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Physical and Life Sciences
Mineral increases solar cell efficiency
A mineral found in nature may be the key to more efficient solar panels. New research by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) material scientist Marcus Worsley and colleagues from UC Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory shows that using the mineral perovskite in graded band gap solar cells achieves an average steady efficiency rate of 21.7 percent…
Cloudy feedback on global warming
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory researchers have identified a mechanism that causes low clouds -- and their influence on Earth’s energy balance -- to respond differently to global warming, depending on their spatial pattern and location. The results imply that studies relying solely on recent observed trends underestimated how much Earth will warm due to increased…
GEOS Team Aims for Exascale Target
Massively parallel physics simulations provide Lawrence Livermore with a wealth of data to complement experimental observation. Within the Physical and Life Sciences Directorate, computational geoscience is a cornerstone of the Atmospheric, Earth, and Energy Division's (AEED) efforts to advance energy and environmental technology. Because the nation's security depends in…
PLS postdocs embrace Research Slam
Picture this: it's the day of your first poster presentation as a postdoc. You've picked out your best professional suit (or your only professional suit, reserved just for this occasion), your poster has been beautifully printed with help from the Lab's print plant, and your heart is racing with nerves and excitement. Your first interested visitor stops by, quizzically…
Four Lawrence Livermore National Lab researchers selected as 2016 APS Fellows
LIVERMORE, California – Four Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) scientists have been selected as 2016 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 contributions to physics education. APS…
LLNL scientists develop a new method to measure radiation dose in cancer patients
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) scientists and collaborators have developed a new technique to measure radiation dose levels using gene expression analysis of whole blood from cancer patients receiving targeted radiation therapy. There are unique challenges to estimate the internal dose after radiotherapy is administered. The current practice of calculating…
Fusion award honors LLNL scientist's career
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers’ (IEEE) Nuclear & Plasma Sciences Society (NPSS) selected Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) researcher Wayne Meier as the recipient of their 2016 Fusion Technology Award. The award will be presented at the 2017 Symposium on Fusion Engineering June 4-8 in Shanghai, China. The Fusion Technology Award…
Researchers explore biomechanical regulation of a key gene in bone
Researchers from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), in collaboration with Damian Genetos at UC Davis and Alex Robling at Indiana University School of Medicine, investigated a regulatory element for the gene controlling bone mechanoadaptation. Over time, pressure loaded on the skeleton builds bone mass while bone mass is lost from disuse. The sclerostin (Sost)…
DoD awards grant to distinguish aggressive forms of breast cancer that spread in the body
The Department of Defense (DoD) awarded a team from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and UC Merced a three-year, $768,803 grant to study breast cancer metastasis. Researchers are on the hunt to identify, characterize and potentially exploit the information packaged in different types of extracellular shed vesicles (ESVs) to determine if they can distinguish…
Livermore scientists purify copper nanowires
Cell phones and Apple watches could last a little longer due to a new method to create copper nanowires. A team of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) scientists have created a new method to purify copper nanowires with a near-100 percent yield. These nanowires are often used in nanoelectronic applications. The research, which appears in the online edition of…
Laskas dishes on the 'Concussion' controversy
Jeanne Marie Laskas, author of The New York Times best-selling book "Concussion," visited Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) last week, drawing a crowd of more than 200 employees to hear first-hand the sequence of events that led to her book and the subsequent Hollywood movie starring Will Smith. "Concussion," released in 2015, was based on Laskas' 2009 GQ…
Splitting hairs to advance forensic science
With initial help from his work at a Utah university, an Australian-born biochemist is partnering with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) to discover a second science-based forensic tool for identifying people in addition to DNA profiling. Now an LLNL contract employee, Glendon Parker is working with the Lab's Forensic Science Center employees to develop a…
Laboratory researchers find Earth composed of different materials than primitive meteorites
Scientists from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) have found that, contrary to popular belief, the Earth is not comprised of the same material found in primitive meteorites (also known as chondrites). This is based on the determination that the abundance of several neodymium (Nd) isotopes are different in the Earth and in chondritic meteorites. A long-standing…
Lab team wins National Institutes of Health two-year grant to develop chlamydia vaccine
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), with UC Irvine and Synthetic Genomics, won a two-year $485,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to explore new ways to develop a chlamydia vaccine. The team’s project, "Synthetic Generation of a chlamydia Vaccine," uses bioengineering to formulate a major outer membrane protein (MOMP) vaccine. This protein…
Iron springs back to shape under pressure
A team of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) physicists has performed a series of calculations shedding light on an unexpected way that iron transforms under dynamic compression. In a paper published in Physical Review Letters, the team describes first-principle calculations on two solid phases of iron, as well as on intermediate crystal structures along the…
LLNL-led team develops forensic method to identify people using human hair proteins
In an important breakthrough for the forensic science community, researchers have developed the first-ever biological identification method that exploits the information encoded in proteins of human hair. Scientists from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and a Utah startup company have developed the groundbreaking technique, providing a second science-based,…
Ask LLNL's 'second skin' creators anything
Members of the LLNL team that created an environmentally reactive "second skin" for use in military uniforms of the future will be answering questions from the public during a Reddit "Ask Me Anything" online event beginning at 10 a.m. Wednesday. In addition to addressing just about any question on the minds of the Reddit community, Lab scientists Francesco Fornasiero, Ngo…
Lab researchers receive awards from The Meteoritical Society
The Meteoritical Society honored two Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) researchers during their annual meeting that occurred this month in Berlin, Germany. Carolyn Crow, a postdoctoral researcher in the Nuclear and Chemical Sciences Division who studies impact signatures recorded in lunar and terrestrial zircons, won the Gordon A. McKay Award for her…
Scientists identify enzymes that create a highly toxic form of mercury in Antarctic sea ice
Researchers from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) assisted a team from the University of Melbourne in discovering how methylmercury enters the Antarctic sea and bioaccumulates in the marine food web. LLNL scientists Michael Thelen and Adam Zemla performed protein sequence analysis and structural modeling to predict key proteins involved in mercury methylation…
Lab team uses pulsed ion beams to probe radiation defect dynamics in nuclear materials
Materials scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) have developed a novel experimental method to access the dynamic regime of radiation damage formation in nuclear and electronic materials. Their approach is based on using pulsed ion beams for measurements of defect lifetimes, interaction rates and diffusion lengths. The creation of stable radiation…
