Livermore Lab office closed amid federal anti-DEI crackdown

 Livermore Lab office closed amid federal anti-DEI crackdown. 

National Labs directors talk about the crackdown.

https://www.pleasantonweekly.com/livermore/2025/02/16/livermore-lab-office-closed-amid-federal-anti-dei-crackdown/

NNSA layoffs

 Apparently, among the latest Elon (Or fElon) decisions, a few nuclear scientists with lots of experience were among the people laid off  at NNSA.

FElon realized the gaffe. Does anyone know they got hired back?

US will begin testing nukes

Inside secret US lab where US will begin testing nukes again amid fears of WWIII

Oddly enough project 2025 advocates for testing again.

https://www.newsbreak.com/daily-mail-560402/3814420926097-inside-secret-us-lab-where-us-will-begin-testing-nukes-again-amid-fears-of-wwiii

LLNS contract

 Will DOGE undo the 5 year less than transparent, LLNS contract extension in favor of a transparent less expensive non-profit contractor review to manage LLNL?

DOE and NNSA layoffs

 DOE and NNSA layoffs

Between 1,200 and 2,000 DOE workers were laid off recently. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/sweeping-us-energy-department-layoffs-hit-nuclear-security-loans-office-sources-2025-02-14/

How long before this hits employees working for LLNL, LANL, Sandia and NNSS?

Sweeping US energy department layoffs

 https://www.reuters.com/world/us/sweeping-us-energy-department-layoffs-hit-nuclear-security-loans-office-sources-2025-02-14/

Sweeping US energy department layoffs hit offices of loans, nuclear security, sources say
By Timothy Gardner and Valerie

I think it is pretty naive to think that some cuts one way or other will not coming to the labs.

Will DOGE reduce non-technical management at LANS/L?

 What will DOGE think about the excessive number of LLNL managers, many with zero technical talent themselves, assigned to “rank” the engineering and technical staff at LLNL that consume millions of dollars to rank lab employees to a high resolution with poor accuracy? Does LLNL really need that many non-technical managers on the payroll?

DOGE and NNSA

 I hear DOGE has asked NNSA to look into the lab management contracts that they have judged are too expensive. I am not sure which labs they are of if they will re-adjust the contracts (reducing the fees) or look to recompete them.

At LANL it is not nearly as expensive as LANS was with Triad but we spend way too much "kick back" money to the state of NM, of which LANL gets nothing in return and in fact reduces the quality of services in many cases. This is not a small amount like 100 million or more that is simply a pay off.

Nuking whales?

 This is a nonsensical paper that suggests nuking the whales to prevent global warming, was it written by a chatbot?

https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.06623

Moderator's note: not scientifically reviewed. 

Who is nicknamed "The Pillsbury Doughboy"?

 Who at LLNL is the so called “pillsbury doughboy”?

I'm a foreign scientist at LANL

 I'm a foreign scientist at LANL, working only on open (non-clearance) science, and I'm leaving my scientist 2 job (early career 'permanent' position, right after post-doc) for a tenure track in academia.

Most of my early-career friends (foreign or US, 6 of the 7 early career friends I have here) are leaving or making concrete plans to leave, either to industry or to academia.

The main reason for that is that it is very difficult at LANL to work only on open science, especially as an early-career scientist. Scientist positions at LANL are soft money, meaning you must find your own funding (for all 12 months of the year, as opposed to just 3 in universities).

I would absolutely advise someone to come as a postdoc, just not so much to stay on as a scientist. I am leaving in good terms and will keep strong collaborations with LANL folks, but in my opinion it's very clear that any tenure track (in the US or not) is vastly better than a scientist position at LANL.

NIH slashes overhead payments for research

https://www.science.org/content/article/nih-slashes-overhead-payments-research-sparking-outrage

NIH slashes overhead payments for research, sparking outrage
Move to cut indirect cost rate to 15% could cost universities billions of dollars

In a Friday night move that quickly drew howls of protest from the U.S. biomedical research community, President Donald Trump’s administration today announced it is immediately reducing by roughly half the so-called indirect cost payments that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) makes to universities, hospitals, and research institutes to help cover facilities and administrative costs.

