Back

Physical and Life Sciences

Artist’s depiction of NASA’s Dragonfly rotorcraft exploring the icy, hydrocarbon-rich landscapes of Titan, Saturn’s largest moon. (Courtesy image: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Steve Gribben)

LLNL delivers advanced gamma-ray spectrometer for NASA’s Dragonfly mission to explore Titan

Hundreds of millions of miles away from Earth, the landscape of Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, bears a striking resemblance to our own planet — but with dunes of hydrocarbon sands rather than silica sands, and rain, rivers, lakes and seas of liquid methane and ethane rather than liquid water. The NASA Dragonfly mission is set to explore this world in unprecedented detail…

The latest Big Ideas Lab episode examines the how the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory-managed High-Performance Computing for Energy Innovation program is translating advanced computing into measurable impact for U.S. industry and expanding what’s possible for American manufacturing, Listen on Apple or Spotify.

Big Ideas Lab explores how HPC for Energy Innovation advances U.S. industry

Some of the toughest challenges in American manufacturing are being solved without ever stepping onto a factory floor. Inside supercomputers, scientists are modeling systems too complex, costly or time-consuming to test in the real world. In the latest episode of the Big Ideas Lab podcast, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) spotlights the High-Performance…

The magnetic microcalorimetry team operates a dilution refrigerator used for ultra-sensitive magnetic microcalorimetry. Their work enables the precise measurement of nuclear decay events at extremely low temperatures. From left to right: Inwook Kim, Chang Lee, Geon-Bo Kim (corresponding author), Ryan Wood (first author) and Nathan Hines.

Cryogenic micro-calorimetry offers a novel material-dating method for nuclear forensics and safeguards

The moment nuclear material is produced, processed or purified, it sets off a hidden countdown, marked by the half-life of its radioactive atoms as they begin to decay. For scientists tracking the origins of these substances, decoding this natural clock is crucial for verifying material histories in support of global security efforts. In a new study published in the…

Robert Maxwell has been recognized as a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. (Photo by Randy Wong)

LLNL’s Robert Maxwell selected as 2025 AAAS Fellow

Robert S. Maxwell, Strategic Deterrence (SD) program director for Materials and Manufacturing Transformation, was elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in recognition of nearly three decades of leadership and significant contributions in materials chemistry related to national security. “I am incredibly honored and humbled by…

Big Ideas Lab energetic materials podcast graphic

Big Ideas Lab podcast explores energetic materials and the science behind explosive performance

In less than a millionth of a second, a high explosive can release its energy, generating pressures and temperatures that push materials to their limits. At Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), scientists in the Energetic Materials Center (EMC) study these extreme conditions using experiments, computation and specialized facilities. The latest episode of the Big…

Richard W. Lee

Celebrating the life and career of Dick Lee, a trailblazer in high energy density science

Richard W. Lee—known to friends and colleagues as Dick—spent more than five decades making significant contributions to plasma physics and high energy density science. From his early training in spectroscopy to his leadership at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) to his pioneering work with fourth-generation x-ray free electron lasers, his contributions reshaped…

In a new study, researchers genetically engineered the metabolic pathways in yeast to consume sugar and produce oxalic acid. The latter can be used to separate rare earth elements from other metals. (Graphic: Dan Herchek/LLNL)

Engineered yeast produce acids needed to refine rare-earth elements

From mining to magnet manufacturing, the process for refining rare-earth elements is complex and intensive. The supply chain for such critical materials is dominated by China — and so is the oxalic acid needed for the separation and purification stages. To move toward a U.S. supply chain for rare-earth element recovery, researchers from Lawrence Livermore National…

A grain boundary defect with two phases (green and orange) in a tungsten crystal (blue) at 1848 degrees Kelvin. A new model gradually adds and removes atoms to calculate material structure and properties that were previously impossible to obtain. (Graphic: Dan Herchek)

Allowing atoms to come and go opens the door to better materials modeling

Most materials, especially metals and ceramics, are crystals. Their atoms are arranged in three-dimensional lattices that repeat the same exact pattern, over and over again. But there’s a well-known saying in materials science: “Crystals are like people. It is the defects that tend to make them interesting.” In a new study, published in Physical Review Letters, researchers…

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory scientists and computational engineers report on using machine learning to analyze electronic health records of more than 11,000 veterans diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)

LLNL-led study uses machine learning, veterans’ health records to identify ALS drug-repurposing candidate

A Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL)-led team of scientists and computational engineers has identified several existing medications that may be associated with longer survival in people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), using one of the largest electronic health record datasets ever assembled for ALS. Published in The Lancet Digital Health, the study…

The 2026 DMTS cohort is pictured here

LLNL honors 36 as 2026 Distinguished Members of Technical Staff

Thirty-six Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) researchers have been named Distinguished Members of Technical Staff (DMTS) in recognition of their extraordinary scientific and technical contributions, as affirmed by their professional peers and the broader scientific community. As distinguished citizens of the Laboratory and their respective fields, DMTS honorees…

