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Physical and Life Sciences
Giant lasers crystallize water with shockwaves, revealing the atomic structure of superionic ice
Scientists from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) used giant lasers to flash-freeze water into its exotic superionic phase and record X-ray diffraction patterns to identify its atomic structure for the very first time — all in just a few billionths of a second. The findings are reported today in Nature. In 1988, scientists first predicted that water would…
"Mini" Device Set to Analyze Mysterious Psyche
As part of a NASA Discovery Program mission, an LLNL researcher is leading a team to develop an instrument for analyzing Psyche’s composition.
Human impact on droughts goes back 100 years
Observations and climate reconstructions using data from tree rings confirm that human activity was affecting the worldwide drought risk as far back as the early 20th century. New research from NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and Columbia University shows that greenhouse gas emissions in the first half of the…
U.S. energy use rises to highest level ever
Americans used more energy in 2018 than in any other year, according to the most recent energy flow charts released by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). Overall total energy consumption rose to 101.2 quadrillion BTU (or "quads"). The prior record, set in 2007, was 101.0 quads. Energy use went up by 3.6 percent from 2017, which also is the largest annual…
Belof elected Kavli Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences
Jon Belof, a group leader in MSD and a physicist at LLNL since 2010, has been elected a Kavli Fellow of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences (NAS). As a recently elected fellow, Jon was invited to attend the NAS Frontiers of Science symposium in Irvine, California, the academy’s premiere activity for distinguished young scientists. Here, he presented his research on non…
Barrier membrane demonstrates biosensing platform protection
Biological signaling mechanisms often involve small molecules, ions, and protons, and facile in situ monitoring of the levels of these species is vital for medical diagnostics. Even the simplest signals, such as intracellular pH level, can provide important information. Of all biosensing platforms, electrical sensors represent the best opportunity to develop implantable…
Computational and Experimental Models Combine in Science on Saturday Program
LLNL scientists Nick Be (left) and Tim Carpenter describe the computational (in silico) methods and experimental (in vitro and in vivo) techniques used to speed up the therapeutic drug optimization process. The combination of these methods creates a pipeline to help scientists test more therapeutics at a lower cost. (Photo by Joanna Albala/LLNL Science Education Program.)…
Lab scientists use radioactive tracers to determine the ages of streamflow
Watersheds store water underground in soils and weathered bedrock. How long it takes for water to flow through the subsurface to feed streams is difficult to measure but important for understanding how watersheds function. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) researchers and their collaborators have studied the mixture of water ages in Providence Creek, a stream…
An Optical Revolution for X-Ray Imaging
Weighing nearly 4 kilograms, the first portable digital camera was built in 1975 and offered photographers the ability to capture black-and-white images with a resolution of .01 megapixels. Today, technological advancements have made it possible for people to carry much smaller, lighter, and significantly higher resolution cameras in their pockets (a standard smartphone…
Diving into untouched lunar treasures
Nearly 50 years ago, some very special materials were transported from outer space to Earth — unopened lunar treasures rocketed back by Apollo moonwalkers between 1971 and 1972. Nine "special samples" were collected in containers during the Apollo 15, 16 and 17 missions that had indium knife-edge seals to maintain a lunar-like vacuum. Apollo mission planners devised these…
International collective of scientists seeks refined understanding of climate system
Climate scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) announced today the release of new data sets that will provide fresh insights into past and future climate change. Some of these data sets come from model simulations performed at LLNL, one of the more than 40 climate research centers and consortia engaged in next-generation climate change simulations…
Solving a 50-year-old beta decay puzzle with advanced nuclear model simulations
For the first time, an international team including scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) has found the answer to a 50-year-old puzzle that explains why beta decays of atomic nuclei are slower than expected. The findings fill a long-standing gap in physicists’ understanding of beta decay (converting a neutron into a proton and vice versa), a key…
New climate model evaluation method can help to predict more accurate future change
Combining a new evaluation technique for climate models with observations could reduce the uncertainty in predicting future change. That is the result of a new study by a Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) scientist and collaborators who investigated the evaluation technique (called emergent constraints or ECs) in Earth System Models and found that this method…
Lab will play key role in neuro conference
Ten Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) employees will play key roles in this weekend’s 16th annual World Congress for the Society for Brain Mapping and Therapeutics (SBMT) in Los Angeles. But for two of those employees, Innovation and Partnerships Office (IPO) Deputy Director Roger Werne and computer scientist Mike Piscotty, the conference stirs strong emotions…
Biosensor may provide better cancer diagnosis
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) researchers have developed a new biological sensor that could help clinicians better diagnose cancer and epilepsy. Biological sensors monitor small molecules, ions and protons and are vital as a medical diagnostic. Even the simplest signals, such as intracellular pH level, can provide important information for the medical…
Lab research helps uncover how beetle gut microbes serve as reactor for fuel production
When most people think of wood-eating insects, they imagine termites that can destroy a home or business. However, as part of a Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) bioenergy study, project scientist Jennifer Pett-Ridge and collaborators have learned how the digestive system of a wood-eating beetle serves as a natural mini-reactor for biofuel production. Led by…
Lab geochemist's work on solar system's origins earns society's prestigious F.W. Clarke award
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) geochemist Thomas Kruijer has won the F.W. Clarke Award from the Geochemical Society. The award honors a single outstanding contribution to geochemistry or cosmochemistry, published by an early career scientist as a single paper or a series of papers on a single topic. Kruijer was honored for his work on the hafnium–tungsten…
Metal ion solvation in ionic liquids
Understanding the behavior of metal ions in room temperature ionic liquids is essential for predicting and optimizing performance for technologies like metal electrodeposition. A recent paper by Livermore researchers describes a first-principles molecular dynamics simulations approach to understanding and comparing the key structural properties metal ions (Cu+ and Ag+) in…
Better magnets from SmCo5 nanoparticles
A paper by Livermore researchers, in partnership with researchers at Brown University, has been designated a “hot paper” by the journal Angewandte Chemie. In this article, the authors describe a new technique to synthesize samarium-based nanomagnets and align them in a magnetic field to improve their performance. These show the highest saturation magnetization to date for…
3D-printed live cells convert glucose to ethanol, carbon dioxide to enhance catalytic efficiency
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) researchers have 3D printed live cells that convert glucose to ethanol and carbon dioxide gas (CO2), a substance that resembles beer, demonstrating a technology that can lead to high biocatalytic efficiency. Bioprinting living mammalian cells into complex 3D scaffolds has been widely studied and demonstrated for applications…
