELTE University in Hungary. ELTE University’s

Ohkay Owingeh, High Water Mark and UNM Create Sensors that Measure Rain and Flooding This August, the Ohkay Owingeh board of Governors, and law enforcement and emergency officers from the Ohkay Owingeh pueblo, a team of UNM researchers, and engineers and scientists from High Water Mark LLC met to discuss effective ways to measure and

Dr. Esteban Rougier Publishes His Work on How Gas Damages Concrete Dr. Esteban Rougier, a scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), along with colleagues from the University of New Mexico and LANL, recently published their work on how gas damages concrete. This study titled, Correlating damage and cracking with air (gas) permeability in concrete

Maria Voskresenskaya Presents at GEM 2022 Maria Voskresenskaya, a scientist at the New Mexico Consortium (NMC), recently presented her work at the 2022 GEM Summer Workshop held June 19-26 in Honolulu, Hawaii. The Geospace Environment Modeling (GEM) program is a National Science Foundation (NSF) Division of Atmospheric Sciences initiative to coordinate and focus research on

Zhaoming Gan Presents at Parker Solar Probe Community Workshop Zhaoming Gan, a space scientist at the New Mexico Consortium, has presented his research at the second annual Parker Solar Probe Community Workshop, which was held from June 21 – 24, 2022 The second annual Parker Solar Probe community workshop, Parker Two, took place at the

Feiyu Li Presents His Work on Alfven Wave Physics and Laser Accelerators Feiyu Li, a scientist at the New Mexico Consortium (NMC), recently presented his work on Alfven wave physics and Laser Accelerators at both the MagNet US 2022 meeting and at the 49th International Conference on Plasma Science. Li’s first presentation titled, On the

Dr. Elena Sineva Presents at ASM Microbe 2022 Dr. Elena Sineva, a scientist at the New Mexico Consortium, recently presented at the American Society for Microbiology (ASM) Microbe 2022 Conference. The ASM Microbe Symposium is important because the fields of clinical and environmental microbiology are rapidly evolving. Many discoveries in microbiology are occurring at the

Hjelm Publishes Work on Gas Diffusion in Journal of Environmental Radioactivity New Mexico Consortium scientist, Rex P. Hjelm, recently published a new article, Gas diffusion through variably-water-saturated zeolitic tuff: Implications for transport following a subsurface nuclear event, in the Journal of Environmental Radioactivity.  When studying and understanding underground nuclear explosions (UNEs), it is important to understand

NMC Scientist Rex P. Hjelm Publishes Work in International Journal of Coal Geology Rex P. Hjelm, a New Mexico Consortium scientist, recently published his work “Probing oil recovery in shale nanopores with small-angle and ultra-small-angle neutron scattering” in the International Journal of Coal Geology. Due to growing energy demands, it is critical to increase oil

Emma Goldberg Recently Published in The American Naturalist New Mexico Consortium scientist, Emma Goldberg, recently published an article titled, Effects of plasticity on elevational range size and species richness in The American Naturalist. This research looks at “plasticity”, which is the process that causes an organism to develop different characteristics in different environments. Plasticity tends

NMC Scientists and USDA-ARS Collaborators Offer Solutions to a Deadly Citrus Disease Scientist from the New Mexico Consortium (NMC) have a new publication titled, Two Liberibacter Proteins Combine to Suppress Critical Innate Immune Defenses in Citrus. This publication will be published soon in Frontiers in Plant Science in the Crop and Product Physiology section. The

Worldwide Collaboration to Tackle Covid Pandemic There is a worldwide collaboration with scientists to tackle this COVID-19 pandemic. Bette Korber, a Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) scientist and New Mexico Consortium affiliate, along with LANL colleagues Hyejin Yoon, Will Fischer and James Theiler, and among nearly 130 authors from institutions around the world, recently published

Zhaoming Gan, a scientist at the New Mexico Consortium (NMC) and Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), recently published his work, On the Existence of Fast Modes in Compressible Magnetohydrodynamic Turbulence, in The Astrophysical Journal. This research was completed with colleagues Xiangrong Fu a scientist at the NMC and LANL, along with Hui Li and Senbei Du, both scientists from LANL.

