LLNL Defined Benefit Plan

Looking at the latest annual funding notice it appears that funding is down to 84% this year. There are approximately 2 retirees for every worker left on the program… not surprising since it has been closed since the transition.

The rate of return last year was 0.23%

However the number of participants has increased by 3 this year.

Federal workers reclassification

 Impact to LLNS employees?

“Trump to reclassify many federal workers, making them easier to fire”

“U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday his administration is set to change the employment classifications of tens of thousands of federal workers, a move governance experts say will make it easier to carry out more mass layoffs.”

https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2025/04/18/trump-says-government-to-change-service-regulations-for-career-government-employees.html

Life on exoplanet

Possible signature of life on exoplanet. 

It is only 700 trillion miles from here.!

https://youtu.be/HjWwTw-zEIM?si=Beb6qEau2iTAVr4Q

Mason said?

 Mason sent an all hands out on Wed saying that lab needs to cut indirect funding and become much more efficient. The goals are to move people to direct funding but keep the same number of people. We need to stop hiring people to backfill positions. We will keep AI funding going.

So a couple of points.

(1) If this was the goal why did we have to wait 8 years to do this? It seems a bit odd that suddenly we not want to cut our crazy overheard.

(2) How on earth do you cut overhead costs when half the people at the lab are on overhead? The only way to do this is to get rid of people. Some of the more cynical are thinking we are going to fire all the science staff and move everyone on to their codes. Who knows but everyone I knows says this is simply not going work.

Rumors of layoffs

 There has been some rumors for the past few months of a voluntary separation or layoffs at LANL. On the face of it they do not seem very likely as Mason said budget wise things look good. However Mason also said that the lab needs to reduce indirect costs. I guess this has something to do with fear of Doge and reduction of overheard rates. NSF and NIH have been seen as having way to high of overhead so it seems like DOE/NNSA labs could be next. In fact there was story the other day about DOE money overhead rates needing to be cut (see link below).

This is what I think may actually be possible. DOE/NNSA will be told you need to reduce overheard or indirect costs , so they will not be able to put everybody on direct costs so they will have to let people go one way or another. Indirect costs is of course management , admins, outreach and such but also LDRD.

Here is the link on DOE cutting university overheard rates to 15%. It could be that the will do the same for NNSA. I doubt an overheard rate of only 15% is feasible because we do not have students paying tuition but they could still ask for a big cut in overheard at the NNSA labs. 50% of the lab budget is indirect right now if we have to cut 25% of our overhead rate than a layoff of 10-15% of the lab workforce could be possible. Of course it also means that LANL looks horrible because for the past 6 years we have been told to hire, hire , hire. Interview 50, hire 50 and grow. There was even some voices who said that we should not get ahead of ourselves because we do know what the next administration may want.

https://www.science.org/content/article/energy-department-cuts-university-overhead-rates-to-15-on-research-grants

Back to nuclear testing

 https://www.sciencenews.org/article/nuclear-weapons-tests-comeback-threats.

Calls to restart nuclear weapons tests stir dismay and debate among scientists
A U.S. return to underground detonations would have wide-ranging implications

Some see the ability to test as a necessity for a world in which nuclear weapons are a rising threat. “We are seeing an environment in which the autocrats are increasingly relying on nuclear weapons to threaten and coerce their adversaries,” says Robert Peters, a research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. “If you’re in an acute crisis or conflict in which your adversary is threatening to employ nuclear weapons, you don’t want to limit the options of the president to get you out of that crisis.” Testing, and the signal it sends to an adversary, he argues, should be such an option.

Dire wolf reportedly brought back from extinction

 https://www.newsnationnow.com/science/dire-wolf-brought-back-from-extinction/

AI is changing how we do science! Dire wolf brought back from extinction! All scientific breakthroughs and how science is done or even thought about doing science has changed! Dire wolfs today and a new AI scientific workforce next.

This is more good news about vaccines

There is a growing body of evidence that shingles vaccines are protective against dementia..,

https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/misc-emerging-topics/shingles-vaccine-recipients-less-likely-develop-dementia-study-shows

Savings are being wiped out

 https://www.dailymail.co.uk/yourmoney/article-14571907/wall-street-stock-market-crash-trump-tariffs.html

"Americans watch in horror as savings are WIPED OUT as Wall Street chaos sees trillions more dollars evaporate."

That was from a few days ago, try checking the market Monday morning.

Drop of 15% in a week. Maybe not wiped out but that is not good for retirement funds. Who knows how far this could drop 25% is now very feasible
especially if China and Europe just screw the US but I would not be surprised if it goes way lower. Bitcoin is down 27% Since Jan.

Not looking good. Also do I have to pay 25% for my next Ferrari?

US scientists brain drain

75% of US scientists considering leaving the country in poll:

https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/5218404-scientists-poll-leaving-us-poll/

https://eos.org/research-and-developments/majority-of-polled-scientists-considering-leaving-united-states-signaling-brain-drain