Manhattan Project scientist Cowan dies at 92

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Devoted to finding a way for science to help society, not much escaped the influence of chemist George Cowan. From the Manhattan Project and the hunt for evidence of the Soviet Union's first nuclear tests, to the Santa Fe Institute and the iconic Santa Fe Opera, friends recalled the fruits of his visionary ways.

Cowan died Friday at his home in Los Alamos. He was 92.

Friends confirmed his death to The Associated Press, saying it was the result of a fall at his home. Cowan was in good health and was planning to travel and continue working with the nonprofit science institute that he helped found in 1984.

"It's very sudden, very unexpected. An enormous loss," said close friend and institute co-founder David Pines. "The world is diminished for all of us who knew him."

Cowan worked at Los Alamos National Laboratory for nearly 40 years. He started in 1949 as a scientist and went on to serve as a director of chemistry and as associate lab director of research.

After doing graduate studies at Princeton, Cowan continued his nuclear research as part of the top-secret Manhattan Project that developed the atomic bomb. According to the Santa Fe Institute, Cowan was a troubleshooter for the effort at various research sites around the country and was among the few people who had knowledge of the bomb's separate components.

Cowan arrived at Los Alamos National Laboratory in 1949 and within weeks began directing efforts to turn up radioactive fallout in samples that were collected near the Soviet border. What Cowan and his team detected indicated the Soviets were in possession of a nuclear bomb.

Cowan was considered one of the world's experts on nuclear weapons diagnostics by 1956, according to a biography from the lab.

"We can truly say that our country lost a true hero today," former U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., said in a statement. "He cannot be replaced, but let's hope he left footprints for us to follow."

Cowan was appointed to the White House Science Council during the Reagan administration.

It was during one of his meetings with the council that he looked around the room and thought about the need to educate the next generation of scientists to ensure the government would continue to have a valuable cadre of advisers.

Conversations about the formation of the Santa Fe Institute followed, some of them being held in the director's conference room on the fourth floor at Los Alamos Lab.

"He was a superb judge of people," said Pines. "He had a real instinct for who was a promising scientist and who was not and this was invaluable to him as he became a manager at Los Alamos."

Bill Enloe, chief executive of Los Alamos National Bank, which was founded by Cowan, said the chemist had a unique ability to lead people.

"It was not by intimidation or by position. It was because what he said made so much sense," Enloe said. "He accomplished a great deal because people were anxious to help and work with him."

Enloe ticked off a list of Cowan's accomplishments that ranged from his scientific accolades and the start of the scientific think tank to the early childhood development programs in New Mexico that he helped influence.

Then there was Cowan's love of travel, food, wine and music. He sat on the board of the Santa Fe Opera and was the first treasurer of the opera's foundation.

Pines recalled the story Cowan had told him about his role in helping preserve the opera, a venue that today draws thousands of visitors from around the world to its unique outdoor stage.

"He managed to get a loan for them from the bank that tied them over," Pines said. "Otherwise the Santa Fe Opera would have gone under many, many years ago."

Officials at the Santa Fe Opera downplayed the suggestion that the organization was ever on the financial ropes, but they said Cowan was a terrific asset to the opera while he served on the board.

Friends used words such as intelligent and practical to describe Cowan, who lived in the same modest home on Los Alamos' 42nd Street since first moving there with his wife decades ago. His wife, Helen "Satch" Dunham, was also a chemist. She died last year and the couple had no children.

Cowan was a philanthropist, having given most of his wealth to charitable causes that he was passionate about, Enloe said.

"He had a large impact on a lot of people," he said.

___

Follow Susan Montoya Bryan on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/susanmbryanNM

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Sens. Nelson, Hutchison Accuse Administration of Sabotaging NASA Rocket Project (ContributorNetwork)

Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., and Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, have issued a statement accusing the Obama administration of deliberately attempting to undermine the development of a rocket crucial for NASA's plans for future space exploration.

The accusation comes in the wake of a story in the Wall Street Journal speculating, possibly based on a White House leak, that NASA's plans for space exploration would cost as much as $62 billion and that the White House was experiencing "sticker shock." A NASA document was subsequently released with more information concerning various scenarios for space exploration through 2025 with cost estimates.

The two senators, the chairman and ranking member of the Science and Space Subcommittee of the Senate Commerce Committee, are essentially accusing the White House and NASA of cooking the books and making up inflated budget numbers in an effort to kill a heavy lift rocket known as the Space Launch System. Development of the SLS was mandated by Congress in a 2010 NASA bill that was signed by President Barack Obama.

