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Physical and Life Sciences

New melting experiments confirm that diamond floats in metallic liquid carbon at high pressures, much like ice cubes float in a glass of water. (Artist concept: James Wickboldt/LLNL)

Melting diamond could unlock triple fusion gain and the secrets of ice-giant planets

Diamond is more than a dazzling gem — the extremely hard form of carbon makes up the pellet that encases fuel for inertial confinement fusion, and scientists believe it rains down deep inside ice giant planets like Neptune and Uranus. In both cases, the material experiences enormous pressures. Until now, experiments and simulations have disagreed about how it actually…

Collage of students

PLS interns shine at the annual poster showcase

The 2026 Physical and Life Sciences (PLS) Summer Student Showcase took place on July 29 in the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) Library. The day-long event featured the research projects of nearly 130 student interns from across PLS’s divisions. This annual event is a great way for students to practice their science communication skills and gives them the…

Logos for UC Davis Innovation for Food and Health and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

LLNL, UC Davis announce strategic collaboration to innovate food systems

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and the University of California, Davis Innovation Institute for Food & Health (IIFH) today announced a strategic collaboration to advance scientific discovery, technology translation and innovation across food systems and human health. “Lawrence Livermore's mission has always been to apply cutting-edge science and…

The first images of major outer membrane proteins in a chlamydia bacterium (side, top and bottom views) show that it forms a tripod with a mushroom-like cap of antigens. That shape could be crucial for developing an effective vaccine. (Image: Guo et al.)

First high-resolution images of chlamydia protein pave the way for better vaccine designs

Chlamydia is the most common bacterial sexually transmitted infection in the world, with 150 million people infected in 2023. Although the infection can be treated with antibiotics, it often leads to infertility and other health problems. A safe and effective chlamydia vaccine would help prevent asymptomatic but transmissible infections that often go undiagnosed. For 40…

The meteor (left) shot through the sky in the eastern U.S. One fragment punched through the roof of a house in New Jersey (center), leaving behind a primitive meteorite (right) that scientists were able to analyze.

Scientists measure chemistry of meteorite that struck New Jersey home

On July 16, 2024, a daytime meteor shook New York City with a sonic boom as it passed just south of the Statue of Liberty. A short time later, a more than two-pound meteorite crashed through the roof of a house in the town of Hillsborough, New Jersey. Now, an international team, including scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), has analyzed that…

Researchers at LLNL and partners at Oxylus Energy are developing an electrochemical reactor that transforms waste carbon into valuable chemicals. (Photo: Garry McLeod/LLNL)

LLNL, Oxylus Energy capture commercialization grant with reactor that converts carbon waste to methanol

Many industrial processes produce large volumes of carbon as a waste product. New reactor technology from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) has the potential to turn that waste into a valuable feedstock for useful chemicals and fuels. The result could bolster domestic manufacturing, diversify supply chains and ensure lasting energy security in the U.S. These …

Genesis Mission graphic

LLNL selected to lead 10 projects under DOE’s Genesis Mission

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) scientists and engineers have been selected to lead 10 Phase I projects under the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Genesis Mission, applying AI to challenges spanning high-performance computing (HPC), fusion energy, Earth systems science, materials discovery, biology, quantum technologies and fundamental physics. LLNL…

NASA’s Psyche mission successfully tested a gamma-ray sensor developed by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory during a Mars gravity assist. The mission aims to study the asteroid Psyche, believed to be an exposed planetary core, with the spacecraft scheduled to arrive in 2029. (Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU)

NASA’s Psyche mission tests LLNL-built gamma-ray sensor on Mars flyby

On a multi-billion-mile journey to the asteroid Psyche, a gamma-ray sensor developed by a team at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) took its first measurements of a planetary surface after 2.6 years in deep space. NASA’s Psyche spacecraft flew behind Mars for a gravity assist, with the red planet’s gravitational field acting as a slingshot to change the flight…

Battery diagram

With machine learning, LLNL researchers embrace the atomic-scale complexity of batteries

For grid-scale energy storage and national energy resilience, the U.S. needs better batteries. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) scientists are tackling that challenge in many ways, but one approach is making a significant impact: physics-informed machine learning. In two recent publications, LLNL researchers examined how integrating molecular dynamics…

A group of bees

Tracing pesticides in honeybees to preserve pollinators and agricultural productivity

Estimates suggest that 35% of the world’s food crops — one out of every three bites of food — depend on animal pollinators. Honeybees in particular are responsible for billions of dollars in agricultural productivity in the U.S. But in recent years, bee colonies have mysteriously collapsed. For no apparent reason, worker bees will abandon their hive, leaving the queen…

Workshop participants.

