Back
Physical and Life Sciences
A new way to examine space, bugs and bones
A novel way to harness lasers and plasmas may give researchers new ways to explore outer space and to examine bugs, tumors and bones back on planet Earth. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) physicist Félicie Albert led an international team pursuing this new regime in laser research, which was described in a Physical Review Letters (PRL) paper published online…
Research comes through with flying colors
Like a chameleon changing colors to blend into the environment, Lawrence Livermore researchers have created a technique to change the color of assembled nanoparticles with an electrical stimulant. The team used core/shell nanoparticles to improve color contrast and expand color schemes by using a combination of pigmentary color (from inherent properties) and structural…
Tweaking a molecule's structure can send it down a different path to crystallization
Silky chocolate, a more effective medical drug or solar panels all require the same thing: just the right crystals to make the material. Now scientists trying to understand the paths crystals take as they form have been able to influence that path by modifying the starting ingredient. The insights could lead to better control of drug development, energy technologies and…
Study on impact of climate change on snowpack
An international team of scientists, including one from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), has found that up to 20 percent loss in the annual maximum amount of water contained in the Western United States’ mountain snowpack in the last three decades is due to human influence. Peak runoff in streams and rivers of the Western U.S. is strongly influenced by…
Pulsed ion beams reveal nonlinearity of radiation defect dynamics in silicon carbide
Materials scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) got a step closer to understanding defect interaction dynamics in silicon carbide. When an energetic particle, such as a neutron or an ion, impinges onto a material, the particle penetrates and creates displacements by ballistic processes of knocking off lattice atoms from their equilibrium positions…
Americans used more clean energy in 2016
Americans used more renewable energy in 2016 compared to the previous year, according to the most recent energy flow charts released by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Overall, energy consumption was nearly flat. Each year, the Laboratory releases energy flow charts that illustrate the nation's consumption and use of energy. Americans used 0.1 quads (quadrillion…
Lab scientists develop next-generation NIF optics to boost energy and limit damage
A new anti-reflective coating and a novel chemical process for laser optics, developed by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) researchers, represents an important breakthrough in its effort to boost the energy of the National Ignition Facility’s (NIF) 192 giant lasers, and cut the cost of repairing or replacing damaged optics vital to its operation. The coating…
Experiments validate models predicting failure modes in miniaturized lightweight structures
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) researchers have adapted theoretical models to predict the failure behavior of miniaturized 3D lattice structures and have used advanced characterization techniques to demonstrate that these failures exist. Specifically, experiments showed a transition in failure modes for stretch-dominated lattice structures at low relative…
Here comes the sun in first-time images
The first images from the Solar Ultraviolet Imager (SUVI) instrument aboard the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s GOES-16 satellite capture a large coronal hole on the sun. The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES) are part of NOAA’s space weather monitoring fleet. GOES-16 launched late last year. GOES-16 (known as "GOES-R" before its…
The softer side of NIF hohlraums
Considering that nothing precious comes from an online retailer without protective padding, could precision laser targets also benefit from similar high-tech swaddling? So far the answer is yes, for a group of scientists developing new target technologies for NIF that are intended to neutralize what they believe is one of the bigger challenges to achieving ignition. The…
A new toolkit for rapid bacterial detection
Finding the right treatment plan for patients who have antibiotic-resistant infections is a costly and time-consuming effort. For doctors in rural areas or developing countries, there often is no source of electricity nearby or sterile lab conditions with microbiology specialists on hand. The current standard for bacterial identification is to isolate and grow the species…
Weisz selected for Hutcheon Fellowship
A Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) postdoc who was mentored by Lab scientist Ian Hutcheon has been named the first recipient of the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) new fellowship that honors Hutcheon. David Weisz, who has worked at the Lab since August as a chemist in the Chemical and Isotopic Signatures Group, has been selected to receive the "Dr. Ian…
Forensic Science Center Earns 7th Consecutive OPCW 'A' Grade
Despite a worldwide ban, chemical weapons pose a legitimate threat to global security. In 2013, rockets deployed the nerve agent sarin over a populated area of Syria, killing hundreds of people and hospitalizing thousands more. In accordance with the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) Treaty, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) leads…
It's a blast: Imaging high explosive detonators
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) scientists and collaborators at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) for the first time have taken 3D snapshots of operating high explosive detonators. Scientists from LLNL, Los Alamos and National Security Technologies, LLC (NSTech) combined state-of-the-art imaging capabilities with computed tomographic reconstruction (X-ray…
‘Science on Saturday’ lecture combines biomedical and computational power to decode rabies
On February 11, hundreds filled the Bankhead Theater in downtown Livermore for a presentation titled “Reconstructing a Rabies Epidemic: Byte by Byte.” As part of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s (LLNL’s) educational outreach program Science on Saturday, the interactive lecture featured biomedical scientist Monica Borucki, bioinformatics scientist Jonathan Allen,…
Scientific team develops nano-sized hydrogen storage system to increase efficiency
Lawrence Livermore scientists have collaborated with an interdisciplinary team of researchers, including colleagues from Sandia National Laboratories, to develop an efficient hydrogen storage system that could be a boon for hydrogen-powered vehicles.Hydrogen is an excellent energy carrier, but the development of lightweight solid-state materials for compact, low-pressure…
From the Lab to the marketplace: Lab-Corps provides a boost to cryogenic compression
Hydrogen offers a wide variety of benefits to today's challenges for carbonless transportation (such as zero tail-pipe emissions, rapid refueling and longer driving range), but its widespread commercialization is still limited due to high costs. Cryogenic compression would help make carbonless transportation a practical reality. That’s where Guillaume Petitpas of Lawrence…
Lab-Corps experience inspires application of carbon capture technology to untapped industry
Sometimes a scientific breakthrough can end up in the most unexpected places. Just ask Congwang Ye, a Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) engineer whose work with carbon capture microcapsule technology, intended for filtering CO2 from power plants, could end up solving a big problem for craft beer makers.In December, Ye participated in the Department of Energy’s…
Kepler, don't give up on the hunt for exomoons
The Kepler spacecraft has been prolific in its search for planets outside our solar system, known as exoplanets, discovering thousands since its launch in 2009. But the hunt for moons orbiting these exoplanets, or exomoons, is vastly more challenging. While no exomoons have been found to date, a new study shows that the search is not futile. Researchers have demonstrated…
Next-gen dark matter detector in race to finish
U.S.-based experiment is on a fast track to help solve science mystery._________The race is on to build the most sensitive U.S.-based experiment designed to directly detect dark matter particles. Department of Energy (DOE) officials today formally approved a key construction milestone that will propel the project toward its April 2020 goal for completion.Lawrence Livermore…