A 15% indirect cost rate will now apply to all new and existing grants, NIH said in a memo from its Director’s office. Typically, about 30% of an average NIH grant to an institution is earmarked for indirect costs, although some universities get higher rates. In 2023, NIH, the world’s largest funder of biomedical research, spent nearly $9 billion on indirect costs; the change would likely leave research institutions needing to find billions of dollars from other sources to support laboratories, students, and staff.

“It is… vital to ensure that as many funds as possible go towards direct scientific research costs rather than administrative overhead,” NIH wrote in the memo. The new rate brings NIH into line with the maximum indirect costs rates allowed by private foundations, NIH noted, and is higher than the minimum 10% indirect cost payment NIH is required to provide. “This rate will allow grant recipients a reasonable and realistic recovery of indirect costs,” the memo stated.

WTF Is DOGE Doing in Department in Charge of Nuclear Weapons?

 

The Department of Energy on Friday tried to clarify why one of Elon Musk’s DOGE underlings was granted access to the department’s I.T. systems despite opposition from its general counsel and cybersecurity offices.

CNN reports that Luke Farritor, 23, whose previous work experience consists of an internship at Musk’s company SpaceX was granted access by Energy Secretary Chris Wright Wednesday. The department’s legal counsel and chief information offices, which govern I.T. and cybersecurity, “said this is a bad idea,” according to a source who spoke with CNN, given that Farritor hadn’t received a standard background check.

https://newrepublic.com/post/191319/doge-energy-department-nuclear-weapons

DOGE has landed at the Department of Energy.

 https://subscriber.politicopro.com/article/eenews/2025/02/06/doge-aide-lands-at-doe-00202868

DOGE aide lands at DOE
Elon Musk's aides are cropping up across the federal government to scrutinize agencies' work and data.

As Scooby would say
Ruh Roh.

ERGs comply

 LLNL announced that all ERG’s aka Employee Resource Groups including veterans in energy technology and science (VETS) to comply with the latest federal orders.

Federal employees' exodus

 A friend in a large hedgefund tells me they got more than a dozen resumes from fed ppl this week, which has never happened before.

He thinks it is hilarious because they would never hire them (they r quant and they do not have use for some 45year old guy who cannot code ).

Maybe the NNSA labs can take these people. I do think coding skills will matter much since ChatGPT can write codes. It might be a big opportunity to swell our ranks and become bigger.

Are LLNL and LANL getting new employees?

I predict that the NNSA labs will get a bunch of new employees coming from former Federal Government workers.

Security clearances

 National Labs employees know what it takes to get and keep the highest security clearance.

They almost have to be perfect people to work at the Labs.

A guy named Elon Musk, yes the one who financed trump's campaign, was given access through the DOGE committee to the Treasury Dept, the Medicare Adminitration, Social Security and others. He has all the classified information! Without  a clearance!

Even a senator cannot  access that type of info.

I would like to get your reaction.

Are you outraged,  delighted or don't care?

Here is the video that talks about the event. You can fast-forward to minute 4'.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HabjljXF-Pk&t=248s

What happens to LLNL "DEI" hires?

 You were a LLNL DEI hire? Now what?

How does LLNS remedy DEI hires and promotions after the fact? Firing, demotions, freeze their pay until non-DEI hires catch up in salary? One challenge is DEI beneficiaries may have leapfrogged into their current positions, but now have job titles and job descriptions devoid of DEI identifiers.

Who else can he blame?

 trump is blaming lowered standards and DEI in air traffic control as contributing to last night's accident:

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2025/jan/30/trump-says-democrats-put-policy-first-ahead-airlin/

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2024/feb/1/editorial-faa-turned-away-qualified-air-traffic-co/

Embryonic stem cell advance

“This approach can significantly improve the developmental outcomes of embryonic stem cells and cloned animals, paving a promising path for the advancement of regenerative medicine"

https://www.the-scientist.com/in-a-first-mouse-pups-with-two-dads-live-to-adulthood-72505

Asteroid with 1-in-83 chance of hitting Earth in 2032

 https://www.space.com/180-foot-asteroid-1-in-83-chance-hitting-Earth-2032

A Tunguska scale asteroid strike may happen in 2032

A new national lab?

