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Physical and Life Sciences
Tiny But Mighty Potential Allies in the Toxic Metal Cleanup Effort
Livermore microbiologist Yongqin Jiao is midway through a five-year study to investigate how certain aerobic bacteria interact with uranium in aquatic environments.
Climate scientist aims to clear the air on clouds
Mark Zelinka has his head in the clouds.The researcher in the Program for Climate Model Diagnosis and Intercomparison is delving into research on how climate change affects cloud properties and vice versa.Using detailed data from satellites and climate models, Zelinka, who was recently converted from a postdoc to staff scientist, examines the vertical structure and optical…
Pilot water conservation project uses treated groundwater for cooling
The Laboratory has launched a pilot project to reduce potable water use by using treated groundwater to cool equipment and research facilities at the main site.Water from one of LLNL's treatment wells is being run through a reverse osmosis filtration unit and used as an alternative to the Hetch-Hetchy water used in the Bldg. 133 cooling tower on the west side of the Lab…
Lawrence Livermore scientists use carbon nanotubes for tissue healing
Lawrence Livermore scientists have found that carbon nanotubes can help with tissue healing and repair.The team, which includes scientists from The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research, UC Davis and UC Merced, found that there is long-term biocompatibility of single wall carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) when used for tissue engineering and articular cartilage.Carbon nanotubes…
Lawrence Livermore researchers model spent nuclear fuels for potential energy
Lawrence Livermore scientists have modeled actinide-based alloys, such as spent nuclear fuel, in an effort to predict the impact of evolving fuel chemistry on material performance. This work, funded by a Laboratory Directed Research and Development Program on "Scientific Basis for Ultra-high Burn-up Nuclear Fuels," could have direct implications for the use of spent…
Livermore researchers spy deep into giant gas planets
Using the VUV Free-Electron Laser (FEL) FLASH at Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY) in Hamburg, Germany, Lawrence Livermore researchers were part of a team that took a sneak peek deep into the lower atmospheric layers of giant gas planets such as Jupiter or Saturn. Their observations reveal how liquid hydrogen becomes a plasma and provide information on the material's…
Celebrating 2014 as the International Year of Crystallography
It was 100 years ago that the use of X-rays to determine the crystal structure of materials emerged. The pioneering work of Max von Laue, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in physics, was followed by a joint award, also in physics, the next year (1915) to the father and son team of William and Lawrence Bragg. Since then, more than 25 Nobel Prizes have been awarded…
Livermore Lab's microbial detection array detects plague in ancient human remains
Scientists who study past pandemics, such as the 14th century Black Death that devastated much of Europe, might soon be turning to an innovative biological detection technology for some extra help.The apparent first use of this technology, known as a microarray, for studying pathogens from ancient DNA, was reported today by a team of scientists in the daily online journal,…
Science academies explain global warming in 'plain English'
If emissions of greenhouse gases continue in a business-as-usual manner, future changes in climate will substantially exceed those that have occurred so far, with a warming of the Earth in the range of roughly 5 to 9 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of the century. That is the conclusion of a new report by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences (NAS) and The Royal Society,…
Volcanoes contribute to recent warming 'hiatus'
LIVERMORE, Calif. -- Volcanic eruptions in the early part of the 21st century have cooled the planet, according to a study led by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. This cooling partly offset the warming produced by greenhouse gases. Despite continuing increases in atmospheric levels of greenhouse gases, and in the total heat content of the ocean, global-mean…
Current ice melt rate in Pine Island Glacier may go on for decades
A study of the Pine Island Glacier could provide insight into the patterns and duration of glacial melt. The Pine Island Glacier, a major outlet of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, has been undergoing rapid melting and retreating for the past two decades. But new research by an international team including researchers from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory shows that…
NuSTAR helps untangle how stars explode
For the first time, an international team of astrophysicists, including Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory scientists, have unraveled how stars blow up in supernova explosions. Using NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR ) -- a high-energy X-ray observatory -- the international collaboration created the first-ever map of radioactive material in a…
Uncovering the secrets of tularemia
Tularemia is endemic in the northeastern United States, and is considered to be a risk to biosecurity -- much like anthrax or smallpox -- because it has already been weaponized in various regions of the world. At the 58th Annual Biophysical Society Meeting, which started Saturday and continues through Wednesday in San Francisco, Geoffrey Feld, a postdoctoral researcher in…
New application of physics tools used in biology
A Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory physicist and his colleagues have found a new application for the tools and mathematics typically used in physics to help solve problems in biology.Specifically, the team used statistical mechanics and mathematical modeling to shed light on something known as epigenetic memory -- how an organism can create a biological memory of…
Lawrence Livermore scientist selected as SPIE Fellow
LIVERMORE, Calif. - Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) scientist Steve Payne was recently selected as a fellow of SPIE, an international professional society for optics and photonics. Payne, an active SPIE participant since the mid-1980s, is the group leader for sensor materials and measurements in the Lab's Materials Sciences Division and is the associate…
Livermore researchers identify chemical, physical traits of fallout
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory researchers have begun to develop a technique that provides a practical approach for looking into the complex physical and chemical processes that occur during fallout formation following a nuclear detonation. Post-detonation nuclear forensics relies on advanced analytical techniques and an understanding of the physio-chemical…
Lab scientist named vice president of materials society
Patrice Turchi, a Distinguished Member of the Technical Staff at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, will be installed as the 2014 vice president of The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society (TMS) in February.Turchi, who is the group leader of LLNL's Materials Science Division of the Physical and Life Sciences Directorate, will assume his new role at TMS during the…
The Flame Challenge is on: What is color?
How well do you know science? Do you know it well enough to explain it to a fellow scientist, engineer or your boss? What about a news reporter, college or high school student? Or, the ultimate challenge, a fifth-grade student? That is what the Flame Challenge is all about: encouraging scientists to voluntarily create ways to communicate complex material simply, clearly…
Water in star dust points to origins of life in the universe
Space weathering, which works similar to geological erosion on the Earth, produces water in the rims of tiny particles of interplanetary dust. The discovery may have implications on the origins of life and sources of water throughout the galaxy. As a byproduct of star formation, water ice is the most abundant solid material in the universe. But this new source was a…
Lawrence Livermore 'space cops' to help control traffic in space
A team of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory scientists are using mini-satellites that work as "space cops" to help control traffic in space. The scientists used a series of six images over a 60-hour period taken from a ground-based satellite to prove that it is possible to refine the orbit of another satellite in low earth orbit."Eventually our satellite will be…
