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Threat preparedness

In a pioneering partnership to accelerate materials discovery with AI, researchers from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Meta have created the world’s largest open dataset of atomistic polymer chemistry

LLNL, Meta co-develop groundbreaking polymer-chemistry dataset for training AI models

Polymers are fundamental to our daily lives, serving as the core components for a wide array of goods, including clothing, packaging, transportation infrastructure, construction materials and electronics. Advances in polymer science open pathways for recycling and upcycling waste materials into more valuable chemical feedstocks. They also can have an outsized environmental…

LLNL biologist James Thissen loads DNA samples for sequencing in a pathogen-agnostic method to identify respiratory viruses. (Image: Randy Wong / LLNL)

Pathogen-agnostic testing reveals hidden respiratory threats in negative samples

The COVID-19 pandemic brought the term “Polymerase Chain Reaction testing” into the mainstream. The PCR method is a type of nucleic acid amplification test (NAAT) that detects a pathogen by finding and amplifying components of its genetic material, and it is widely used to detect SARS-CoV-2. But these types of tests have a weakness: you have to know exactly what pathogen…

A man standing behind a truck with the Super Bowl LX venue behind him

Keeping the public safe at the big game: LLNL’s RAP team deploys to Santa Clara, California

As thousands of fans streamed toward Levi’s Stadium for the Super Bowl between the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots, vendors hawked memorabilia, the scent of garlic fries filled the air and security officers checked clear bags beneath white tents. Somewhere in that crowd, walking the same sidewalks and concourses, were a handful of team members carrying gear…

Shaun Kerr and Dean Rusby have refined the MeV x-ray generation of NIF’s Advanced Radiographic Capability, leading to unprecedented imaging of dense materials. Photo by Blaise Douros.

Advanced Radiographic Capability achievements featured in Physics of Plasmas

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s National Ignition Facility (NIF) is the hottest place on earth for the briefest of moments during an experiment. Now, it can be one of the brightest places thanks to the Advanced Radiographic Capability (ARC), NIF’s laser-within-the-laser. How this is possible and how it’s measured is detailed in the cover paper of the December 2025…

Researchers presented proposals for future LDRD projects to an audience of peers and program leads.

Mission challenge ideas day turns bold concepts into space security capabilities

Exploring new frontiers of space requires innovative approaches to anticipate and identify paths for integrating space domain awareness capabilities. To deliver solutions for these emergent challenges, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s (LLNL) Global Security Directorate recently hosted a “Space LDRD Ideas Day.” Researchers from a broad range of disciplines attended…

Schematic showing the setup for ion transport through a MXene membrane. Researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) discovered that applying an electric field to the gate can change the efficiency of the molecular transport through the membrane

Transistor-like membranes enhance ion separation

By applying voltage to electrically control a new “transistor” membrane, researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) achieved real-time tuning of ion separations — a capability previously thought impossible. The recent work, which could make precision separation processes like water treatment, drug delivery and rare earth element extraction more efficient,…

Overview of the key processes that are fundamental for understanding single-crystal battery materials.

Advanced simulation and modeling pave a path forward for single-crystal battery materials

The performance of rechargeable batteries is governed by processes deep within their components. A fundamental understanding of electrochemistry, structure–property–performance relationships and the effects of processing and operating conditions is essential for accelerating the development of next-generation battery technologies capable of powering electric vehicles,…

LLNL researchers have successfully synthesized a californium compound using polyoxometalates — large, cage-like clusters made primarily of metal and oxygen atoms. Their research was featured on a journal cover for Chemical Communications.

Americium, curium and californium — oh my! Crystallizing the rarest elements at LLNL

Actinides are a group of heavy, radioactive elements that include uranium, plutonium, americium, curium, berkelium and californium. Understanding how these elements bond with other atoms (known as coordination chemistry), how they behave in water and how they can be separated from one another is crucial for safer nuclear waste management, new reactor technologies and…

LLNL scientist Gianpaolo Carosi (right) discusses the inner workings of the Axion Dark Matter eXperiment. Expertise in this cavity technology (shown here plated in copper) is enhancing current efforts in quantum computing.

Finding resonance: How LLNL expertise is amplifying collaboration in quantum computing

In November, the Department of Energy Office of Science renewed the Superconducting Quantum Materials and Systems Center (SQMS), hosted by Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, with $125 million over the next five years to accelerate breakthroughs in quantum information science. The investment continues to unite more than 300 experts from 43 partner institutions across…

National Ignition Facility (NIF) Director Gordon Brunton (right foreground) shows NNSA Administrator Brandon Williams a target used for inertial confinement fusion experiments at NIF on Feb. 9.

