Science and Technology Highlights

Drawing of Pandora (right), planet (center), and host star (left)
// S&T Highlights
NASA has approved the Pandora mission, co-led by the Goddard Space Flight Center and Livermore.
Three simulations of hundreds of proteins in sheets superimposed on image of supercomputer
// S&T Highlights
A multi-institutional team has developed a multiscale model revealing the importance of lipids to the signaling dynamics of RAS, a family of proteins whose mutations are linked to many cancers.
Firefighter walking through burned landscape, with tree on left
// S&T Highlights
Wildfires and prescribed burns, which can promote soil organic matter stability, may be an important nature-based climate solution to increase long-term carbon storage.
Diagram of virtual representations of cancer patients
// S&T Highlights
A multi-institutional team has proposed a framework for digital twin models of cancer patients.
Carbon dioxide laser with technician in bunny suit on left
// S&T Highlights
NIF’s lasers delivered slightly more than the requested 1.9 megajoules (MJ) of laser energy at 440 terawatts of peak power for the shot that produced a historic 1.35 megajoules of fusion energy.
Diagram including cell drawing, algae image, and porous microplate cross-section
// S&T Highlights
A multi-institutional research team created a new co-culture device, dubbed a “porous microplate,” to study how metabolites in the water affect the growth of bacterial communities.
Artist's conception of inear induction accelerator with a patient
// S&T Highlights
Researchers have shown for the first time the potential for linear induction accelerators (LIAs) to deliver effective, targeted doses of “FLASH” radiation to cancer patients.
A diamond capsule inside a NIF hohlraum.
// S&T Highlights
Among the factors contributing to the National Ignition Facility (NIF)’s record-smashing 1.3-megajoule (MJ) energy-yield shot on Aug. 8 was the quality of the high-density carbon (HDC), or diamond, target capsule used in the experiment.
Satellite approaching an asteroid
// S&T Highlights
The Laboratory is taking part in NASA’s first-ever planetary defense test, which deliberately collides a spacecraft into an asteroid called Dimorphos.
Colorful on top of a hand
// S&T Highlights
Rock weathering — the process of chemical transformation by long exposure to water and the atmosphere — boosts soil organic carbon storage by altering soil mineralogy.