The accusation of bad faith and even legal malfeasance by Nelson and Hutchison represents an escalation of the toxic relations between the White House and NASA and Congress that have developed since Obama ordered the cancellation of the Constellation space exploration program. Nelson and Hutchison seem to have concluded that the White House and NASA are not interested in following the law or of seriously pursuing space exploration beyond low Earth orbit.

The accusation fits the known facts. For most of this year, NASA has been pursuing delaying tactics to stop the commencement of the SLS program. This has resulted in mass layoffs of NASA and contractor personnel due to the end of the space shuttle program who might have instead transitioned to the SLS development program. Hiring back these people may prove to be difficult after a long delay.

The suspicion is that the numbers quoted in the Wall Street Journal article and the NASA document will be used to cancel the SLS program outright as part of a deficit reduction deal, pushing off the commencement of space exploration beyond low Earth orbit indefinitely. With budget deficits in excess of a trillion dollars and President Obama demanding $450 billion for a jobs program, cancellation of the SLS would seem to be almost inevitable.

It is unclear what Nelson and Hutchison can do about their accusation. If the White House and NASA are not disposed to follow Congressional direction concerning space policy, enacting new directions would seem to be pointless. The commencement of a formal Senate investigation, including subpoenas, would now seem to be indicated. But that will take time and, in the meantime, hopes for the recommencement of space exploration by astronauts for the first time in decades are, once again, placed on hold.

Mark R. Whittington is the author of Children of Apollo and The Last Moonwalker. He has written on space subjects for a variety of periodicals, including The Houston Chronicle, The Washington Post, USA Today, the L.A. Times, and The Weekly.

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Nationwide project lends new details on earthquakes

When it comes to studying earthquakes, Oregon State University geology professor Bob Lillie has a simple theory: The more that is known, the better people can prepare and protect themselves.More knowledge about faults in certain parts of the nation could lead to stricter building codes in those places so structures are less likely to topple, he says.

"If we know about the hazards, then we can put ourselves at less risk," Lillie says.

Lillie is part of a group of scientists involved in USArray, a nationwide research project that allows scientists to study earthquakes in unprecedented ways.

The project, which involves a traveling network of 400 high-quality, portable seismographs placed in temporary sites, will reach the halfway mark this summer in its goal to measure upheavals beneath the earth's surface from California to Maine, says project director Bob Woodward. This summer, devices are being installed in several states, including South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri and Arkansas, he said. The number, density and systematic placement of the devices give scientists a far more detailed picture of earthquake activity in the USA, he says. Scientists are intrigued about tremors detected in the Pacific Northwest and have installed additional equipment to learn more about them, he says.

The project, which originated on the West Coast in 2004, is moving east so researchers can have a systematic way of studying the entire nation, Woodward says. The instruments, spaced about 40 miles apart, stay in a site for two years before they are moved, Woodward says. The USArray project is scheduled to reach the East Coast by 2013, he says.

USArray's annual budget is about $13 million per year from the National Science Foundation, he says. It's part of a broader project known as EarthScope, also funded by the foundation. EarthScope's aim is to study the structure and evolution of North America and to learn more about what causes earthquakes and volcanoes.

Before the instruments were installed, "it was kind of like taking a picture with a camera with only a few pixels," Woodward says. "With 400 stations out there, it's like having a much higher resolution camera. So now you can directly see the seismic waves rolling across the country."

The project has covered Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming, he says.

Emily Brodsky, a seismologist who researches earthquakes at the University of California-Santa Cruz, says, "By having that whole bird's eye view, you could start to see these patterns in a way we've never seen before."

By 2011, the seismographs will be in place near the site of some of the most powerful earthquakes in U.S. history — an area known as the New Madrid fault between St. Louis and Memphis, Woodward says.

Almost 200 years ago, in 1811 and 1812, a series of earthquakes centered near the small Missouri town of New Madrid was so powerful that witnesses said the nearby Mississippi River began to flow backwards, says Chuck Langston, director of the Center for Earthquake Research and Information at the University of Memphis.

"The earthquakes were felt in Boston," Langston says. "There are eyewitness accounts that the river dammed up, and part of it flowed backwards. It must have been spectacular. Big waves and water moving every which way."

Though California is commonly associated with earthquakes, Woodward says, faults exist across the nation, stretching all the way to the eastern seaboard.

More than $500 billion in losses could result from a severe earthquake in the Los Angeles area, according to a Jan. 14 Congressional Research Service report to Congress.