NNSA Administrator Williams visits LLNL to discuss stockpile modernization, AI and future deterrence

U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Under Secretary for Nuclear Security and Administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) Brandon Williams visited Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) Feb. 9 for briefings and tours focused on stockpile modernization, AI, supercomputing and the future of deterrence. During the visit, Williams met with LLNL…

LLNL scientists Colin Ponce and Carolyn Fisher initiated and led a cross-disciplinary team that developed a machine learning model to distinguish opioids from other chemicals.

Fentanyl or phony? Machine-learning algorithm learns to pick out opioid signatures

New forms of fentanyl are created every day. For law enforcement, that poses a challenge: how do you identify a chemical you’ve never seen before? Researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) aim to answer that question with a machine-learning model that can distinguish opioids from other chemicals with an accuracy over 95% in a laboratory setting. The…

Novel crossed-beam energy transfer (CBET) technique for measuring plasma conditions.

When lasers cross: LLNL finds a brighter way to measure plasma

Measuring conditions in volatile clouds of superheated gases known as plasmas are central to pursuing greater scientific understanding of how stars, nuclear detonations and fusion energy work. For decades, scientists have relied on a technique called Thomson scattering, which uses a single laser beam to scatter from plasma waves as a way to measure critical information…

The moon’s orbit is shown in light gray. The spacecraft follows the colored path over the six-year simulation period.

Simulations and supercomputing calculate one million orbits in cislunar space

Satellites and spacecraft in the vast region between the earth and moon and just beyond — called cislunar space — are crucial for space exploration, scientific advancement and national security. But figuring out where exactly to put them into a stable orbit can be a huge, computationally expensive challenge. In an open-access database and with publicly available code,…

On Thursday Jan. 15, LLNL’s Global Security Directorate hosted an Energy Scale-up Brainstorming Day.

LLNL’s energy scale-up brainstorming event focused on accelerating pilot-ready technologies

Solving tomorrow’s challenges in energy security requires scientists to develop new pathways to streamline innovation. To help achieve this goal, the Global Security Directorate at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) recently hosted an “Energy Scale-up Brainstorming Day.” More than 60 researchers across a broad range of expertise gathered to engage in interactive…

Students at the inaugural IFE-STARFIRE Winter School

LLNL releases Generalized Economics Model for fusion energy

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) has released a new tool designed to help the fusion energy industry assess the economic impact of plant operation and design trade-offs for building an inertial fusion energy (IFE) power plant. The Generalized Economics Model (GEM) for Fusion Technology is now available to download. “GEM helps the fusion industry understand how…

The Autonomous Sensors team at LLNL builds and tests drones equipped with advanced sensors to provide data for time-critical situations like search and rescue. Meet the scientists and engineers advancing this innovative technology in the latest episode of the Big Ideas Lab.

Discover LLNL’s Autonomous Sensors program in the latest episode of the Big Ideas Lab podcast

When disaster strikes, every second counts, but sometimes the danger is too great for humans to go first. From mapping terrain to reaching deep underground to detect hidden threats and abandoned wells, unmanned systems equipped with advanced sensors are changing how we respond to crises. Across land, air and sea, drones can act as one coordinated force to increase the…

Researchers identified a pathway for a carbon monoxide and oxygen mixture to form a polymer that retains its stability even after it decompresses

From fleeting to stable: scientists uncover recipe for new carbon dioxide-based energetic materials

When materials are compressed, their atoms are forced into unusual arrangements that do not normally exist under everyday conditions. These configurations are often fleeting: when the pressure is released, the atoms typically relax back to a stable low-pressure state. Only a few very specific materials, like diamond, retain their high-pressure structure after returning to…

Researchers combined tiny, atom-scale simulations with hydrodynamics code that describes the macroscopic world

New code connects microscopic insights to the macroscopic world

In inertial confinement fusion, a capsule of fuel begins at temperatures near zero and pressures close to vacuum. When lasers compress that fuel to trigger fusion, the material heats up to millions of degrees and reaches pressures similar to the core of the sun. That process happens within a miniscule amount of space and time. To understand this process, scientists need to…

LLNL’s Steven Kreek, pictured on an offsite assignment

Walk in the shoes of an offsite fellow with the Big Ideas Lab podcast

Walk through any federal building and you might spot them. A Livermore face among the crowd. Not visitors. Not consultants. Fellows. Some are sent to Washington, others remain local in Silicon Valley, and a select few even concentrate their efforts toward the final frontier: space. But whether D.C. or deep space, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) brings its…

Researchers on stage accepting an award

LLNL, UT & UCSD win Gordon Bell Prize with exascale tsunami forecasting

Researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), the University of Texas at Austin’s (UT) Oden Institute and Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego (UCSD) on Nov. 20 were awarded the prestigious 2025 Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Gordon Bell Prize for developing a real-time tsunami early-warning framework…