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Physical and Life Sciences
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…
New nucleotide database could improve microbe identification for science and medicine
Imagine creating a comprehensive, searchable index for a library containing hundreds of millions of books — a task that would take a single person a lifetime to complete. Now imagine discovering that many of these books contain mislabeled pages or paragraphs written by different authors than those credited. This dual challenge — creating an efficient system to quickly…
Probing deflagration to better understand detonation
Suddenly, there’s a flash of intense light and heat, followed by a rapidly expanding fireball. Combustion of high explosives is everywhere in popular culture, and it's also critical for ensuring the safety and reliability of the U.S. stockpile. While detonations often get all the credit in combustion, deflagrations — their subsonic, less famous precursors — are also…
LLNL’s Jennifer Pett-Ridge named 2024 AAAS fellow
Jennifer Pett-Ridge is a biogeochemist who likes to ‘dig deep’ into the soil. She knew early on that she wanted to pursue environmental science and has now become one of the world’s foremost experts in soil ecology and carbon cycling. Now, Pett-Ridge will be recognized as a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world’s largest…
LLNL’s Aleksandr Noy named 2025 Materials Research Society fellow
Aleksandr Noy, a senior research scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), has been named a 2025 fellow of the Materials Research Society (MRS). The fellowship recognizes sustained contributions and dedication to the advancement of materials research and is a lifetime recognition of distinction in the field. The committee recognized Noy for his “seminal…
LLNL scientists use AI to optimize antibodies against mutations and accelerate pandemic preparedness
Researchers from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), in collaboration with other leading institutions, have successfully used an AI-driven platform to preemptively optimize an antibody to neutralize a broad diversity of SARS-CoV-2 variants. This pioneering approach, published in the journal Science Advances, represents a significant leap in the fight against…
Innovating antibody design driven by artificial intelligence
Dr. Dante Ricci, a scientist in the Synthetic Biology group at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), is at the forefront of revolutionizing medical countermeasure development through artificial intelligence (AI).
Emilie Dunham shoots for the stars
What if we could determine what material built our solar system, how old it is, and even the type of star it came from? Emilie Dunham, postdoctoral researcher in the Nuclear and Chemical Sciences Division at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), is exploring the answers to these very questions, all while following a childhood passion. Dunham, a 2023 Lawrence…
A brighter future for the Jupiter Laser Facility
Since the 1970s, the Janus laser, now part of the Jupiter Laser Facility (JLF), has served as an experimental proving ground to Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s (LLNL) laser and fusion programs and the broader high-energy-density and laser science communities. Today, JLF is not only home to Janus — one of the world’s few hands-on laser platforms producing…
LLNL scientists take new approach to understanding protein-membrane interactions
Proteins interacting with cell membranes play a vital role in countless biological processes, from how cells communicate to how they respond to external signals like hormones or medications. Understanding these interactions at a molecular level is crucial for advancing medicine, especially in designing drugs that target these proteins. A recent study, led by Lawrence…
