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Physical and Life Sciences
Meteorites might have kick-started life on early Earth
The incorporation of the biologically vital element phosphorus into material found in living species may have formed during impact from astrophysical bodies on early Earth. NASA’s Exobiology Program has awarded Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) senior scientist Nir Goldman a three-year grant to research meteorite impacts on Earth. Goldman is seeking to…
LLNL, IBM win SC20 ‘Test of Time’ for Blue Gene/L
A team of current and former Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and IBM scientists won the annual “Test of Time” award at the 2020 Supercomputing Conference on Nov. 19 for a paper outlining LLNL’s Blue Gene/L supercomputer. Published by the Supercomputing Conference in 2002, the paper was the first peer-reviewed overview article to disclose details of Blue Gene…
The Worldwide Effort to Ban Chemical Weapons
The Forensic Science Center is an important ally in the international endeavor to prohibit chemical warfare agents.
Tapping the Earth’s Heat for Clean Energy
Working in a deep underground tunnel, researchers are learning how to turn heat from impermeable rock into clean, low-carbon-emitting power.
Drop by Drop: A Promising Method for Printing Metal Parts
A novel additive manufacturing technique applies tiny droplets of molten metal layer by layer.
HPC4Energy Innovation kicks off fall 2020 solicitation
The High Performance Computing for Energy Innovation (HPC4EI) Program, managed by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), is seeking new industry proposals for short-term projects that could benefit from world-class DOE high performance computing (HPC) and expertise. Under the fall 2020 HPC4EI solicitation, DOE’s Office of…
3D-printed glass enhances optical design flexibility
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) researchers have used multi-material 3D printing to create tailored gradient refractive index glass optics that could make for better military specialized eyewear and virtual reality goggles. The new technique could achieve a variety of conventional and unconventional optical functions in a flat glass component (with no surface…
Model for COVID-19 drug discovery a Gordon Bell finalist
A machine learning model developed by a team of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) scientists to aid in COVID-19 drug discovery efforts is a finalist for the Gordon Bell Special Prize for High Performance Computing-Based COVID-19 Research. Using Sierra, the world’s third fastest supercomputer, LLNL scientists created a more accurate and efficient generative…
Tiny tubes come in big packages
Membrane-based systems have great potential as low energy alternatives in applications like desalination, pharmaceutical recovery, purification and waste treatment. Scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) have created the largest defect-free membranes reported to date that fully exploit the unique mass transport properties of carbon nanotubes as flow…
LLNL wins two FLC awards for tech transfer
Two teams of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) scientists and engineers, each supported by a Lab business development executive, have garnered regional awards for technology transfer. This year’s awards, one for outstanding technology development and the other for an outstanding partnership, will be presented next week during the Federal Laboratory Consortium’s…
Solar system formed in less than 200,000 years
A long time ago — roughly 4.5 billion years — our sun and solar system formed over the short time span of 200,000 years. That is the conclusion of a group of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) scientists after looking at isotopes of the element molybdenum found on meteorites. The material that makes up the sun and the rest of the solar system came from the…
Lab will play key role in upcoming battery summit
Five Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) employees, including Director Bill Goldstein, will play key roles in the sixth annual Bay Area Battery Summit (BABS) slated to be held virtually next week. This year’s sixth annual BABS, co-sponsored by LLNL, New Energy Nexus and CalCharge, will draw together investors, policymakers, researchers and entrepreneurs with an…
LLNL welcomes 'Ruby' supercomputer for national nuclear security mission and COVID-19 research
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), along with partners Intel, Supermicro and Cornelis Networks, have deployed “Ruby,” a high performance computing (HPC) cluster that will perform functions for the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and support the Laboratory’s COVID-19 research. Funded by NNSA’s Advanced Simulation and Computing (ASC) program, the…
Building a secure biosystem to protect microorganisms
To reduce the risk of unintended ecological consequences from environmentally deployed, genetically engineered microorganisms (GEMS), Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) scientists and collaborators are developing built-in “security mechanisms” that ensure they function where and when needed. The team hopes to stabilize GEMs to prevent the transfer of potentially…
LLNL, partners open access to CO2 storage simulator
After more than two years of joint research, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Total and Stanford University are releasing an open-source, high-performance simulator for large-scale geological carbon dioxide (CO2) storage. The GEOSX simulator will enable researchers around the world to build on the work of the three partners, providing an open framework to…
Lab explores new resins for light-based 3D printing
A Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) team has simulated the cross-linking of 3D-printed polymer networks, a key step toward developing new functional resins for light-based 3D-printing techniques including two-photon lithography (TPL) and volumetric additive manufacturing (VAM). The team used molecular dynamics simulations to study, at a microscopic level, the…
A PROMISE to trace the path of individual carbon atoms
Like water molecules in a river, soil carbon atoms are always in motion. To better understand this action, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) scientists and collaborators have created a new conceptual framework as well as a simulation model that traces the path of individual carbon atoms as they interact with the environment -- undergoing biochemical…
DOE awards $18 million to LaserNetUS consortium
LaserNetUS, a network of facilities operating ultra-powerful lasers including those at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), has received $18 million from the Department of Energy (DOE) for user support. Established in 2018 by DOE, LaserNetUS is organized and funded by DOE’s Office of Fusion Energy Sciences (FES). The new network was created to provide vastly…
New materials help expand volumetric 3D printing
Researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) have adapted a new class of materials for their groundbreaking volumetric 3D printing method that produces objects nearly instantly, greatly expanding the range of material properties achievable with the technique. The class of materials adapted for volumetric 3D printing are called thiol-ene resins, and they can…
Girls persevere for STEM in virtual conference
More than 150 girls logged into their computers, excited to participate in the first-ever virtual San Joaquin Expanding Your Horizons (SJEYH) conference via Zoom last month. Now in its 28th year, SJEYH has a long history of inspiring young women and fostering awareness of careers in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). The annual event normally draws more than…
