Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (DOE)
Compression experiments lead to shocking results
September 23, 2011 5:20 am | News | CommentsUsing acceleration 1 trillion times faster than a jet fighter in a maximum turn, researchers have gained new insight into dynamic compression of aluminum at ultra-high strain rates. Controlled shock compression has been used for decades to examine the behavior of materials under extreme conditions of pressure and temperature.
DOE awards LLNL more than $850,000 for geothermal research
September 15, 2011 8:15 am | News | CommentsLawrence Livermore National Laboratory has received $890,000 from U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy to help accelerate geothermal energy technology. The main project, "Stochastic Joint Inversion for Integrated Data Interpretation in Geothermal Exploration," aims to reduce resource exploration costs by developing a processing technique for a variety of geophysical and geological parameters.
Mobile facility designed to measure greenhouse gases
September 8, 2011 5:38 am | News | CommentsResearchers at Sandia National Laboratories have designed and built a mobile research facility to trace and identify the origin of greenhouse gases. In addition to pinpointing the chemicals' location, the unique mobile facility can help researchers learn whether the gases are biogenic (coming from plant sources) or anthropogenic (coming from man-made sources).
What's the age of the moon? It could be waning
August 17, 2011 10:58 am | by Seth Borenstein, AP Science Writer | News | CommentsThat old moon might not be as antique as we thought, some scientists think. In a new study regarding Apollo 16 moon rocks, they say it's possible that it isn't a day over 4.4 billion years old. But detractors stick to another number.
Fastest-ever light deflector
August 14, 2011 8:00 pm | Award WinnersDesigned to help determine the minimum energy needed to start the fusion process at the National Ignition Facility, Serrated Light Illumination for Deflection-Encoded Recording (SLIDER) deflects light beams at a rate of one resolvable spot per picosecond.
Lab and Spain sign agreement to collaborate on fusion
August 5, 2011 5:43 am | by Breanna Bishop | News | CommentsLawrence Livermore National Laboratory, which is pursuing fusion research at its National Ignition Facility, has expanded the scope of its research by singing a memorandum of understanding to engage in joint research and exchange personnel with Spain's Instituto de Fusion Nuclear.
LLNL signs agreement with China to develop clean energy technology
July 19, 2011 9:35 am | News | CommentsLawrence Livermore National Laboratory has signed an agreement with the Clean Energy Research Institute in China to conduct joint research and development of clean energy technologies.
LLNL opens HPC Innovation Center
July 1, 2011 4:11 am | News | CommentsIn an initiative that aims to boost the nation's economic competitiveness, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory announced the opening of the High Performance Computing Innovation Center (HPCIC). The innovation center will facilitate national lab/industry collaboration, applying high performance computing to product design, development, and manufacturing; data management; and the operation of complex energy and communication systems.
Increased production of sulfur compound tied to climate change
June 24, 2011 11:53 am | News | CommentsAn organic compound that smells like cabbage and has been called the "smell of the sea" could be more sensitive to global climate change than commonly believed. In a recent report, a Livermore researcher, along with colleagues from Los Alamos and Oak Ridge national laboratories and the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, found through computer modeling that dimethyl sulfide (DMS) will increase significantly in certain parts of the ocean and decrease in others if the world continues with a business-as-usual fossil fuel dependency.
Lab-industry partnership to launch deep sea offshore wind demo
June 10, 2011 11:23 am | by Anne M Stark | News | CommentsLivermore Lab has signed a memorandum of understanding with SWAY, a renewable energy company, that has developed floating towers for wind turbines located in deep water. Though California has not yet approved offshore wind turbines, SWAY will launch a 1/5 scale prototype of the technology off the coast of Norway on June 10 to demonstrate how the system could work in the Pacific Ocean.
Two new elements officially added to periodic table
June 8, 2011 12:05 pm | by Malcolm Ritter, AP Science Writer | News | CommentsElement numbers 114 and 116 have been officially recognized by an international committee of chemists and physicists. Going by the temporary monikers of ununquadium and ununhexium, the new elements were created in an accelerator by a team of Russian and American scientists. They hurtled calcium together with curium (forming Element 116) and plutonium (forming Element 114).
New form of girl's best friend is lighter than ever
May 17, 2011 5:09 am | News | CommentsBy combining high pressure with high temperature, Livermore researchers have created a nanocyrstalline diamond aerogel that could improve the optics for something as big as a telescope or as small as the lenses in eyeglasses.