In a pioneering partnership to accelerate materials discovery with AI, researchers from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Meta have created the world’s largest open dataset of atomistic polymer chemistry

LLNL, Meta co-develop groundbreaking polymer-chemistry dataset for training AI models

Polymers are fundamental to our daily lives, serving as the core components for a wide array of goods, including clothing, packaging, transportation infrastructure, construction materials and electronics. Advances in polymer science open pathways for recycling and upcycling waste materials into more valuable chemical feedstocks. They also can have an outsized environmental…

LLNL biologist James Thissen loads DNA samples for sequencing in a pathogen-agnostic method to identify respiratory viruses. (Image: Randy Wong / LLNL)

Pathogen-agnostic testing reveals hidden respiratory threats in negative samples

The COVID-19 pandemic brought the term “Polymerase Chain Reaction testing” into the mainstream. The PCR method is a type of nucleic acid amplification test (NAAT) that detects a pathogen by finding and amplifying components of its genetic material, and it is widely used to detect SARS-CoV-2. But these types of tests have a weakness: you have to know exactly what pathogen…

A man standing behind a truck with the Super Bowl LX venue behind him

Keeping the public safe at the big game: LLNL’s RAP team deploys to Santa Clara, California

As thousands of fans streamed toward Levi’s Stadium for the Super Bowl between the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots, vendors hawked memorabilia, the scent of garlic fries filled the air and security officers checked clear bags beneath white tents. Somewhere in that crowd, walking the same sidewalks and concourses, were a handful of team members carrying gear…

Shaun Kerr and Dean Rusby have refined the MeV x-ray generation of NIF’s Advanced Radiographic Capability, leading to unprecedented imaging of dense materials. Photo by Blaise Douros.

Advanced Radiographic Capability achievements featured in Physics of Plasmas

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s National Ignition Facility (NIF) is the hottest place on earth for the briefest of moments during an experiment. Now, it can be one of the brightest places thanks to the Advanced Radiographic Capability (ARC), NIF’s laser-within-the-laser. How this is possible and how it’s measured is detailed in the cover paper of the December 2025…

Schematic showing the setup for ion transport through a MXene membrane. Researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) discovered that applying an electric field to the gate can change the efficiency of the molecular transport through the membrane

Transistor-like membranes enhance ion separation

By applying voltage to electrically control a new “transistor” membrane, researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) achieved real-time tuning of ion separations — a capability previously thought impossible. The recent work, which could make precision separation processes like water treatment, drug delivery and rare earth element extraction more efficient,…

Plot illustrating a direction-finding algorithm.

Novel directionality algorithm from student-led team selected as featured journal article

Many areas of science and engineering face the same challenge: how to infer a preferred direction when the information is spread across many measurements rather than appearing as a single clear feature. This arises in particle physics and astronomy, as well as in imaging and machine learning, whenever data take the form of a two-dimensional grid, or histogram. A student…

Overview of the key processes that are fundamental for understanding single-crystal battery materials.

Advanced simulation and modeling pave a path forward for single-crystal battery materials

The performance of rechargeable batteries is governed by processes deep within their components. A fundamental understanding of electrochemistry, structure–property–performance relationships and the effects of processing and operating conditions is essential for accelerating the development of next-generation battery technologies capable of powering electric vehicles,…

LLNL researchers have successfully synthesized a californium compound using polyoxometalates — large, cage-like clusters made primarily of metal and oxygen atoms. Their research was featured on a journal cover for Chemical Communications.

Americium, curium and californium — oh my! Crystallizing the rarest elements at LLNL

Actinides are a group of heavy, radioactive elements that include uranium, plutonium, americium, curium, berkelium and californium. Understanding how these elements bond with other atoms (known as coordination chemistry), how they behave in water and how they can be separated from one another is crucial for safer nuclear waste management, new reactor technologies and…

LLNL scientist Gianpaolo Carosi (right) discusses the inner workings of the Axion Dark Matter eXperiment. Expertise in this cavity technology (shown here plated in copper) is enhancing current efforts in quantum computing.

Finding resonance: How LLNL expertise is amplifying collaboration in quantum computing

In November, the Department of Energy Office of Science renewed the Superconducting Quantum Materials and Systems Center (SQMS), hosted by Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, with $125 million over the next five years to accelerate breakthroughs in quantum information science. The investment continues to unite more than 300 experts from 43 partner institutions across…

Cerium, thorium, and zirconium Keggin complexes form parallel arrangements (blue), whereas plutonium complexes organize themselves in a perpendicular fashion (pink)

LLNL researchers discover new way to ‘cage’ plutonium

Plutonium (Pu) exhibits one of the most diverse and complex chemistries of any element in the periodic table. Since its discovery in 1940, scientists have synthesized and studied many different types of plutonium-containing compounds using tools that reveal both their atomic structures and how they interact with light. Not only does plutonium have numerous alloys and…