 Move over LANL and LLNL, we need a entirety new lab!

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2025/01/27/exclusive-cia-director-trump-admin-considering-national-laboratory-for-artificial-intelligence-like-manhattan-project/

Exclusive — CIA Director: Trump Admin Considering ‘National Laboratory’ for Artificial Intelligence like Manhattan Project . “We could expand on that with a public-private partnership where a government element could participate, and we’ve done this before—our constellation of national laboratories can be traced back to the Manhattan Project, which we used as a public-private partnership to develop the first nuclear weapon to win World War II.

Maybe we could get Bechtel to run it.

CIA low-confidence belief

 https://apnews.com/article/covid-cia-trump-china-pandemic-lab-leak-9ab7e84c626fed68ca13c8d2e453dde1

WASHINGTON (AP) — The CIA now believes the virus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic most likely originated from a laboratory, according to an assessment released Saturday that points the finger at China

Deepseek, the chinese AI

 The Chinese actually have an AI model now which is supposedly competitive with ours, and as they were forced to develop it using less resources and money, in some ways it might be said they are winning:

https://venturebeat.com/ai/why-everyone-in-ai-is-freaking-out-about-deepseek/

Evidently, their model is open source and cheaper to run, it is actually more efficient since it was developed under the constraint of less resources, but I am not sure of the details.

DEI and Science

 DEI and Science

From the White House Jan 23, 2025

https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/presidents-council-of-advisors-on-science-and-technology/

At the heart of scientific progress lies the pursuit of truth. But this foundational principle, which has driven every major breakthrough in our history, is increasingly under threat. Today, across science, medicine, and technology, ideological dogmas have surfaced that elevate group identity above individual achievement, enforce conformity at the expense of innovative ideas, and inject politics into the heart of the scientific method. These agendas have not only distorted truth but have eroded public trust, undermined the integrity of research, stifled innovation, and weakened America’s competitive edge.

Let us hope the labs get the notice.

Work from home

Federal workers are not longer allowed work from home. Will this also occur at LLNL/LANL? Mason made a claim a few days ago that most workers do not work from home. That of course is true amongst pit workers but is far from the truth on the rest of the lab. In may hallway only about of 1/3 of the workers show up and in my directorate about 1/2 the people show up on any one day.
I think a very small percentage are officially work from home. These are the are the people that never show up and you see once a year, however everyone else is unofficially on work from home. I would say that on the whole they are less productive. In fact at LANL they even did some study a showing the drop in scientific productivity even through the lab is as big as ever. I am not sure what it is like at LLNL. The other issue is that Los Alamos is over crowded and it is very difficult to commute. On the other hand things are slower than ever in terms of mass amounts of paper work.

DEI rollback: who's next?

 Trump rolls back DEI across the federal government. Is your workplace next?

https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2025/01/20/trump-dei-rollback-executive-order/77749870007

DOE high-energy physics

The DOE announced $71 million for 25 high-energy physics projects using quantum information science to address fundamental physics questions.

What are their applications? Or is just theory?

 https://thequantuminsider.com/2025/01/17/department-of-energy-announces-71-million-for-research-on-qis-enabled-high-energy-physics/

Can the labs get out of DOGE?

 Niw that trump is president:

What does it mean for the labs

Could the money be cut for DOGE,

Could the labs only focus on weapons

Would the labs work on ways to invade Greenland

Would all alternative energy research cease?

Would DEI be cut

Will strange new rules be implemented

When will DOE close DEI

 The FBI closed its DEI office in December, when will DOE/NNSA/The Labs follow suit, or will they wait for an executive order to do so?