Researchers find way to mitigate traumatic brain injury
April 20, 2011 5:15 am | News | CommentsResearchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) have found that soldiers using military helmets one size larger and with thicker pads could reduce the severity of traumatic brain injury (TBI) from blunt and ballistic impacts.
Hydrocarbons formed in the deep earth
April 15, 2011 6:12 am | News | CommentsA new computational study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reveals how hydrocarbons may be formed from methane in deep Earth at extreme pressures and temperatures.
Researchers develop battery-less chemical detector
April 6, 2011 4:29 am | News | CommentsUnlike many conventional chemical detectors that require an external power source, Lawrence Livermore researchers have developed a nanosensor that relies on semiconductor nanowires, rather than traditional batteries.
LLNL gamma ray spectrometer to orbit around Mercury
March 15, 2011 6:17 am | News | CommentsWhen a NASA spacecraft goes into orbit around Mercury Thursday evening (March 17, 2011), a team of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory researchers will be paying close attention. The researchers developed a germanium-based gamma ray spectrometer that has been winging its way aboard the Mercury MESSENGER for the past six-and-half years.
Livermore research on new materials for radiation detection highlighted
March 8, 2011 5:18 am | by Anne M Stark, LLNL | News | CommentsHighlighted in a recent issue of Innovation, Nerine Cherepy's team at Livermore Lab is continuing its development of a high-resolution scintillator material that operates at room temperature. Their material for radiation detection earned a 2010 R&D 100 Award, and recently they have shown the advantages of europium-doped strontium iodide over cerium-doped lanthanum bromide.
Finding may lead to further understanding of how solar system was formed and evolved
March 4, 2011 3:54 am | News | CommentsScientists have found that calcium, aluminum-rich inclusions (CAIs), some of the oldest objects in the solar system, formed far away from our sun and then later fell back into the mid-plane of the solar system. The findings may lead to a greater understanding of how our solar system and possibly other solar systems formed and evolved.
Combatting antibiotic resistant bacteria: it's all in the genes
January 31, 2011 6:58 am | News | CommentsFor more than 50 years, antibiotics have been used to treat deadly infections and save countless lives. However, the list of antibiotic resistant bacteria growing. Anticipating the potential disaster, research group at Lawrence Livermore National Lab has identified the genes within bacteria that encode for lytic proteins. This is an important component for cell survival and could be a weapon against drug-resistant bacterial strains.
Speeding up Mother Nature's CO2 mitigation process
January 20, 2011 5:00 am | News | CommentsUsing seawater and calcium to remove carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) in a natural gas power plant's flue stream, and then pumping the resulting calcium bicarbonate in the sea, could be beneficial to the oceans' marine life.
Going with a faster flow
August 11, 2010 11:12 am | Award WinnersNanostructured membranes are an emerging solution for water purification in areas where clean drinking water is in short supply. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Porifera, Inc. have built cost-effective Ultrapermeable Carbon Nanotube Membranes that could push this advantage still further.
Imaging a miniature star
August 10, 2010 12:52 pm | Award WinnersThe goal of the National Ignition Campaign is to produce small thermonuclear explosions from material compressed to conditions near those at the centers of stars. GATOR - Grating Actuated Transient Optical Recorder was developed by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to capture 2D images in trillionths of a second.
A new formula for radiation detection
August 9, 2010 6:19 pm | Award WinnersA team led by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has developed a new scintillator that reduces false alarms by a factor of three. It is also much less costly than prior options.
X-ray monitor with no interference
August 9, 2010 5:30 pm | Award WinnersX-ray free-electron lasers (XFELs) provide intense photon pulses, but are difficult to monitor. The Energy Monitor for Ultrahigh-Brightness X-Ray Pulses from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory measures X-ray free-electron lasers energy in real-time, pulse-by-pulse, and with minimal impact on the FEL beam
Govt. Labs See Bright Future, For Now
December 22, 2009 9:40 am | by Paul Livingstone | Articles | CommentsTo say that the outlook for government R&D laboratory executives is brighter for 2010 than 2009 would be a great understatement. At this time last year most laboratories were scrambling to adjust to a short-term financial upheaval brought about by an across-the-board freeze on budgets until March 2009.
