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Physical and Life Sciences
Big Ideas Lab podcast enters the quantum realm
Imagine a particle that slips through a wall like a ghost. Now imagine two particles, separated by vast distances yet somehow linked, instantly influencing each other's states. A story with two endings, both true, until turning the final page. A universe where simply looking changes what’s real. These are not thought experiments. This is quantum physics. And for decades,…
LLNL researchers use AI to look for potential ALS treatments
Potential treatments for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and other neurodegenerative diseases may already be out there in the form of drugs prescribed for other conditions. A team of researchers from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Stanford University and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) are using artificial intelligence and machine…
Novel assay tests antifungals against emerging human pathogens
When left out on the counter for too long, a loaf of bread grows mold. That mold is a common type of filamentous fungi, a microorganism that grows in thread-like structures that can ruin baked goods. But filamentous fungi can pose a much larger problem than just moldy toast. They can cause crop blights and harm human health, particularly by infecting immunocompromised…
One-pot protein screening accelerates bioscience, drug discovery
Machine learning and supercomputing have brought about a revolution in computational drug discovery. More therapeutic candidates, like antibodies that bind to and fight the SARS-CoV-2 virus, can be explored and simulated than ever before. But for practical, safe use, these computational candidates must be grounded in experimental validation. In a new study, published in…
Lawrence Livermore scientists and collaborators demonstrate major breakthrough in seismology
A more than month-long field experiment by a Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) seismologist has demonstrated that a new technology could offer a major breakthrough in seismology. The technology, called distributed acoustic sensing, allows an instrument to turn buried fiber-optic cable into thousands of virtual seismometers that can be used to measure ground…
Volcanic eruptions trigger ice formation in clouds
When a volcano erupts, it can spew ash high into the atmosphere — injecting aerosols right where clouds typically form. How exactly these aerosols impact cloud formation has long been a mystery to atmospheric scientists. In a study published in Science Advances, researchers from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) analyzed 10 years of satellite data to determine…
Maximizing pressure in laser-driven shock experiments
Researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and the University of California, San Diego have tested two alternative tamper materials, yttrium aluminum garnet (YAG) and gadolinium gallium garnet (GGG), for their potential use in laser-driven shock experiments. Tamper materials, also called confining media, are placed on the surface of a target during laser…
LLNL’s Matt Lyman receives Fulbright Scholarship in Brazil
Matt Lyman, a staff scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in the Biosciences and Biotechnology Division, has been selected for a Fulbright U.S. Scholar award in Brazil in 2025–2026. Lyman’s background in immunology and microbiology and work in biosecurity will provide a foundation for his project as a Fulbright Scholar, where he will explore the human…
A hot topic: How temperature fuels energy loss in fuel cells
By splitting water molecules, fuel cells can turn electricity into hydrogen fuel. Running in the opposite direction, they consume hydrogen fuel to cleanly power multiple sectors. Typically, heat is a key ingredient for achieving high energy conversion efficiencies that can beat out combustion-based engines. But like a dripping pipe, fuel cells can leak efficiency. In a new…
New mechanism found to limit electron flow in plasma-based systems
Many frontier technologies of societal benefit—from plasma thrusters for spacecraft propulsion to tokamak fusion reactors for harnessing nuclear fusion as a clean energy source—contain plasma-facing surfaces that emit electrons. Understanding how many electrons can flow from cathodes through plasmas is a key problem in fundamental and applied physics impacting the design,…
Big Ideas Lab podcast returns to shine a light on Jupiter Laser Facility
Since their invention in 1960, lasers have been a staple of science fiction. But beyond sci-fi, the technology is an essential, often overlooked, part of everyday life. From scanning barcodes to operating on eyes to recreating the conditions in the sun, laser applications range from mundane to life changing. The Jupiter Laser Facility (JLF) at Lawrence Livermore National…
Five LLNL postdocs selected to attend 2025 Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings
Five Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) postdoctoral researchers have been selected to participate in the prestigious 2025 Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings. Ian Colliard, Nicholas Cross, Caspar Donnison, Vidia Gokool and Jonas Kaufman will join young scientists from around the world to learn from Nobel Prize laureates through academic panels, lectures, group…
Depositing dots on corrugated chips improves photodetector capabilities
Near-infrared photodetectors are used in biomedical sensing and defense and security technologies. For enhanced performance and integrated, compact imaging systems, the photodetectors must be able to detect multiple wavelengths of light at once on a single chip. Quantum dots — tiny crystals made of semiconducting material — could present a path forward because different…
Nuclear chemistry research gets an efficiency boost
Heavy actinides — elements at the bottom of the periodic table, after plutonium — are radioactive, rare and chemically complex, making them notoriously difficult to study. Most studies conducted on these elements have traditionally been done one-compound-at-a-time or extrapolated from less toxic and non-radioactive surrogates, like lanthanides, that are safer to work with…
LLNL intern shapes the understanding of ceramics
Doctoral student Natalie Yaw came to Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) as a summer intern. But when her time at the Laboratory ended, her work did not. She took the lead to write a paper based on her findings, and the result was published in Inorganic Chemistry Frontiers. As a Department of Energy Nuclear Energy University Program fellow, Yaw chose to intern at…
Search for sterile neutrinos continues at nuclear reactors
Neutrinos, elusive fundamental particles, can act as a window into the center of a nuclear reactor, the interior of the earth, or some of the most dynamic objects in the universe. Their tendency to change "flavors" may provide clues into the prominence of matter over antimatter in the universe or explain the existence of dark matter. Physicists are particularly interested…
CERN teams, including LLNL researchers, win 2025 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics
In 2012, the ATLAS and CMS collaborations at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN jointly announced the discovery of the Higgs boson — a missing piece in the Standard Model of particle physics. Since beginning work, the teams have also observed never-before-seen quark states, ruled out different theories of new physics, and studied the properties of quark-gluon plasma,…
Jennifer Pett-Ridge inducted into Alameda County Women’s Hall of Fame
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) scientist Jennifer Pett-Ridge has been selected as one of this year’s 12 inductees to join the 2025 Alameda County Women’s Hall of Fame. Since its establishment in 1993, the Hall of Fame has honored almost 300 exceptional women who have made a lasting impact in Alameda County’s communities. “I’m hugely flattered to be selected,…
Simulating hot-spot formation in insensitive high explosives
When high explosives are subjected to sudden shock waves, such as from an impact or detonation, tiny regions of intense heat — called hot spots — form at microstructural defects such as pores. These hot spots play a critical role in determining whether the explosive will initiate and fully detonate. Understanding how hot spots form and behave across length scales is key to…
LLNL and Sandia host hydrogen partner event at Livermore Open Campus
True to its mission, Livermore Valley Open Campus (LVOC) recently hosted a public-facing event where scientists and tech-transfer professionals from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and Sandia National Laboratories engaged with external companies open to exploring partnership opportunities in hydrogen technologies. The event featured an industry partner forum…