Dr. Ryan Crumley Presents on Seasonal Snow Modeling at AMS 2022 Dr. Ryan Crumley, Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) postdoctoral researcher and New Mexico Consortium (NMC) affiliate, recently gave a presentation about seasonal snow modeling at the 102nd AMS Annual Meeting which took place from January 23-27, 2022. Crumley’s presentation titled “Recent advances and future

UNM Students Create Rockslide Danger Detecting Robot Students at the University of New Mexico’s (UNM) Smart Management of Infrastructure Laboratory (SMILab) have created a remote-controlled robot that can safely inspect rockslide sites and detect potential future rockslide danger. SMILab, which is the direction of Dr. Fernando Moreu, is housed in the UNM’s Center for Advanced

Sayre and Zidenga Publish Research on Cassava Cyanide Toxicity New Mexico Consortium scientists Richard Sayre and Tawanda Zidenga, along with Jennifer McMahon of Kenyon College, recently published their research on cassava cyanide toxicity, Cyanogenesis in cassava and its molecular manipulation for crop improvement, in the Journal of Experimental Biology. Cassava is one of the top

Tom Terwilliger Publishes Structural Biology Research in bioRxiv Tom Terwilliger, a scientist at the New Mexico Consortium, recently published his work, Improved AlphaFold modeling with implicit experimental information, in bioRxiv. Machine learning prediction algorithms (such as AlphaFold) are transforming the way that three-dimensional structures of proteins are obtained. These algorithms can create extremely accurate protein

Feiyu Li and Xiangrong Fu Publish in The Astrophysical Journal New Mexico Consortium scientists Feiyu Li and Xiangrong Fu, recently published their work titled Parametric Decay of Alfvénic Wave Packets in Nonperiodic Low-beta Plasmas in The Astrophysical Journal. Alfvén waves (AW) are very important in magnetized plasmas. Because they have little geometrical attenuation, these waves

Dr. Yoko Suzuki, a scientist at the New Mexico Consortium, has recently published her work Vacuum Texture: A New Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics and a New Loophole for Bell’s Inequality Measurements that Preserves Local Realism and Causality in the International Journal of Quantum Foundations. EPR paradox arose in 1935 when Einstein asked a rather sarcastic question (expecting

Ke and Perelson Publish New Model Linking COVID-19 Viral Load to Infectiousness Dr. Ruian Ke and Dr. Alan Perelson, both from the Los Alamos National Laboratory and New Mexico Consortium, recently published a new study, In vivo kinetics of SARS-CoV-2 infection and its relationship with a person’s infectiousness, linking COVID-19 viral load to infectiousness. This

Emma Goldberg Publishes SARS-CoV-2 Variants Research Emma Goldberg, a Los Alamos National Laboratory and New Mexico Consortium scientist, along with colleagues, have recently published their work, Estimating the strength of selection for new SARS-CoV-2 variants, in Science Communications. With the COVID-19 pandemic, it is difficult to control the virus as it continues to adapt to

The Aurorasaurus team, which includes scientists, ambassadors, volunteers and partners, is giving multiple presentations at this year’s fall American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting held at the New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center and available online from 13-17 December 2021. AGU’s mission is to support and inspire a global community of individuals and organizations

Researchers Race To Understand Omicron Researchers are now racing to understand the Omicron variant of COVID-19. Back at the end of November, Beth Korber, a research scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory and the New Mexico Consortium, reached out to many of her fellow immunologists with concerning news about some new variants she was tracking.

