Cosmic ray showers cause supercomputers to crash. The spread of wildfire, the location of earthquake aftershocks and the proliferation of disease can all be predicted by modeling software. Future space missions depend on better plans for nuclear power. The search for intelligent life beyond Earth still captures the imagination of scientists and practically everyone else.
These are some of the what officials at Los Alamos National Laboratory say are the most talked-about science news reports of 2018 featuring the lab's work. Stories ran in publications such as The Washington Post, The Economist, National Geographic, Wired and Scientific American.
“The range of technical and scientific capabilities in these stories, as reported by media outlets across the world, reflects the many ways Los Alamos National Laboratory serves the nation,” said Laboratory Director Thom Mason in a statement issued with the lab’s compilation of its favorite media attention. “We are first and foremost a national security laboratory, but with so many additional strengths, from materials science to life science, physics, and beyond, it is no surprise that this selection of stories is so diverse. I’m proud of our employees at every level who made this science possible.”
One big story to come out of the lab this year isn't on the list, however. That's the investigation funded by the ProPublica Local Reporting Network and reported by The Santa Fe New Mexican.
Editor Phill Casaus tells SFR it's too soon to know the impact of the work from journalist Rebecca Moss, who spent a year investigating, among other stories, the flawed record-keeping systems intended to monitor radiation exposure for employees and the challenges that sick workers have in getting help. The special report published in late October.
"We had a lot of reader response immediately after those stories appeared, but the long term effect of it is still unknown in part because so many things at a federal level still haven't been decided," he says. "Are [the agencies] going to really take into account these stories and the stories behind them and change some of the things they have been doing for years? We don't know. But I think it's a possibility."
