Los Alamos National Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratories recently faced off in a friendly battle to see which could bring in the most blood donations to mark World Blood Day and help the community.
The competition turned out to be extremely close with the winner being decided by a single unit of blood. Over two days in June, 121 Los Alamos employees donated 146 units of blood, while 124 Sandia employees donated 145 units of blood.
"Sandia and Los Alamos National Laboratory donors stepped up to this challenge and provided a tremendous amount of life-saving blood for our community," said Heidi Chase and Drew Sharpless, Vitalant account managers for Los Alamos and Sandia. "Vitalant greatly appreciates the overwhelming and ongoing support of our mission of saving lives through the gift of blood donation. Ultimately, the real winners are the hospital patients in New Mexico who will benefit from their generous gift."
Altogether, employees from the laboratories donated 291 units of blood, potentially impacting 689 patients in New Mexico. Additionally, Los Alamos had 38 first-time donors, while Sandia had 32.
"We're stronger together," said Kayla Norris, who organized the LANL blood drives. "When both labs come together for a common purpose, we're able to make a significant impact."
New museum exhibit focuses on Oppenheimer
In addition, now through Oct. 16, visitors can see J. Robert Oppenheimer: The Exhibit at the Bradbury Science Museum. A collaborative production of the Bradbury and the National Security Research Center, the exhibit provides visitors with a unique opportunity to view objects related to Oppenheimer including his handwritten notes on the wartime Lab, his McKibbin Card (an ID card for all Project Y employees, meticulously recorded by Oppenheimer’s secretary, Dorothy McKibbin), and his personal copy of the Bhagavad Gita, the sacred Hindu text he turned to for poetic inspiration in the wake of the Trinity test.
You can learn more about this complex figure at the page devoted to the physicist on the LANL National Security Research Center’s website.