Science and Technology Highlights

A honeybee queen surrounded by her retinue, which is an ever-changing group of worker bees charged with her care, feeding and protection. The fuchsia spot is applied to queen bees to make them easier to identify.
// S&T Highlights

Tracing pesticides in honeybees to preserve pollinators and agricultural produc…

LLNL and U.C. Davis researchers showed that a honeybee queen facing chronic exposure to pesticides will take up that contamination and pass it along to her eggs, a process called maternal offloading.
LLNL scientists Dylan Kline (front) and Justin McAlister evaluate finished, mock high-explosive materials produced using a modern pharmaceutical manufacturing process called extrusion-spheronization.
// S&T Highlights

Modernizing high-explosives manufacturing

A team of researchers at LLNL is working on an initiative called Project MAHEM — A Modern Approach to HE (high explosive) Manufacturing — to address those weaknesses by building a stronger scientific foundation for explosive formulation and pressing.
LLNL researchers studied viruses in grassland soil before and after rapid rewetting. Most remained inactive, with only 22 percent of viruses replicating.
// S&T Highlights

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

A new study published in mSystems by researchers at LLNL shows that of the many viruses present in soil, only some are active participants at any given time. Over three quarters of the viruses in the study were dormant lurkers, persisting in the soil and biding their time for suitable conditions to emerge.
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.
// S&T Highlights

Measuring iron in motion at earth-core conditions

Researchers from LLNL and several universities used the National Ignition Facility (NIF) to recreate extreme temperature and pressure conditions of the Earth’s inner core. This enabled the first ever simultaneous measurement of iron’s dynamic strength at relevant temperature and pressures.
With specialized beamsplitters and precision freeform optics, scientists have generated a novel high-intensity laser that rotates like a spring.
// S&T Highlights

Researchers create first-of-a-kind laser spring with LLNL’s highest-precision o…

In new research published in Nature Photonics, scientists from LLNL and the University of California, Irvine demonstrated the first high-intensity “light spring” laser.
Target chamber at the OMEGA laser facility at the University of Rochester, New York.
// S&T Highlights

Laser experiments push helium to record shock pressures

Research, conducted by scientists at LLNL, the University of California, Berkeley, the French Commissariat à l’Énergie Atomique et aux Energies Alternatives (CEA) and the University of Rochester’s Laboratory for Laser Energetics (LLE), shows that helium reacts differently from the predictions of most broad-range theoretical models.
A collaboration of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories, Los Alamos National Laboratory and the Kansas City National Security Campus, Aires Tide brings together expertise across design, manufacturing and flight testing in a single cross-enterprise effort.
// S&T Highlights

LLNL helps advance AI-driven design and simulation for NNSA Aires Tide collabor…

LLNL is contributing AI-enabled payload optimization and advanced modeling and simulation expertise to Aires Tide, a collaborative National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) demonstration exploring new ways to design flight test vehicles.
In an inertial confinement experiment on the National Ignition Facility, the lasers converge at tiny entrance holes at the top and bottom of the hohlraum. The intersection of the lasers enables crossed-beam energy transfer, an important factor in maintaining symmetry of implosions.
// S&T Highlights

Research sheds new light on laser polarization effects in NIF experiments

LLNL scientists have calculated that small changes in wavelengths would make NIF optics more resilient to filamentation damage.
Neuromorphic ionic devices have the potential to mimic the energy efficient computing found in the human brain.
// S&T Highlights

Bridging the gap between neuromorphic ionic computing and more efficient AI

To bring neuromorphic ionic computing research to the next level, researchers at LLNL, along with colleagues at other national laboratories and academic institutions, outlined the key scientific questions and knowledge gaps that must be addressed.
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s Forensic Science Center created a novel technique to uncover traces of the Soman nerve agent, strengthening chemical forensics and OPCW investigations. The FSC team, from left: Adele Panasci-Nott, Alexander Vu, Carlos Valdez, Mark Dreyer, David Cho, David Baliu-Rodriguez and Saphon Hok.
// S&T Highlights

LLLNL’s Forensic Science Center develops a new capability to detect chemical we…

Researchers at LLNL Forensic Science Center (FSC) recently developed a new technique to detect pinacolyl alcohol (PA), a unique marker for the nerve agent Soman in environmental samples. The paper has been published in ACS Omega, where it was given the Editor’s Choice Award.