A new type of AI model

 This company is commercializing a promising new AI concept, that could lower compute requirements, or equivalently produce more insightful responses at a given computational cost:

https://techcrunch.com/2025/02/26/inception-emerges-from-stealth-with-a-new-type-of-ai-model/

Is LANL getting rid of web pages?

 Weird stuff going on in LANL. They are getting getting rid of web pages, also rumors are that Doge is showing up to look around. Other rumors. The just got rid of bunch of postdocs and some staff. More and more countries are on the bad list.

No more EVs and charging stations at GSA

 US Agency Reportedly Plans to Shut Down 8,000 EV Chargers, Offload EVs

https://www.pcmag.com/news/general-services-administration-shuts-down-8000-ev-chargers-offloads-evs

Note: lab vehicles are leased from the GSA, but I'm not sure if buildings are owned by GSA or DOE directly. However it seems many lab electric vehicles will be either recalled or more likely not renewed with EVs once their lease is up.

The General Services Administration (GSA), an agency that manages the federal government’s buildings, is planning to shut down all 8,000 of its electric vehicle chargers, The Verge reports.

The GSA is also expected to offload its current stock of EVs, though it's unknown if the vehicles will be sold or put into storage. The agency will reportedly begin instructing employees to remove the chargers—which are used for both federally owned EVs and employees' personal vehicles—as early as next week.

The agency informed employees at one regional office that, in its efforts "to align with the current administration," it had received direction stating that all GSA-owned charging stations "are not mission-critical," according to an email first reported by Colorado Public Radio.

“The GSA is working on the timing of canceling current network contracts that keep the EV chargers operational. Once those contracts are canceled, the stations will be taken out of service and ‘turned off at the breaker,’” the email continued. “Other chargers will be turned off starting next week.”

The web page dedicated to the electrification of the GSA's fleet has also been taken offline, The Verge notes.

The GSA had been rapidly electrifying its fleet following the Biden administration's 2021 executive order that calls for 100% of all federal fleet purchases to be zero-emission by 2035.

The news comes amid broader cuts to plans for a nationwide EV charging networks and measures to block the federal government from buying more electric vehicles.

Postdoc Publications

 The LANL fellows did a study of the declining number publications at the lab. This also showed the decline of publications of the postdocs.

Now and new publication in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences shows that postdoc publications in terms of number of papers and impact is associated with the long term success in science.

https://physics.aps.org/articles/v18/34?utm_campaign=weekly&utm_medium=email&utm_source=emailalert

For many researchers, the postdoctoral fellowship is a way station between graduate school and a permanent job. Now Bedoor AlShebli of New York University, Petter Holme of Aalto University in Finland, and their collaborators have revealed that, despite the position’s transience, the quantity and quality of a researcher’s postdoc publications are a strong predictor of whether the researcher stays in academia and, if they do, how productive the researcher will be as a faculty member [1]. The findings have implications for faculty hiring and postdoc welfare, say AlShebli and Holme.

Breakthrough in quantum computer technology: ret

 Microsoft claims breakthrough in quantum computer technology:

https://youtu.be/wSHmygPQukQ?si=6Eknzl4z4h7OdWc9

https://phys.org/news/2025-02-topological-quantum-processor-majorana-modes.html

2/23/2025 1:31 PM

Reply

Will Federal Contractors have to do the same?

 Will Federal Contractors have to do the same?

Elon Musk says federal employees must fill out (weekly?) productivity reports or resign

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/elon-musk-federal-employees-fill-out-productivity-reports-resign

Asteroid news

 The asteroid threat for the 2032 impact has been downgraded in probability:

https://www.livescience.com/space/asteroids/asteroid-yr4-impact-odds-plummet-as-nasa-changes-threat-level-of-city-killer

https://cneos.jpl.nasa.gov/sentry/

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.