Back
Physical and Life Sciences
Exploring the chemistry of nuclear explosions
To understand fallout formation from a nuclear explosion, it’s important to look at the gas phase of metal oxides within the device. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) scientists have developed a plasma-flow reactor to experimentally simulate the late cooling of post-detonation fireballs where temperature drops below 10,000 K. They investigate the formation of…
Human influence detected in changing seasons
For the first time, scientists from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and five other organizations have shown that human influences significantly impact the size of the seasonal cycle of temperature in the lowest layer of the atmosphere. To demonstrate this, they applied a so-called "fingerprint" technique. Fingerprinting seeks to separate human and natural…
Cohen honored with plasma physics award
Lawrence Livermore retiree Bruce Cohen has been selected as the recipient of the 2018 IEEE Nuclear and Plasma Sciences Society’s Charles K. Birdsall Award for "contributions to the numerical simulation of plasmas, particularly multiple time-scale methods and to their application to diverse plasma physics problems, from laser-plasma interactions to tokamaks." The Birdsall…
Research by Lawerence Livermore scientists may help validate organ-on-a-chip devices
A new study in which Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) scientists compared drug responses in the brains of rodents to drug responses of brain cells cultured in Lab-developed "brain-on-a-chip" devices may be a critical first step to validating chip-based brain platforms, LLNL researchers said. In the study, published online today in the journal Scientific…
Researchers work to advance understanding of hydrodynamic instabilities in NIF, astrophysics
In a Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) "Special Feature" paper published online June 26, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and University of Michigan researchers reported on recent experiments and techniques designed to improve understanding and control of hydrodynamic (fluid) instabilities in high energy density (HED) settings such as…
Understanding the universe through neutrinos
Determining features of the elusive particle known as a neutrino – through the observation of an extremely rare nuclear process called neutrinoless double-beta decay (NDBD) -- could provide a glimpse into the nature of the universe during the earliest moments of the Big Bang. As part of an international collaboration, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL)…
LLNL physicist wins APS excellence award
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) magnetic fusion physicist Max Fenstermacher has been awarded the 2018 John Dawson Award for Excellence in Plasma Physics Research from the American Physical Society. He is cited jointly with Todd Evans of General Atomics and Richard Moyer of the University of California, San Diego. Fenstermacher’s team was cited "for the first…
LLNL applies high-performance computing to improve understanding of traumatic brain injury
Since the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq began in 2001, more than 350,000 cases of traumatic brain injury (TBI) in servicemen and women have been reported to the Department of Defense (DOD). Despite several decades of failed clinical trials, there remains no acute treatment for TBI and few tools to aid clinicians in providing a prognosis for TBI patients, military or…
Warhead life extension passes key milestone
The program to extend the life of the W80 nuclear warhead recently achieved a significant milestone when the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) gave passing grades to the plans to refurbish certain components and the proposed approach to developing component cost estimates. Passing the milestone confirms that the life extension program (LEP), dubbed the W80-4…
Lightstone part of gender disparity panel
Most scientists aren’t involved with Hollywood, even for a day. But earlier this month, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) computational biologist Felice Lightstone served as a panelist at a major Hollywood forum, the inaugural Variety Summit about gender disparities in the media and entertainment industries. Lightstone, the principal investigator for a…
Peering into Tb bacteria that attacks antibiotics
An international team of researchers including those from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) has found a new way to investigate how tuberculosis bacteria inactivates an important family of antibiotics: They watched the process in action for the first time using an X-ray free-electron laser. Tuberculosis (TB), a lung disease that spreads in the air through coughs…
Millot's dynamic journey in HED science
Marius Millot was just a child when scientists at the University of Pennsylvania and Los Alamos National Laboratory predicted the existence of superionic water ice using molecular dynamics simulations. This new phase of water is characterized by the liquid-like diffusion of hydrogen ions within the solid lattice formed by the oxygens. For three decades, superionic ice…
Machine learning model predicts phenomenon key to understanding material properties
Using machine learning, evolutionary algorithms and other advanced computational techniques, researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) have successfully modeled how atoms are arranged between the crystals that make up most materials, a development that could impact how future materials are designed and optimized. While most materials might appear to the…
Researchers discover cause of radiation defects
A team of scientists from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and Texas A&M University got a step closer to understanding radiation damage phenomena. They found that the density of collision cascades has a profound effect on defect interaction dynamics in silicon. The team calculated cascade densities with a model that considers their fractal nature and, by…
Lab scientists help develop new tool for faster, more accurate analysis of chemical bonding
In a development with the potential to enable breakthroughs in lithium-ion batteries and further impact a wide swath of research areas, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) scientists have developed a new open source software application that can, in real-time, compute, analyze and potentially predict the trajectories of atoms during the course of bond breaking…
Simulations capture life and death of a neutron
Lawrence Livermore (LLNL) and Lawrence Berkeley national laboratory scientists, as well as scientists from UC Berkeley and other institutions, have simulated a "smidgen" of the universe to delve into determining the life and death of a neutron. Experiments that measure the lifetime of neutrons reveal a perplexing and unresolved discrepancy. While this lifetime has been…
LLNL joins effort to 3D print parts for U.S. Navy
Researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) are lending their expertise in metal additive manufacturing to a new collaboration aimed at 3D printing critical replacement parts for the U.S. Navy. The Office of Naval Research recently announced an award of $9 million to fund a collaboration led by GE Global Research and aimed at developing a rapid process for…
LLNL part of team studying protein filaments
To learn more about diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, scientists have zeroed in on invisibly small protein filaments that bunch up to form fibrous clusters called amyloids in the brain: How do these fibrils form and how do they lead to disease? Until now, the best tools for studying them have generated limited views, largely because the fibrils strands are so…
LLNL researchers use X-ray imaging experiments to probe metal 3D printing process
Metal 3D printing undoubtedly has enormous potential to revolutionize manufacturing, but many industries have been slow to adopt the technology due to concerns over part quality and certification, which is essential to building confidence in the critical parts used in automotive and aerospace applications. Through carefully designed experiments that replicate the…
Ancient meteorite tells tales of Mars topography
By looking at an ancient Martian meteorite that landed in the Sahara Desert, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) scientists and collaborators have determined how and when the red planet’s crustal topographic and geophysical divide formed. Northwest Africa (NWA) 7034 is the oldest Martian meteorite discovered to date, at approximately 4.4 billion years old. The…
