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Physical and Life Sciences
'Brain-on-a-chip' tests effects of biological and chemical agents, develop countermeasures
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) scientists and engineers have developed a "brain-on-a-chip" device aimed at testing and predicting the effects of biological and chemical agents, disease or pharmaceutical drugs on the brain over time without the need for human or animal subjects. The device, part of the Lab’s iCHIP (in-vitro Chip-Based Human Investigational…
LLNL-developed microelectrodes enable automated sorting of neural signals
Thin-film microelectrode arrays produced at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) have enabled development of an automated system to sort brain activity by individual neurons, a technology that could open the door to recording and analyzing unprecedented amounts of neural signals over time, and, ultimately, provide scientists with new clues about how the brain…
Arctic sea ice loss could dry out California
Arctic sea ice loss of the magnitude expected in the next few decades could impact California’s rainfall and exacerbate future droughts, according to new research led by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) scientists. The dramatic loss of Arctic sea ice cover observed over the satellite era is expected to continue throughout the 21st century. Over the next few…
New study verifies more paths to survival for endangered winter-run Chinook salmon
The most treacherous journey of any salmon’s life is from its natal river to the ocean when it is still a juvenile, usually when they are only a few months old. For endangered salmon, this early journey is a matter of life and death for the whole population. In a new study from the Metropolitan Water District (MWD), University of California, Davis, the NOAA Fisheries…
A Reversible Reaction Captures Carbon
To combat climate change and other anthropogenic environmental impacts, researchers have identified and analyzed major sources of pollution.
Clay mineral waters Earth's mantle from inside
The first observation of a super-hydrated phase of the clay mineral kaolinite could improve the understanding of processes that lead to volcanism and affect earthquakes. In high-pressure and high-temperature X-ray measurements, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory scientist Hyunchae Cynn and colleagues from Yonsei University in the Republic of Korea, Deutsches Elektronen…
First forms of life on Earth unveiled in hot spring
Terrestrial geothermal systems are like buried treasure when it comes to finding out the origins of life on Earth. In these underground hot springs, some of the most ancient single-celled bacteria and archaea live the life of extremophiles (organisms that live under extreme environmental conditions such as hot springs or ice caps). By their makeup alone, the microorganisms…
Lawrence Livermore and American Heart Association partner to accelerate drug discovery
The American Heart Association (AHA) and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) have formed a strategic business partnership to overcome the burden of drug discovery, cost and access. The two organizations will leverage the world’s most powerful supercomputers to accelerate drug discovery. LLNL scientists and engineers in collaboration with AHA-funded scientists…
Lab employees selected as 2017 APS fellows
Three Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) scientists -- Nathan Barton, Lab Director William Goldstein and Robert Kirkwood -- have been selected as 2017 fellows of the American Physical Society (APS). Election to APS fellowship recognizes the society member's exceptional contributions to the field of physics through research, leadership, applications of physics or…
Public-private consortium aims to cut preclinical cancer drug discovery from six years to just one
Lawrence Livermore National Lab, Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research, GSK and University of California, San Francisco will combine vast data stores, supercomputing and scientific expertise to reinvent discovery process for cancer medicines. SAN FRANCISCO, Oct 27, 2017 -- Scientists from two U.S. national laboratories, industry and academia today launched an…
LLNL researchers turn to bioengineered bacteria to increase U.S. supply of rare earth metals
To help increase the U.S. supply of rare earth metals, a Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) team has created a new way to recover rare earths using bioengineered bacteria. Rare earth elements (REEs) are essential for American competitiveness in the clean energy industry because they are used in many devices important to a high-tech economy and national security,…
Exascale in motion on earthquake risks
Assessing large magnitude (greater than 6 on the Richter scale) earthquake hazards on a regional (up to 100 kilometers) scale takes big machines. To resolve the frequencies important to engineering analysis of the built environment (up to 10 Hz or higher), numerical simulations of earthquake motions must be done on today’s most powerful computers. The algorithms and codes…
Big, bad, Martian volcanoes unveiled
They are bigger, scarier and last longer. That’s the conclusion of a team of scientists, including Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory cosmochemist Bill Cassata, about the evolution of volcanoes on the red planet, compared to those on Earth. Martian volcanoes are the largest in the solar system. Although their size indicates continued activity over billions of years,…
LLNL scientists stick to a new efficient magnet
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory researchers have developed a new, more efficient permanent magnet that removes the deficiencies of conventional samarium and neodymium magnets. The proposed magnet stems from the well-known samarium and cobalt (SmCo5, CaCu5-type structure) magnet, but goes a step further and substitutes most of the cobalt with iron and nickel. More…
New ultralight silver nanowire aerogel is boon for energy and electronics industries
A new ultralight silver nanowire aerogel could be a boost to the energy and electronics industries. Metal foams (or porous metals) represent a new class of materials with unique properties including lightweight, high surface area, high electrical conductivity and low thermal conductivity. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) researchers have created a new…
Scientists estimate death rates from air pollution caused by the impact of climate change
A recent study by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) scientists and collaborators is the first to use an ensemble of global chemistry climate models to estimate death rates from air pollution caused by the impact of climate change on pollutant concentrations. Ground-level ozone and fine particulate matter are detrimental to human health. Their future…
Atomic-scale simulations go the distance to resolve the 'jiggle, wiggle' of metal strength
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) researchers have dived down to the atomic scale to resolve every "jiggle and wiggle" of atomic motion that underlies metal strength. In a first-of-its-kind series of computer simulations focused on metal tantalum, the team predicted that, on reaching certain critical conditions of straining, metal plasticity (the ability to…
LLNL researchers to study soil microbiome
A new Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) initiative to study how the soil microbiome (microorganisms such as fungi and bacteria, microfauna and viruses) controls the mechanisms that regulate organic matter stabilization in soil can move forward after the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Biological and Environmental Research awarded an LLNL team $2.5…
A solid pathway toward hydrogen storage
An inexpensive and useful layered superconductor compound also may be an efficient solid-state material for storing hydrogen. The Department of Energy's (DOE) Energy Materials Network (EMN) consortium approach to accelerate material discovery and development is starting to pay off. Through theory and experimentation, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) scientists…
Twenty summers of nuclear forensics and actinide science
In 1998, the Actinide Sciences Summer Program began training the next generation of actinide scientists (those who study elements 89 through 103 in an effort to identify the origin and behavior of nuclear materials). On August 5, this longstanding program, renamed the Nuclear Forensics Summer Internship Program (NFSIP) in 2008, bid farewell to its 20th class. As a…