Postdoc Orlando Schwery Presents at Entomology Annual Meeting Orlando Schwery, a Postdoc in Emma Goldberg’s Lab at the New Mexico Consortium and Visiting Scholar at the University of Idaho, recently presented his work at the 2021 Entomology Annual Meeting which was held in Denver, CO from October 31-November 3, 2021. The Entomological Society of America

Perelson Studies Effects of Antiviral Drugs on COVID-19 Alan S. Perelson, a Los Alamos National Laboratory scientist and New Mexico Consortium affiliate, and colleagues recently published their work, Detection of significant antiviral drug effects on COVID-19 with reasonable sample sizes in randomized controlled trials: A modeling study in PLOS. It is a global health priority

NMC Student Highlight: PhD Student Stephanie Getto Stephanie Getto is a first year PhD student at New Mexico State University, in the Molecular Biology and Interdisciplinary Life Sciences program. As a New Mexico Consortium researcher, she is currently in the beginning stages of developing research questions relevant to her field and is under the mentorship

SMILab at UNM presents results on cyber security research and training for safer Wireless Sensor Networks, Structural Health Monitoring and Secure Digital Twins. The New Mexico Consortium is supporting the exploration of cyber security in the context of Structural Health Monitoring and Advanced Wireless Sensor Networks. The project is part of a common collaboration between

Alan Perelson, a Los Alamos National Laboratory scientist and New Mexico Consortium affiliate, along with colleagues, recently published his study looking at the viral load dynamics in hospitalized patients with severe coronavirus disease. This work is titled: Viral Load Kinetics of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 in Hospitalized Individuals With Coronavirus Disease 2019.  It

Richard Sayre, NMC Scientist, Featured in Open Access Government The research of Richard Sayre, a senior scientist at the New Mexico Consortium, was recently featured in an article titled Supercharging biological carbon capture and food production in the digital publication Open Access Government. Sayre’s research looks at bioengineering for improved photosynthesis in order to strengthen

Dan Reisenfeld Publishes work on 3-D Map of Heliosphere Daniel Reisenfeld, a Los Alamos National Laboratory scientist and New Mexico Consortium affiliate, recently published his work, A Three-dimensional Map of the Heliosphere from IBEX, in the Astrophysical Journal. The Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) is a NASA Small Explorer mission to map the boundary of the

Dr. Elizabeth MacDonald and Laura Brandt, from the Aurorasaurus team, recently attended the Geospace Environment Modeling (GEM) 2021 virtual summer workshop (https://gemworkshop.org/) where they presented their educational tool, the 3D Printed Magnetosphere Model. The GEM 2021 Summer workshop was held as an all virtual meeting, in a similar format as VGEM 2020 but extending over

Bette Korber, a senior scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory and the New Mexico Consortium, recently has published research which compares the COVID-19 virus with a very different virus HIV-1. This work published in the July issue of Cell Host & Microbe is titled, HIV-1 and SARS-CoV-2: Patterns in the evolution of two pandemic pathogens.

New Mexico Consortium scientist Wataru Nishima and colleagues recently published their work, “Full-Length Computational Model of the SARS-CoV-2 Spike Protein and Its Implications for a Viral Membrane Fusion Mechanism“, in Viruses, an open access journal by MDPI. The SARS-CoV-2 virus (COVID-19) emerged in December 2019 and quickly spread across the world due to it’s high

Geoff Reeves, a senior scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory and the New Mexico Consortium, has recently published a paper titled, Multi-Event Analysis of Plasma and Field Variations in Source of Stable Auroral Red (SAR) Arcs in Inner Magnetosphere During Non-Storm-Time Substorms, in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics. The stable auroral red (SAR)

UNM Scientists Develop A More Accessible Sensor The Smart Management of Infrastructure Laboratory (SMILab), located at the University of New Mexico (UNM) Center for Advanced Research Computing (CARC), has announced that as a part of the Low-Cost Efficient Wireless Intelligent Sensors (LEWIS) project, the have developed a new strain sensor called the LEWIS-S. What are

Specifica scientists, Frank Erasmus, Sara D’Angelo, Fortunato Ferrara, Leslie Naranjo, and Andrew Bradbury along with New Mexico Consortium scientist, André A. Teixeira have recently put out a new publication on antibody library diversity in a paper titled, A single donor is sufficient to produce a highly functional in vitro antibody library, in Communications Biology. The

Alisha Vira, a student scientist at the New Mexico Consortium, along with colleagues Brian Larsen, Ruth Skoug, and Philip Fernandes, recently published their work, Bayesian Model for HOPE Mass Spectrometers on Van Allen Probes, in the Journal of Geophysical Research. The ion composition and time variation of space plasmas are important to understand as it

Anna Llobet Megias Presents at American Physical Society Meeting   Anna Llobet Megias, a Los Alamos National Laboratory scientist and New Mexico Consortium affiliate, presents at the APS April Meeting, held Saturday–Tuesday, April 17–20, 2021. The American Physical Society (APS) is a nonprofit membership organization that has the goal of  advancing the knowledge of physics.

