Breakthroughs and inventions made by Los Alamos researchers in nuclear science, materials, computing and algorithms, quantum, life sciences, space and more have been thoughtfully curated on a new public webpage and poster. Laboratory Fellows reviewed an extensive list of science and engineering achievements to select 20 major discoveries across eight decades.
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Why this matters: The Laboratory Fellows hope that accomplishments of the past will inspire future scientists and engineers to contribute even greater accomplishments in the coming decades.
Four big things: Here’s a quick preview of some of the Lab’s innovation history.
- Plutonium science: The history of Los Alamos is intertwined with plutonium. Every advance in plutonium science either happened here or was inspired by this Laboratory.
- Neutrinos: Los Alamos scientists detected the neutrino in 1956. Subsequent studies revealed its tiny mass and its oscillation between electron, muon, tau and possible sterile states.
- Dynamic imaging: High-speed photography and X-ray and proton radiography are essential to looking deep into weapons-relevant systems. These tools, invented at Los Alamos, include the Dual-Axis Radiographic Hydrodynamic Test (DARHT) Facility and the Proton Radiography (pRad) Facility at the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center (LANSCE).
- The genome: Los Alamos invented the flow cytometer, a device to count, sort and identify individual cells. The Lab’s pioneering genome libraries led to the Human Genome Project and more.
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