Back
Physical and Life Sciences
Alan Hidy's global travels lead to a CAMS career
The bookcase in Alan Hidy’s office is loaded with carefully labeled bags of rocks -- some the size of a fist, others pulverized into dust. The granite in these bags is destined for isotope ratio measurement at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's Center for Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (CAMS). "These are from the Sierras," Hidy said, referring to his ongoing study of…
Looking to the sun to create hydrogen fuel
When Lawrence Livermore scientist Tadashi Ogitsu leased a hydrogen fuel-cell car in 2017, he knew that his daily commute would change forever. There are no greenhouse gases that come out of the tailpipe, just a bit of water vapor. The market for hydrogen cars is growing. According to a recent report by the California Energy Commission and the California Air Resources Board…
Meteorites reveal story of Martian climate
Liquid water is not stable on Mars’ surface because the planet’s atmosphere is too thin and temperatures are too cold. However, at one time Mars hosted a warm and wet surface environment that may have been conducive to life. A significant unanswered question in planetary science is when Mars underwent this dramatic change in climate conditions. New research by Lawrence…
Newly developed tunable, green detergents could be 'made-to-order' for industry
That mascara that your colleague is wearing may contain components from a microorganism. Detergents, also known as surfactants, are used extensively in the cosmetics, oil, food, agriculture, healthcare and pharmaceutical industries. Their sales are projected to reach $42 billion by 2020. The majority of surfactants are petrochemicals, i.e. are synthesized from petroleum…
Workshop Explores National Security Dimensions of HED Science
LLNL’s High Energy Density (HED) Science Center helped organize a two-day workshop regarding national security and HED science, held in January 2018 at the University of California (UC) San Diego. The workshop offered an introductory exploration of the national security dimensions of HED science from technical, policy, and international perspectives. Scientists from…
Project to study climate effects on California water systems from headwaters to groundwater
To address future climate change effects on water resources, scientists at five UC campuses, and Lawrence Livermore and Lawrence Berkeley national laboratories will study California’s water systems, from the headwaters in the Sierra Nevada, through rivers, reservoirs and groundwater in the Central Valley. The "Headwaters to groundwate resources in a changing climate"…
LLNL nanolipoprotein technology licensed
A Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) biomedical technology that can deliver vaccines and drugs inside the human body has been licensed for use in cancer treatments to a Michigan company. The Livermore-developed technology, using nanolipoprotein particles (NLPs), has been licensed to Ann Arbor-based EVOQ Therapeutics for cancer immunotherapy, which deploys the…
'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,…