Using a Mathematical Model to Compare SARS-CoV-2, MERS-CoV, and SARS-CoV   In a new publication, A quantitative model used to compare within host SARS-CoV-2, MERS-CoV, and SARS-CoV dynamics provides insights into the pathogenesis and treatment of SARS-CoV-2, author Alan Perelson and colleagues use a computer model to compare the SARS-CoV-2, MERS-CoV, and SARS-CoV viruses. Currently, scientists

Alina Corcoran, a New Mexico Consortium research scientist, and Ryan Hunt, the Co-Founder & Chief Technology Officer at ALGIX | BLOOM, have recently published a new article in the Journal of Algal Research. Their paper titled “Capitalizing on Harmful Algae Blooms: from Problems to Products” has now been peer reviewed and is available online at

Los Alamos National Laboratory and New Mexico Consortium affiliate scientist Alan S. Perelson, along with colleague Ruian Ke, have reviewed the literature on modeling COVID-19 and other infectious diseases. Recently, their review has been published as a paper titled, Mechanistic Modeling of SARS-CoV-2 and Other Infectious Diseases and the Effects of Therapeutics in Clinical Pharmacology

Karen Rieck, a New Mexico Consortium research scientist and Los Alamos National Laboratory guest scientist, has presented her work at the 52nd Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC) held virtually from March 15–19, 2021. The Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC) is recognized as the world’s premier planetary science conference, bringing together international specialists in

Alan Perelson, a LANL scientist and New Mexico Consortium affiliated scientist, recently published his paper titled, Success of prophylactic antiviral therapy for SARS-CoV-2: Predicted critical efficacies and impact of different drug-specific mechanisms of action in PLoS Computational Biology. Currently, several repurposed drugs are being tested as a medication or as a preventative drug in order

Esteban Rougier, a Los Alamos National Laboratory scientist and New Mexico Consortium affiliate, has recently reported  on the work conducted under the Large University Project titled “Correlating Damage, Fracture and Permeability in Rocks subjected to High Strain Rate Loading”. This was a three year collaborative project between Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), via the Center

Martin Klein, a LANL Scientist in the Research Library at LANL and New Mexico Consortium affiliate, along with Shawn M Jones, a PhD student and Graduate Research Assistant at LANL have been working on a project titled “The Dark and Stormy Archives”.  The project is lead by their collaborators at Old Dominion University and is

Martin Klein, a Los Alamos National Laboratory scientist and New Mexico Consortium affiliate, is working on an internet preservation project titled, “Developing Bloom Filters for Web Archives’ Holdings”. This project is an international collaboration with the National and University Library Zagreb, Croatia The ultimate goal of Klein’s project is to provide web archives with a

Emma Goldberg, a Los Alamos National Laboratory and  New Mexico Consortium scientist, has recently published her work “Heterogeneity in the rate of molecular sequence evolution substantially impacts the accuracy of detecting shifts in diversification rates” in the science journal Evolution. Lineage-splitting and extinctions in the tree of life have taken place often throughout the history

Garrett Kenyon, a physicist and neuroscientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory and the New Mexico Consortium, has his artificial intelligence (AI) research featured in Scientific American in an article titled Lack of Sleep Could Be a Problem for AIs. Machines such as a refrigerator do not need to sleep, but Kenyon’s research has found that

Dr. Richard Sayre and his team of scientists at the New Mexico Consortium, has had their research published in Research Features in an article titled “Optimising the photosynthetic efficiency in plants and green algae for biomass production“. During photosynthesis, plants and green algae absorb light from the sun at a very fast rate. This process