"An even higher estimate — approximately $900 billion — includes damage to the heavily populated central New Jersey-Philadelphia corridor if a 6.5-magnitude earthquake occurred along a fault lying between New York City and Philadelphia," the report states.

Sizable earthquakes have occurred in this region, says Michel Bruneau, an engineering professor at the University of Buffalo who has done extensive earthquake research. Bruneau points to a study in 2008 that notes a magnitude-5 earthquake damaged buildings in New York City in 1737 ; and a magnitude-5.5 quake struck the region in 1884, according to the study, reported in the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America. The researchers wrote that stronger earthquakes are possible in the area.

Martin reports for the Argus Leader in Sioux Falls, S.D.

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Nationwide project lends new details on earthquakes

When it comes to studying earthquakes, Oregon State University geology professor Bob Lillie has a simple theory: The more that is known, the better people can prepare and protect themselves.More knowledge about faults in certain parts of the nation could lead to stricter building codes in those places so structures are less likely to topple, he says.

"If we know about the hazards, then we can put ourselves at less risk," Lillie says.

Lillie is part of a group of scientists involved in USArray, a nationwide research project that allows scientists to study earthquakes in unprecedented ways.

The project, which involves a traveling network of 400 high-quality, portable seismographs placed in temporary sites, will reach the halfway mark this summer in its goal to measure upheavals beneath the earth's surface from California to Maine, says project director Bob Woodward. This summer, devices are being installed in several states, including South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri and Arkansas, he said. The number, density and systematic placement of the devices give scientists a far more detailed picture of earthquake activity in the USA, he says. Scientists are intrigued about tremors detected in the Pacific Northwest and have installed additional equipment to learn more about them, he says.

The project, which originated on the West Coast in 2004, is moving east so researchers can have a systematic way of studying the entire nation, Woodward says. The instruments, spaced about 40 miles apart, stay in a site for two years before they are moved, Woodward says. The USArray project is scheduled to reach the East Coast by 2013, he says.

USArray's annual budget is about $13 million per year from the National Science Foundation, he says. It's part of a broader project known as EarthScope, also funded by the foundation. EarthScope's aim is to study the structure and evolution of North America and to learn more about what causes earthquakes and volcanoes.

Before the instruments were installed, "it was kind of like taking a picture with a camera with only a few pixels," Woodward says. "With 400 stations out there, it's like having a much higher resolution camera. So now you can directly see the seismic waves rolling across the country."

The project has covered Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming, he says.

Emily Brodsky, a seismologist who researches earthquakes at the University of California-Santa Cruz, says, "By having that whole bird's eye view, you could start to see these patterns in a way we've never seen before."

By 2011, the seismographs will be in place near the site of some of the most powerful earthquakes in U.S. history — an area known as the New Madrid fault between St. Louis and Memphis, Woodward says.

Almost 200 years ago, in 1811 and 1812, a series of earthquakes centered near the small Missouri town of New Madrid was so powerful that witnesses said the nearby Mississippi River began to flow backwards, says Chuck Langston, director of the Center for Earthquake Research and Information at the University of Memphis.

"The earthquakes were felt in Boston," Langston says. "There are eyewitness accounts that the river dammed up, and part of it flowed backwards. It must have been spectacular. Big waves and water moving every which way."

Though California is commonly associated with earthquakes, Woodward says, faults exist across the nation, stretching all the way to the eastern seaboard.

More than $500 billion in losses could result from a severe earthquake in the Los Angeles area, according to a Jan. 14 Congressional Research Service report to Congress.

"An even higher estimate — approximately $900 billion — includes damage to the heavily populated central New Jersey-Philadelphia corridor if a 6.5-magnitude earthquake occurred along a fault lying between New York City and Philadelphia," the report states.

Sizable earthquakes have occurred in this region, says Michel Bruneau, an engineering professor at the University of Buffalo who has done extensive earthquake research. Bruneau points to a study in 2008 that notes a magnitude-5 earthquake damaged buildings in New York City in 1737 ; and a magnitude-5.5 quake struck the region in 1884, according to the study, reported in the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America. The researchers wrote that stronger earthquakes are possible in the area.

Martin reports for the Argus Leader in Sioux Falls, S.D.

Guidelines: You share in the USA TODAY community, so please keep your comments smart and civil. Don't attack other readers personally, and keep your language decent. Use the "Report Abuse" button to make a difference. Read more.

View the original article here