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Physical and Life Sciences
NASA’s Psyche mission tests LLNL-built gamma-ray sensor on Mars flyby
On a multi-billion-mile journey to the asteroid Psyche, a gamma-ray sensor developed by a team at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) took its first measurements of a planetary surface after 2.6 years in deep space. NASA’s Psyche spacecraft flew behind Mars for a gravity assist, with the red planet’s gravitational field acting as a slingshot to change the flight…
With machine learning, LLNL researchers embrace the atomic-scale complexity of batteries
For grid-scale energy storage and national energy resilience, the U.S. needs better batteries. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) scientists are tackling that challenge in many ways, but one approach is making a significant impact: physics-informed machine learning. In two recent publications, LLNL researchers examined how integrating molecular dynamics…
Tracing pesticides in honeybees to preserve pollinators and agricultural productivity
Estimates suggest that 35% of the world’s food crops — one out of every three bites of food — depend on animal pollinators. Honeybees in particular are responsible for billions of dollars in agricultural productivity in the U.S. But in recent years, bee colonies have mysteriously collapsed. For no apparent reason, worker bees will abandon their hive, leaving the queen…
3rd annual UC–LLNL workshop brings together researchers, clinicians, community to drive ALS innovation
In May, the third annual workshop on amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) took place at the University of California Livermore Collaboration Center (UCLCC), underscoring the growing collaboration among institutions working to address this complex neurological condition. ALS is a progressive, fatal neurodegenerative disease that attacks motor neurons, the nerve cells…
Modernizing high-explosives manufacturing
For decades, manufacturing plastic-bonded high explosives, or PBXs, has relied on legacy processes like slurry coating. In this method, explosive crystals are mixed with a binder, a polymer that helps hold the material together, to form small granules called prills. Those prills are then pressed into dense explosive parts. This process is difficult to control, inefficient…
Isotope probing shows soil is packed with dormant viruses lying in wait
A single gram of soil contains between 10 million and 1 billion viruses. Most of those viruses do not infect plants, animals or people — but they do target bacteria and other microbes. Because of their influence on microbial communities, viruses can affect nutrient cycling and soil health. Understanding how they behave is therefore crucial for supporting agriculture, food…
Measuring iron in motion at earth-core conditions
It was a journey to the center of the Earth, if only for the briefest of moments. But rather than tunneling thousands of miles from the Earth’s surface, researchers from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and several universities used the National Ignition Facility (NIF) to recreate those extreme temperature and pressure conditions of the Earth’s inner core…
Registration open for Real-World Quantum Computing workshop at LLNL
Registration is now open for the 2026 Real-World Quantum Computing workshop, jointly hosted by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and San Jose State University (SJSU). The two-day workshop is designed for upper-level undergraduates and graduate students in engineering, physics or related fields. Interns are encouraged to apply. Applications will be accepted on a…
Big Ideas Lab podcast explores the postdoc journey at LLNL
What does it mean to be a postdoc at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL)? A new episode of “The Big Ideas Lab” explores the postdoctoral journey at LLNL, from the first days at the Lab to the professional growth that follows. The episode features Ted Baumann, LLNL’s postdoc program lead and a longtime Lab scientist who first joined LLNL as a postdoctoral fellow…
Researchers create first-of-a-kind laser spring with LLNL’s highest-precision optics to date
When a high-intensity laser interacts with plasma, the charged particles typically oscillate back and forth like waves on the ocean. But what if the laser itself could twist like a whirlpool? Researchers have now demonstrated a rotating, spring-shaped laser pulse, opening up new possibilities for fusion energy, particle acceleration, astrophysics and beyond. In new…
Laser experiments push helium to record shock pressures
Deep inside gas giants like Jupiter and Saturn, hydrogen and helium coexist under pressures millions of times greater than Earth’s atmosphere. At those conditions, helium may separate from hydrogen and influence a planet’s internal heat flow, structure and magnetic field. Understanding these processes and how these materials behave under extreme conditions is essential to…
LLNL’s Big Ideas Lab podcast goes behind the scenes of the National Lab Research SLAM
Finalists representing each of the 17 U.S. Department of Energy national laboratories gathered at the Congressional Auditorium for the first National Lab Research SLAM in 2023. With one slide, three minutes and months of preparation behind them, each scientist stepped up to the microphone to explain their research through compelling storytelling to an audience outside of…
Bridging the gap between neuromorphic ionic computing and more efficient AI
The human brain is the ultimate supercomputer. It uses a highly-branched and interconnected network of neurons and synapses to achieve massive computational power with extreme efficiency. In the age of AI, the brain, a paradigm of efficient neuromorphic computing, is providing inspiration for scientists. Ionic computing — which uses ions to compute instead of the electrons…
Meet the machines that matter: the portable neutron detector
Nuclear materials are rarely quiet. Even when hidden inside a sealed container, they emit a kind of heartbeat through streams of particles and radiation that carry critical information about its contents. In a laboratory, scientists have the tools and expertise to read that heartbeat. But in an emergency, first responders need a way to interpret it quickly, without highly…
LLNL, UC San Diego host workshop for innovative fusion concepts
More than 80 attendees recently gathered at the University of California (UC) Livermore Collaboration Center for the Innovative Concepts for Inertial Fusion Energy (IC-IFE) 2026 International Physics Workshop. Hosted by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and UC San Diego, the three-day conference was supported by the Japan-U.S. Collaboration Program in Fusion…
LLNL’s Forensic Science Center develops a new capability to detect chemical weapons
In the aftermath of suspected chemical attacks, investigators from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) step in to collect chemical, environmental and biomedical samples. Thorough forensic laboratory analysis of these samples is essential for proving what — if any — chemical agents were used and verifying their identities. Researchers at Lawrence…
Meet Alex Baker: Deputy Group Leader, Advanced Materials Process Science
Alex Baker wears many hats at LLNL; his roles run the gamut from project leadership to operations efforts to scientific research of his own. Being from the United Kingdom, he traveled quite a distance to get here, but it was no accident. Baker completed his PhD at Oxford University and Diamond Light Source, one of the UK’s national labs, during which he regularly visited…
Tuning plasma edge density suppresses damaging tokamak instabilities
Tokamak fusion reactors use powerful magnetic fields to confine superheated plasmas, but the plasma edge—the outermost region where magnetic containment begins to weaken—can become unstable. These instabilities, called edge-localized modes (ELMs), can suddenly release intense bursts of heat and particles toward reactor walls and the divertor, the exhaust system that…
Analyze an asteroid sample in the latest episode of the Big Ideas Lab
In the early 2000s, a team of planetary scientists at NASA began planning something audacious. They would build a spacecraft. Aim it at an asteroid. Launch it across more than a billion miles of space. Map the asteroid’s rugged terrain at an unprecedented, centimeter-level resolution. Hover over the surface to collect a sample. And then bring it all the way home. The…
Meet the machines that matter: the Electron Beam Ion Trap
Imagine listening to an orchestra: overlapping notes, blended timbres and complex harmonies coming together into a cohesive symphony. Now try to isolate a single instrument and the sounds it produces. Nearly impossible, right? The same is true for collections of ions, charged particles that have gained or lost electrons. Each ion — from hydrogen to lithium to lead and…