A collaboration between citizen scientists and scientists Joshua Semeter, Michael Hunnekuhl, Elizabeth MacDonald, Michael Hirsch, Neil Zeller, Alexei Chernenkoff, and Jun Wang, has led to the publication of a new paper titled, The Mysterious Green Streaks Below STEVE published in the new, open-access journal AGU Advances. Strong thermal emission velocity enhancement, or the subauroral phenomenon known as

Meghna Rajvanshi from Reliance Industries Ltd. and Richard Sayre of the New Mexico Consortium recently published their work, Recent Advances in Algal Biomass Production, in IntechOpen. The use of algae used as a renewable energy biofuel for all of our demands has yet to become a reality. This paper investigates what progress has been achieved

Rex Hjelm, a scientist at the New Mexico Consortium and Los Alamos National Laboratory, has new research findings that help us to understand how to maximize the production of natural gas. He just had his paper: Reduced methane recovery at high pressures due to methane trapping in shale nanopores, accepted to Nature, Communications Earth & Environment.

Jacob Springer, a computer science student at Swathmore College, and Garrett Kenyon, a scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory and the New Mexico Consortium, recently published a paper titled It’s Hard for Neural Networks to Learn the Game of Life in the open access journal arXiv. The Game of Life is a cellular automaton that was created

New Mexico Consortium (NMC) scientist Tom Terwilliger and an international team including scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory, Baylor College of Medicine, Cambridge University, and Berkeley Lab have developed a technique to improve the resolution of cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM). Cryo-EM maps are a type of 3D molecular structure map that are created by taking many

Rex P. Hjelm, a scientist at the New Mexico Consortium and Los Alamos National Laboratory, and Joseph T. Mang of Los Alamos National Laboratory have published a new paper titled: “Preferred Void Orientation in Uniaxially Pressed PBX 9502”. This work has recently been accepted to the journal Propellants, Explosives, Pyrotechnics. This research used the scattering

Spartina Biotechnologies has just released exciting news of their latest technologies called SIREN™, which is a promising treatment to cure COVID-19. This new technology is designed to stop the replication of the COVID-19 virus in the infected patient while also giving a kick-start to the patient’s own innate immunity. This gives them double protection for

Scientists are keeping an eye on COVID-19 mutations. Recently, Nature has published the article The Coronavirus is Mutating – Does It Matter?, which talks about the work of Bette Korber, a Los Alamos National Laboratory scientist and New Mexico Consortium affiliate. In March 2020, David Montefiori, who directs an AIDS-vaccine research laboratory at Duke University

The Van Allen Probes Project has a new journal publication accepted by Space Weather. The publication titled Defining Radiation Belt Enhancement Events Based on Probability Distributions, is authored by Geoff Reeves, LANL scientist and New Mexico Consortium affiliate, along with colleagues Elizabeth M. Vandegriff, Jonathan T. Niehof, Steven K. Morley, Gregory S. Cunningham, Michael G.

The Van Allen Probes project continues to put out publications this July and August, with three published papers, three papers in press, and two submitted papers (See below for a list of publications). This NASA funded project conducts research on Space Weather, the environment and activity in space that can harm satellites and endanger Earth-based

For the last 4 years, the New Mexico Consortium (NMC) has been proud to support the research of Dr. Christian M. Carrico at New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology Civil & Environmental Engineering. This research project titled “Climate Relevant Aerosol and Gas-Phase Properties in the Southwest US” is in collaboration with Los Alamos National

New research recently published in JGR:Atmospheres and supported by the New Mexico Consortium, shows that the impact of particles found in wildfire smoke on climate may be less than was previously thought. This is due to reactions that happen when the plume mixes with clean air, which decrease the climate-warming effects. In this megafire study,

Garrett Kenyon and his team of neural network researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory and the New Mexico Consortium recently were featured in an Inside Science article Why Artificial Brains Need Sleep. What are artificial neural networks used for these days? They are used in everything from identifying a pedestrian crossing the street to diagnosing

Bette Korber, a scientist at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, is the lead author on a new paper titled Tracking Changes in SARS-CoV-2 Spike: Evidence that D614G Increases Infectivity of the COVID-19 Virus, which came out in the July 2 publication of the scientific journal Cell. Korber and colleagues’ research shows there has been specific change,

