Secret Mesa


Book Description

Examines the past, present, and future of the Los Alamos research center, which was created to assemble the world's first atomic weapon.




Los Alamos


Book Description

Growing up in the shadow of the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) the author, Chuck Montano, was thrilled to land a job there. But he never imagined the dangerous world he was about to enter. Los Alamos: A Whistleblower's Diary is a shocking account of foul play, theft and abuse at our nation's premier nuclear R&D installation, where those who dare to question pay with their careers and, potentially, their lives. This first-of-its-kind exposae ventures past LANL's armed guards and security fences to chronicle persistent efforts to prevent hidden truths from surfacing in the wake of headline.




Structural Health Monitoring


Book Description

Written by global leaders and pioneers in the field, this book is a must-have read for researchers, practicing engineers and university faculty working in SHM. Structural Health Monitoring: A Machine Learning Perspective is the first comprehensive book on the general problem of structural health monitoring. The authors, renowned experts in the field, consider structural health monitoring in a new manner by casting the problem in the context of a machine learning/statistical pattern recognition paradigm, first explaining the paradigm in general terms then explaining the process in detail with further insight provided via numerical and experimental studies of laboratory test specimens and in-situ structures. This paradigm provides a comprehensive framework for developing SHM solutions. Structural Health Monitoring: A Machine Learning Perspective makes extensive use of the authors’ detailed surveys of the technical literature, the experience they have gained from teaching numerous courses on this subject, and the results of performing numerous analytical and experimental structural health monitoring studies. Considers structural health monitoring in a new manner by casting the problem in the context of a machine learning/statistical pattern recognition paradigm Emphasises an integrated approach to the development of structural health monitoring solutions by coupling the measurement hardware portion of the problem directly with the data interrogation algorithms Benefits from extensive use of the authors’ detailed surveys of 800 papers in the technical literature and the experience they have gained from teaching numerous short courses on this subject.




The American Lab


Book Description

Behind the scenes of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the quintessential American lab. Nobel laureate Ernest O. Lawrence and renowned physicist Edward Teller founded the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in 1952. A new ideas incubator, the Lab was at the heart of nuclear testing and the development of supercomputers, lasers, and other major technological innovations of the second half of the twentieth century. Many of its leaders became prominent figures in the technical and defense establishments, and by the end of the 1960s, Livermore was the peer of Los Alamos National Lab, a relationship that continues today. In The American Lab, former Livermore director C. Bruce Tarter offers unparalleled access to the inner workings of the Lab. Touching on Cold War nuclear science and the technological shift that occurred after the fall of the Berlin Wall, he traces the Lab’s evolution from its founding under University of California management through its transfer to private oversight. Along the way, he highlights important episodes in that journey, from the invention of Polaris, the first submarine-launched ballistic missile, to the Lab’s controversial role in the Star Wars program. He also describes Livermore’s significant responsibilities in stockpile stewardship, the program that ensures the safety and reliability of the US nuclear arsenal. The book portrays the lab’s extensive work on thermonuclear fusion, a potential source of unlimited energy; describes the development of the world’s largest laser fusion installation, the National Ignition Facility; and examines a number of smaller projects, such as the Lab’s participation in founding the Human Genome Project. Finally, it traces the relationship of the Lab to its federal sponsor, the Department of Energy, as it evolved from partnership to compliance with orders, a shift that affected all of the national laboratories. Drawing on oral histories, internal laboratory documents, and the author’s personal experiences from more than fifty years as a Lab employee, The American Lab is an illuminating history of the Lab and its revolutionary work.




Inventing Los Alamos


Book Description

A social history of New Mexico’s “Atomic City” Los Alamos, New Mexico, birthplace of the Atomic Age, is the community that revolutionized modern weaponry and science. An “instant city,” created in 1943, Los Alamos quickly grew to accommodate six thousand people—scientists and experts who came to work in the top-secret laboratories, others drawn by jobs in support industries, and the families. How these people, as a community, faced both the fevered rush to create an atomic bomb and the intensity of the subsequent cold-war era is the focus of Jon Hunner’s fascinating narrative history. Much has been written about scientific developments at Los Alamos, but until this book little has been said about the community that fostered them. Using government records and the personal accounts of early residents, Inventing Los Alamos, traces the evolution of the town during its first fifteen years as home to a national laboratory and documents the town’s creation, the lives of the families who lived there, and the impact of this small community on the Atomic Age.







The National Labs


Book Description

The national laboratories have occupied a central place in the landscape of American science for more than fifty years. Deeply researched and lucidly written, The National Labs is the first book to trace the confluence of diverse interests that created and sustained this extensive enterprise. Westwick takes us from the origins of the labs in the Manhattan Project to their role in building the hydrogen bomb, nuclear power reactors, and high-energy accelerators, to their subsequent entry into such fields as computers, meteorology, space science, molecular biology, environmental science, and alternative energy sources.




Critical Assembly


Book Description

This 1993 book explores how the 'critical assembly' of scientists at Los Alamos created the first atomic bombs.




Practical Residual Stress Measurement Methods


Book Description

An introductory and intermediate level handbook written in pragmatic style to explain residual stresses and to provide straightforward guidance about practical measurement methods. Residual stresses play major roles in engineering structures, with highly beneficial effects when designed well, and catastrophic effects when ignored. With ever-increasing concern for product performance and reliability, there is an urgent need for a renewed assessment of traditional and modern measurement techniques. Success critically depends on being able to make the most practical and effective choice of measurement method for a given application. Practical Residual Stress Measurement Methods provides the reader with the information needed to understand key residual stress concepts and to make informed technical decisions about optimal choice of measurement technique. Each chapter, written by invited specialists, follows a focused and pragmatic format, with subsections describing the measurement principle, residual stress evaluation, practical measurement procedures, example applications, references and further reading. The chapter authors represent both international academia and industry. Each of them brings to their writing substantial hands-on experience and expertise in their chosen field. Fully illustrated throughout, the book provides a much-needed practical approach to residual stress measurements. The material presented is essential reading for industrial practitioners, academic researchers and interested students. Key features: • Presents an overview of the principal residual stress measurement methods, both destructive and non-destructive, with coverage of new techniques and modern enhancements of established techniques • Includes stand-alone chapters, each with its own figures, tables and list of references, and written by an invited team of international specialists




Limited by Design


Book Description

Limited by Design is the first comprehensive study of the varying roles played by the more than 16,000 research and development laboratories in the U.S. national innovation system. Michael Crow and Barry Bozeman offer policy makers and scientists a blueprint for making more informed decisions about how to best utilize and develop the capabilities of these facilities. Some labs, such as Bell Labs, Westinghouse, and Eastman Kodak, have been global players since the turn of the century. Others, such as Los Alamos National Laboratory, have been mainstays of the military/energy industrial complex since they evolved in the 1940s. These and other institutions have come to serve as the infrastructure upon which a range of industries have relied and have had a tremendous impact on U.S. social and economic history. Michael Crow and Barry Bozeman illustrate the histories, missions, structure, and behavior of individual laboratories, and explore the policy contexts in which they are embedded. In studying this large and varied collection of labs, Crow, Bozeman, and their colleagues develop a new framework for understanding the structure and behavior of laboratories that also provides a basis for rationalizing federal science and technology policy to create more effective laboratories. The book draws upon interviews and surveys collected from thousands of scientists, administrators, and policy makers, and features boxed "lab windows" throughout that provide detailed information on the variety of laboratories active in the U.S. national innovation system. Limited by Design addresses a range of questions in order to enable policy makers, university administrators, and scientists to plan effectively for the future of research and development.