Science and Technology Highlights

The CuEXAFS target as mounted on the target positioner prior to insertion into the NIF target chamber.  Photo by Luis Zeledon/LLNL.
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In new experiments at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s National Ignition Facility, scientists measured the extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) of copper to probe its temperature under extreme pressure.
Certain natural compounds, like a recently discovered family of proteins called lanmodulins (depicted in blue), strongly and selectively interact with the radioactive elements americium and curium (highlighted in green), rendering them much more soluble in groundwater than previously thought. This finding could impact the way we evaluate the dispersion of nuclear waste in the environment. (Illustration: Jeremy Gardner/LLNL)
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LLNL scientists and collaborators at Penn State University have found that natural proteins, called lanmodulins (LanM), render certain actinides more soluble under environmental conditions, hence making those radioactive elements more prone to migrate from their initial location.
A bacterial cell first having viruses attached (left), and then propagated (middle), and then lysed (right). (Image: Victor Leshyk/Northern Arizona University)
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New research from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory scientists and their collaborators at the University of California, Berkeley illuminates a fascinating phenomenon: the demise of soil bacteria and other unicellular microbes at

Depiction of Earth's magnetic field
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In a paper recently published in Physical Review B, a team of researchers from

LLNL team members look over a prototype of the gamma-ray spectrometer
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An instrument designed and built by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory researchers departed Earth last week on a two-billion-mile, nearly six-year journey through space to explore a rare, largely metal asteroid.

ncient human footprints found in White Sands National Park, New Mexico. Image courtesy of USGS.
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New research reaffirms that human footprints found in White Sands National Park, New Mexico, date to the Last Glacial Maximum, placing humans in North America thousands of years earlier than once thought. In September 2021, U.S.

headshot of Alex Zylstra
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Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory physicist Alex Zylstra has been awarded the 2023 Edouard Fabre Prize for his experimental leadership of the milestone Hybrid-E” campaign that achieved fusion ignition at the National Igniti

LNL researchers Aimy Sebastian and Nick Hum examine samples of engineered bone marrow that can be used as  a drug-screening platform that offers a protective effect on osteosarcoma (OS) cells that parallel clinical responses and could increase the survival rate of OS patients
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LLNL scientists along with collaborators from the University of California, Davis have adapted previously described engineered bone marrow (eBM) for use as a 3D platform to study how microenvironmental and immune factors affect OS tumor progression.
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Meta researchers demonstrated a new kind of 3D-printed material that can “translate” text messages to braille on-the-fly by filling the device with air at strategic points.
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Engineers and chemists at LLNL and Meta have developed a new kind of 3D-printed material capable of replicating characteristics of biological tissue, an advancement that could impact the future of “augmented humanity.”
Empirical measurements of carbon and nitrogen exchange between algae and bacteria, using stable isotope tracing, allowed the LLNL team to identify three different bacteria types with distinct ecological roles, providing a conceptual framework to better understand how the algal microbiome plays a role in carbon and nitrogen degradation and recycling.
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Researchers from Lawrence Livermore used LLNL’s nanoSIMS to understand and quantify the role of the algal microbiome in processing algal carbon (C) and nitrogen (N). The research appears in Nature Communications.