Rex P. Hjelm, a scientist with the New Mexico Consortium and Los Alamos National Laboratory recently published his latest research in the ACS Journal, Energy and Fuels, titled Small-angle Neutron Scattering (SANS) Characterization of Clay- and Carbonate-rich Shale at Elevated Pressures. Conventional hydrocarbon resources are decreasing over time as we use them. Fortunately, new technologies

  New Mexico Consortium scientist, Joseph Msanne, along with colleagues Shawn Starkenburg and Juergen Polle, recently published an article titled An Assessment of Heterotrophy and Mixotrophy in Scenedesmus and its Utilization in Wastewater Treatment, in the June 2020 issue of Algal Research.  This review looks at whether growing algae for biofuels using wastewater from different

New Mexico Consortium and Los Alamos National Laboratory scientist Bette Korber has recently published new work on the origins and spread of the coronavirus pandemic, and found that the virus is well suited to propagate from bats and pangolins to people. She and her colleagues newest paper is titled, Emergence of SARS-CoV-2 Through Recombination and

New Mexico Consortium (NMC) scientists Guangxi Wu, Lin Ma, Richard Sayre, and Choon-Hwan Lee recently published an article, Identification of the Optimal Light Harvesting Antenna Size for High-Light Stress Mitigation in Plants, in the journal Frontiers of Plant Science It is well known that the low efficiency of photosynthesis is one of the main constraints

Karissa Sanbonmatsu, a principal investigator at Los Alamos National Laboratory and the New Mexico Consortium, is featured in Part 4 of the TED Radio Hour episode The Biology of Sex. TED Radio Hour is a co-production of NPR and TED that investigates the biggest questions of our time with the help of the world’s greatest thinkers. The

Among other New Mexico Consortium (NMC) news and highlights, four papers from the Van Allen Probes project at the NMC were among the top 10% downloaded papers in the Journal of Geophysical Research (JGR) Space Physics, and one paper was in the top 10% of downloaded papers in Geophysical Research Letters. The NMC wants to

Xiangrong Fu, a scientist at the New Mexico Consortium, recently published a paper titled, Heating of Heavy Ions in Low-beta Compressible Turbulence in The Astrophysical Journal. Enhancement of heavy minor ions (elements heavier than Helium make up a very small fraction of particles in the solar wind) in flare-associated solar energetic particle (SEP) events remains

Sangeeta Negi and Richard Sayre, New Mexico Consortium research scientists, publish their work titled Light regulation of light-harvesting antenna size substantially enhances photosynthetic efficiency and biomass yield in green algae in The Plant Journal. At the end of this century, the human population is estimated to increase from 7.4 billion to 11 billion. One of

New Mexico Consortium scientist Rex Hjelm recently published his work, a collaboration with colleagues at the University of California Santa Barbara, titled Microstructural characterization of a star-linear polymer blend under shear flow by using rheo-SANS in the Journal of Rheology. This paper addresses the question of the response of a polymer as forces applied under

Azzurra Volpi, a postdoctoral researcher with the University of New Mexico, and Markus Hehlen, a research scientist with Los Alamos National Laboratory and the New Mexico Consortium, recently published a paper in Optics Express titled: “Optical refrigeration: the role of parasitic absorption at cryogenic temperatures“. Co-authors on this paper include Junwei Meng, Aram Gragossian, Alexander

Scientists create the first 3-D image of an RNA molecule. Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and New Mexico Consortium (NMC) scientists Doo Nam Kim, Scott P. Hennelly and Karissa Y. Sanbonmatsu and team recently published their  work in the article, Zinc-finger protein CNBP alters the 3-D structure of lncRNA Braveheart in solution, in Nature Communications.