Lab broken culture

 Does any of this sound familiar? I am not sure about LLNL but much of this applies to LANL. Maybe not all 12 but about 9 or 10 of these are true right now.

If employees are afraid to speak up, your culture is broken.

Here’s what silence really means:
➟ Leaders aren’t listening.
➟ Feedback is punished.
➟ Trust is nonexistent.

And here’s what happens next:
➟ Your best people leave.
➟ Creativity dies.
➟ Morale tanks.


12 Signs Your Culture is Broken:

— All the good people are leaving
— No one is sharing feedback
— People are pointing fingers
— Communication is weak
— Mistakes are punished
— Ideas get shot down
— Leaders don’t listen
— Creativity is stifled
— Gossip is rampant
— Trust is missing
— Stress is high
— Morale is low

California Fair Plan is Broke at the Worst Possible Time

 California Fair Plan is Broke at the Worst Possible Time

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=U8OWWNBUlpE&pp=ygUrZmFpciBtYXJrZXQgcGxhbiBpcyBicm9rZSBhdCB0aGUgd29yc3QgdGltZQ%3D%3D

FAIR Plan coverage caps at $3 million: Here's why experts are worried about Bay Area housing market

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ac-ba6J6vN0&pp=ygUSYmF5IGFyZWEgZmFpciBjYXAg

AI getting closer to human memory

 This is interesting, it is a new memory paradigm for AI chatbots that enables more human-like memory processing while improving efficiency:

https://youtu.be/6iEgJsqkdeM?si=OJ-OXP0SEbXuDDVm

https://youtu.be/x8jFFhCLDJY?si=4va3xHfPKXqiWYLC

Safe solution to a longstanding problem

 DOE reveals game-changing mission...

https://www.yahoo.com/tech/department-energy-expert-reveals-game-103018902.html

DEI, LLNL and LA fires

Moderator note:

I have no idea where this poster is coming from or getting at. Without passing judgment, I am posting it for comments anyway.

 Given the ~$150 billion LA fire estimated damage, is DEI over in CA, and over at LLNL? Will we continue to look the other way when LLNL DEI hiring managers decide it’s their privilege to hunt for college students for their personal needs, while threatening sub- contractors to go along with the narrative, or face being fired? Maybe those directly impacted should chime in.

LLNL retiree benefits question

 When a LLNS retiree reaches 65 years old and converts to medicare, is there a continuation of support in the form of a LLNS supplied stipend to cover new medical expenses and if so, how much, and what should one be aware of at this point in time? Considerations? Yes LLNS benefits is another resource, but I’d like to hear from LLNS retirees too. Thanks.

The AI tool that can interpret spreadsheets is here.

 This is an interesting data analysis tool that could prove useful in many contexts, if the claims are true:

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-03852-x

Are you concerned?

 Chris Wright, the CEO of Liberty Energy and a donor to Trump’s campaign, said in 2023 that there is no climate crisis or ongoing energy transition. He is going to be the DOE boss.

ARE YOU CONCERNED?

https://www.utilitydive.com/news/trump-chris-wright-liberty-doe-energy-department/733178/

Cost Cutting at DOE/NNSA labs

Could the DOE and NNSA labs save a lot more more money if we just hire H-1B workers? I think the DOE labs have a lot of this but why not the NNSA labs. I am sure we can speed up paths to citizens and so on. It Could save a lot of money also if Vivek Ramaswamy is right the quality of worker wold be much greater, less lazy and have the right culture.

If we double the number of H-1B visas my prediction is you are going to see a drop off in US STEM students who will see the drop in salaries and less stability as a reason to do something else. This means even the NNSA labs are going to need a lot more H-1B visas for any kind of technical work.

To be honest I suspect a number of managers are kinda of hoping this happens. There is a big push for AI at the NNSA labs. If you listen closely to what they are saying it sounds like they hope AI could replace the scientists, so we could have managers and AI only, and maybe a few H-1B guys for guards and clean up. Looks like a bright future.

I am of course not being entirely serious however, there could some real consequences to DOGE, and mass increase in H-1B visas for STEM in the US.