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Physical and Life Sciences

Study on stability of highly energetic materials

Understanding the physical and chemical characteristics of energetic materials under extreme conditions is crucial for their safe and efficient use. High-pressure phase transitions in such materials can cause significant changes in their initiation properties and detonation performance necessitating detailed structural studies. The high-pressure structural evolution of CL…

World's largest optical lens shipped to SLAC

When the world’s newest telescope starts imaging the southern sky in 2023, it will take photos using optical assemblies designed by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) researchers and built by Lab industrial partners. A key feature of the camera’s optical assemblies for the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST), under construction in northern Chile, will be its…

More accurate modeling of precipitation’s diurnal cycle

Precipitation is one of the most challenging aspects of climate to model, so the accuracy with which it is represented is therefore frequently cited as a barometer for the quality of climate forecasting. A shortcoming in current climate models is their inability to accurately predict diurnal precipitation patterns. Over land, the daily precipitation cycle is strong: As the…

The Little Neutrino Experiment That Could

Many experiments conducted by Lawrence Livermore researchers are designed to explore questions of fundamental science. Others are intended to test-drive new mission-critical technologies. Perhaps the most exciting experiments are those that undertake both objectives. PROSPECT, the Precision Oscillation and Spectrum Experiment, is a unique neutrino–antineutrino detection…

Going small can help determine where nuclear material came from and how it was made

Until recently, the analysis and identification of nuclear fuel pellets in nuclear forensics investigations have been mainly focused on macroscopic characteristics, such as fuel pellet dimensions, uranium enrichment and other reactor-specific features. But Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) scientists are going a step further by going down to the microscale to…

Freshening up contaminated water

Nitrate is a troublesome groundwater contaminant that is mainly caused by fertilizer runoff on farmlands. Many wells in agricultural regions exceed the EPA limit for nitrate in drinking water, and without an economical treatment option the water is unfit for potable use. But Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and Stanford University researchers have developed a…

Enhancing fullerene–graphene nanocarbon networks for energy storage and harvesting

Lawrence Livermore researchers and collaborators at the University of Texas at El Paso have developed a concept that allows the integration of the characteristic properties of fullerene in 3D graphene networks. In the study, the team optimized the interaction between 3D graphene networks and fullerenes, specifically in the context of stability and charge transfer in an…

Jupiter shows its true stripes

There’s a reason why Jupiter’s stripes are only skin deep. It turns out that the planet’s zonal winds -- the alternating east-west jet streams seen in photographs as colorful stripes -- only descend to 3,000 kilometers in the atmosphere. Magnetic fields can make fluids that conduct electricity (like Jupiter’s atmosphere) behave more like honey than water. Deeper into the…

Lawrence Livermore climate scientist Karl Taylor elected American Geophysical Union fellow

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) climate scientist Karl Taylor has been selected as a fellow of the American Geophysical Union (AGU). The AGU, with a membership of more than 60,000, is an international scientific association that spans the major disciplines of earth and space sciences. Each year a tenth of a percent of the members become fellows in recognition…

'Quantum annealer' shows promise in study

An international team of researchers, including Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) physicist Arjun Gambhir, has developed a new algorithm for solving polynomial systems of equations using a type of quantum computer called a "quantum annealer." The team systematically examined how this method scales when facing increasingly difficult mathematical equations, with…

Nerve-Agent Antidote Shows Great Potential

Scientists at LLNL’s Forensic Science Center and Biosecurity Center have formulated molecule LLNL-02, the first molecule capable of dual protection against nerve agents.

Nanowire arrays could improve solar cells

Transparent electrodes are a critical component of solar cells and electronic displays. To collect electricity in a solar cell or inject electricity for a display, you need a conductive contact, like a metal, but you also need to be able to let light in (for solar cells) or out (for displays). Metal is opaque, so the current techniques use metal oxides, most often indium…

Center Collaborates with University of Rochester to Deliver New Graduate Course

The LLNL High Energy Density Science (HEDS) Center is collaborating with the University of Rochester to offer a new graduate course focused on special topics in HED physics, as part of the Center's expanding range of educational opportunities. This course will survey the field of HED Science, extending from ultra-dense matter to the radiation-dominated regime. Topics will…

Klein named American Meteorological fellow

Atmospheric scientist Stephen Klein has been selected as a fellow of the American Meteorological Society. The American Meteorological Society (AMS) is the premier scientific and professional organization in the United States promoting and disseminating information about the atmospheric, oceanic and hydrologic sciences. AMS membership numbers 13,000 and is divided roughly…

Study reveals new structure of gold at extremes

Gold is an extremely important material for high-pressure experiments and is considered the "gold standard" for calculating pressure in static diamond anvil cell experiments. When compressed slowly at room temperature (on the order of seconds to minutes), gold prefers to be the face-centered cubic (fcc) structure at pressures up to three times the center of the Earth…

Lab wins six tech commercialization grants

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) researchers have posted another standout year securing major grants through the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Technology Commercialization Fund (TCF). During the program’s first two years, in 2016 and 2017, Lab researchers received only two of the larger cooperative development grants – one each year. In 2018, they garnered…

Active Optimization of Chemical Catalysts

Drastic changes in climate and global losses in biodiversity are increasing the need to shift the incumbent energy and chemical infrastructure from a fossil-fuel based system to a sustainable-energy based system. Such a system will require that the production of fuels and chemicals use only sustainable energy (e.g., solar) and simple, abundant feedstocks like carbon…

Furthering the application of human identification techniques using hair

Human hair is invaluable to forensic investigations because it is one of the few biological specimen types that persist for long periods of time. However, hair contains minimal intact nuclear DNA, leading researchers to search for alternate identification methods using hair. Previous research led to a new protein-based identification technique, providing a way to identify…

Improving the coherence of superconducting circuits

In an ideal superconducting quantum computer, the underlying quantum bits (qubits) are isolated from the noisy environment with no energy loss to mechanical or vibrational modes. However, in the real world, amorphous materials and material interfaces have defect states that cause qubits to lose their energy through vibrations and interactions with the surrounding…

Under pressure: New device's 1.6 billion atmospheres per second assists impact studies

A new super-fast high-pressure device at DESY's PERA III X-ray light source allows scientists to simulate and study earthquakes and meteorite impacts more realistically in the lab. The new-generation dynamic diamond anvil cell (dDAC), developed by scientists from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Deutsches Elektronen-Synchroton (DESY), the European Synchrotron…