Waco Today published an article, Grape Expectations: Finding Successes in Battle with Vineyard Disease, which features the work of New Mexico Consortium scientist Goutam Gupta and his research finding success in stemming a disease that affects vineyards. Pierce’s Disease is a deadly disease that affects grapevines, and is caused by the bacterium Xylella fastidiosa, which

Rex P. Hjelm, a Los Alamos National Laboratory and New Mexico Consortium scientist, presented the invited talk, Ionomer Physics and Fuel Cell Engineering December 4, 2019 at the BP/KRF Fellows’ Global Conference in Seoul, South Korea. The goal of the BP program is to enhance the R&D level of Korea by attracting outstanding overseas scientists

Emily Gearhart, a Seminole State College student who worked as an intern from July – August 2019 at the New Mexico Consortium Biolab, presented her research at the Honors Research Symposium last week. The research symposium was an internal event at the Sanford, FL campus organized by the Grindle Honors Institute and was attended by

Co-PIs Alina Corcoran of the New Mexico Consortium (NMC) and Shawn Starkenburg of Los Alamos National Laboratory, along with industrial partners, are starting an exciting four year project built upon outdoor algal cultivation. The project is entitled Optimizing Selection Pressures and Pest Management to Maximize Algal Biomass Yield (OSPREY). In the biofuel industry scientists often

Tom Terwilliger teaches a course on Cryo-EM and Crystallography. The course was held on September 4-5, 2019 at the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina, and was titled Cryo-EM and Crystallography in the Forefront of Structural Biology. Tom Terwilliger is a Los Alamos National Laboratory scientist and New Mexico Consortium affiliate. Cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) is an

Trait Biosciences Inc. is a biotechnology company based out of Los Alamos, NM. In recent news, Trait Biosciences congratulates their Chief Science Officer, Dr. Richard Sayre, and a team of industry scientists at the New Mexico Consortium. This congratulations is for their publication of the article “Fine-tuning the Photosynthetic Light Harvesting Apparatus for Improved Photosynthetic

Andre Teixeira Publishes on Disease Diagnostic and Detection Methods. Teixeira, of the New Mexico Consortium, is one of several authors on a new publication in Toxins titled Recombinant Antibodies against Mycolactone. This research strives to find better methods for fast and easy detection as well as diagnostic methods of the disease Buruli ulcer. Buruli ulcer

Geoff Reeves and Colleagues publish research on Earth’s radiation belts. This group recently published 5 new papers in the last quarter. Reeves is a Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) Fellow with the Space Science Applications group and a New Mexico Consortium affiliate. According to the LANL Space Science Applications website, “The Space Science and Applications

One joint project currently taking place at the New Mexico Consortium is measuring the retinal response in frogs. This project titled Microimaging/Modeling of Retinal Responses Measured with Laser Magnetometer is funded by the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering. This project is a collaboration between LANL Staff Scientist and NMC Affiliate Igor Savukov, NMC

Capturing the scholarly record is now a concern to many scientists. Researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and the New Mexico Consortium are concerned with archiving scholarly work done over the internet. In the past, research communication was a paper-based endeavor and over time scholars have transitioned to using web-based methods for communicating and

NMC Researcher Shovon Mandal Specializes in Algal Biotechnology. Shovon Mandal, an Associate Research Scientist at the New Mexico Consortium (NMC), specializes in algal ecology and biotechnology. He received his PhD in Agricultural & Food Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, where he worked on algal physiology and biodiesel production. Prior to that, Mandal

STEVE/Aurorasaurus Team awarded the Robert H. Goddard Group Honor Award. The New Mexico Consortium takes great pleasure in announcing that the STEVE/Aurorasaurus research team is being awarded NASA GSFC’s 2018 Robert H. Goddard Group Honor Award for Exceptional Achievement in Science. The STEVE/Aurorasaurus team, led by Liz MacDonald, a space scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space

Scientists create the largest simulation of an entire gene of DNA. In order to complete this task, these researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and the New Mexico Consortium (NMC) modeled one billion atoms. This amazing feat will help scientists better understand and develop cures for cancer and other diseases. Karissa Sanbonmatsu, a LANL

Symposium on Immunology of Human Diseases Supported by New Mexico Consortium and Los Alamos National Laboratory Venue: Hilton Santa Fe Historic Plaza, Santa Fe, NM, USA Dates: July 28-31, 2019 Symposium Home Page and Registration Info Immune systems, including both innate and adaptive immunity, sense, signal, and counter dangers posed by deadly pathogens, cancer, and