3rd annual UC–LLNL workshop brings together researchers, clinicians, community to drive ALS innovation

In May, the third annual workshop on amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) took place at the University of California Livermore Collaboration Center (UCLCC), underscoring the growing collaboration among institutions working to address this complex neurological condition. ALS is a progressive, fatal neurodegenerative disease that attacks motor neurons, the nerve cells…

LLNL scientists Dylan Kline (front) and Justin McAlister evaluate finished, mock high-explosive materials produced using a modern pharmaceutical manufacturing process called extrusion-spheronization. (Photo credit: Garry McLeod/LLNL)

Modernizing high-explosives manufacturing

For decades, manufacturing plastic-bonded high explosives, or PBXs, has relied on legacy processes like slurry coating. In this method, explosive crystals are mixed with a binder, a polymer that helps hold the material together, to form small granules called prills. Those prills are then pressed into dense explosive parts. This process is difficult to control, inefficient…

LLNL researchers studied viruses in grassland soil before and after rapid rewetting. Most remained inactive, with only 22 percent of viruses replicating. (Graphic: Dan Herchek/LLNL)

Isotope probing shows soil is packed with dormant viruses lying in wait

A single gram of soil contains between 10 million and 1 billion viruses. Most of those viruses do not infect plants, animals or people — but they do target bacteria and other microbes. Because of their influence on microbial communities, viruses can affect nutrient cycling and soil health. Understanding how they behave is therefore crucial for supporting agriculture, food…

Experiments at the National Ignition Facility used direct laser-driven compression of iron to pressure-temperature conditions relevant to Earth’s inner core, with x-ray radiography and VISAR diagnostics. Credit: Brain Chavez/LLNL and Universidad de Mendoza.

Measuring iron in motion at earth-core conditions

It was a journey to the center of the Earth, if only for the briefest of moments. But rather than tunneling thousands of miles from the Earth’s surface, researchers from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and several universities used the National Ignition Facility (NIF) to recreate those extreme temperature and pressure conditions of the Earth’s inner core…

Participants and instructors work through a hands-on activity at the 2025 Real-World Quantum Computing workshop.

Registration open for Real-World Quantum Computing workshop at LLNL

Registration is now open for the 2026 Real-World Quantum Computing workshop, jointly hosted by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and San Jose State University (SJSU). The two-day workshop is designed for upper-level undergraduates and graduate students in engineering, physics or related fields. Interns are encouraged to apply. Applications will be accepted on a…

The Big Ideas Lab podcast

Big Ideas Lab podcast explores the postdoc journey at LLNL

What does it mean to be a postdoc at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL)? A new episode of “The Big Ideas Lab” explores the postdoctoral journey at LLNL, from the first days at the Lab to the professional growth that follows. The episode features Ted Baumann, LLNL’s postdoc program lead and a longtime Lab scientist who first joined LLNL as a postdoctoral fellow…

With specialized beamsplitters and precision freeform optics, scientists have generated a novel high-intensity laser that rotates like a spring. (Graphic: Brendan Thompson/LLNL)

Researchers create first-of-a-kind laser spring with LLNL’s highest-precision optics to date

When a high-intensity laser interacts with plasma, the charged particles typically oscillate back and forth like waves on the ocean. But what if the laser itself could twist like a whirlpool? Researchers have now demonstrated a rotating, spring-shaped laser pulse, opening up new possibilities for fusion energy, particle acceleration, astrophysics and beyond. In new…

Target chamber at the OMEGA laser facility at the University of Rochester, New York (Credit: OMEGA Laser Facility)

Laser experiments push helium to record shock pressures

Deep inside gas giants like Jupiter and Saturn, hydrogen and helium coexist under pressures millions of times greater than Earth’s atmosphere. At those conditions, helium may separate from hydrogen and influence a planet’s internal heat flow, structure and magnetic field. Understanding these processes and how these materials behave under extreme conditions is essential to…

The Big Ideas Lab podcast takes listeners inside the National Lab Research SLAM competition. Listen to the new episode on Apple and Spotify. (Photo: Blaise Douros)

LLNL’s Big Ideas Lab podcast goes behind the scenes of the National Lab Research SLAM

Finalists representing each of the 17 U.S. Department of Energy national laboratories gathered at the Congressional Auditorium for the first National Lab Research SLAM in 2023. With one slide, three minutes and months of preparation behind them, each scientist stepped up to the microphone to explain their research through compelling storytelling to an audience outside of…

Neuromorphic ionic devices have the potential to mimic the energy efficient computing found in the human brain. (Image: J. Cataldo/LLNL)

Bridging the gap between neuromorphic ionic computing and more efficient AI

The human brain is the ultimate supercomputer. It uses a highly-branched and interconnected network of neurons and synapses to achieve massive computational power with extreme efficiency. In the age of AI, the brain, a paradigm of efficient neuromorphic computing, is providing inspiration for scientists. Ionic computing — which uses ions to compute instead of the electrons…