New Mexico Alzheimer’s Workshop 2019 May 22, 2019 Inn & Spa at Loretto Santa Fe Workshop Home Page and Registration Info New Mexico is in a unique position for advancement in basic science, clinical, and epidemiological research of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias, due to the presence of two national laboratories, as well as many

The NMC supports and encourages scientists to offer opportunities to students interested in gaining research experience. Over the years we have had many students researchers in such topics as high performance computing, general greenhouse work, administrative tasks, and plant biology research. Students are paired up with NMC staff or researchers who need an extra hand,

Sean Blanchard, a Linux and HPC expert at the Ultrascale Systems Research Center  (USRC) at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) presented at Multicore World 2019 on Tuesday February 12, 2019. Multicore World, which is in its 8th consecutive edition, is a gathering of experts and leaders from all over the globe to attend and contribute

Congratulations to Elizabeth MacDonald and Matt Heavner for their most recent Aurorasaurus publication in AGU100 Earth and Space Science titled “Aurorasaurus Database of Real-Time, Crowd-Sourced Aurora Data for Space Weather Research“. This technical report documents the details of Aurorasaurus citizen collected science data for the period spanning 2015 and 2016. Aurorasaurus citizen science data is a collection of real

Rex Hjelm, a New Mexico Consortium Biolab Researcher publishes his work on Flow-through compression cell for small-angle and ultra-small-angle neutron scattering measurements. This research aims to understand measurements of geological materials taken in the field that are under compression with hydrostatic fluid pressure. Understanding the behavior of these materials provides critical information for application-driven research.

Dr. Alina Corcoran, NMC Researcher and LANL Guest Scientist, presented at the Advanced Bioeconomy Leadership Conference (ABLC) Global 2018 last week. This conference was held November 6-9, 2018 in San Francisco, CA. The ABLC Global is a connected series of 17 conferences and forums on the most important issues in the bioeconomy right now. Corcoran’s presentation was on Transforming Challenges

Michael Denton, an NMC researcher, and Lauren Blum, a scientist with NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, have been awarded a NASA grant to study plasma structure and composition as a driver of wave growth in the inner magnetosphere. Why is this important in space science research? Electromagnetic (EM ) waves accelerate electron particles to high

Molecular biologist Amanda Barry and a team at Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Bio-energy and Biome Sciences group are conducting research on a specific strain of algae in order to determine if it can be produced quickly and at low cost. If so, this algae hold potential to be a source of renewable fuel that can

New Mexico Consortium Biolab researchers, Panagiotis Lymperopoulos, Joseph Msanne and Roel Rabara, have recently published their work “Phytochrome and Phytohormones: Working in Tandem for Plant Growth and Development” in the July 2018 issues of Frontiers in Plant Science, section Plant Physiology. This publication is a review that presents a representative regulatory model, highlights the successes

Amanda Barry, a Los Alamos National Laboratory scientist and affiliate of the New Mexico Consortium, published her work on algae using raw plants as a carbon energy source. This research has shown that the microalgae, Auxenochlorella protothecoides, is capable of directly degrading and using non-food plant substrates for improved cell growth and lipid production. This

Scientists have learned that cosmic ray neutrons coming from space slam in to the processors of supercomputers and cause them to have memory errors or even to crash. This has been a problem since Seymour Cray built a supercomputer and gave it to Los Alamos National Laboratory for a 6 month trial in the 1970s.

Wataru Nishima of the New Mexico Consortium has co-authored a recent publication showing a computational approach to provide insight into the structure of both Ebola and Zika viruses as they invade a host’s cells. Both the Ebola and Zika viruses are similar in how they first infiltrate a host’s cells. They use a surface protein

New Mexico Consortium Biolab Researcher Richard Sayre, founder of start-up company Pebble Labs Inc., recently published his work titled Provitamin A biofortification of cassava enhances shelf life but reduces dry matter content of storage roots due to altered carbon partitioning into starch. This research is also featured on the cover page of the Plant Biotechnology