Science and Technology Highlights

Water gets weird under nano-confinement. This image shows an exotic phase of water trapped in tiny spaces, where it interacts surprisingly with electric fields.
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Confined water gets electric

LLNL scientists and a collaborator at University of Texas at Austin turn to simulations to explain the first-order response of confined water to applied electric fields.

In inertial confinement fusion experiments, lasers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s National Ignition Facility focus on a tiny fuel capsule suspended inside a cylindrical x-ray oven called a hohlraum.
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LLNL researchers uncover key to resolving long-standing ICF hohlraum drive defi…

LLNL researchers make advancements in understanding and resolving the long-standing "drive-deficit" problem in indirect-drive ICF experiments.

Despite the historical consensus, trivalent actinides and lanthanides exhibit distinct chemistries. By using polyoxometalate chelators, LLNL scientists provide crystallographic and spectroscopic evidence that americium and curium yield a variety of compounds that their lanthanide counterparts are unable to form.
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Unravelling the chemistry of heavy elements

LLNL researchers develop a new technique for synthesizing molecular compounds with heavy elements.

Machine learning potential derived from first-principles calculations reveals that confinement in TiO2 nanopores enhances proton transfer by reducing activation energy, highlighting the interplay between confinement, surface chemistry and topology in accelerating water reactivity.
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Nano-confinement may be key to improving hydrogen production

LLNL Researchers discover a new mechanism that can boost the efficiency of hydrogen production through water splitting.

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory scientists have collaborated with Zap Energy in Everett, Washington, to measured plasma conditions on Z-pinch fusion experiments on the private-sector fusion company’s Fusion Z-pinch Experiment (FuZE) device.
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Advancements in Z-pinch fusion: New insights from plasma pressure profiles

LLNL scientists report advancements in understanding plasma pressure profiles within flow-stabilized Z-pinch fusion, a candidate for achieving net gain fusion energy in a compact device.

Shown is part of the Psyche Gamma Ray and Neutron Spectrometer (GRNS) and NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) instrument and operation teams at the JPL in Pasadena. Right to left are: Morgan Burks (Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory); Patrick Peplowski, John Goldsten and David Lawrence (all from Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory); and Maria De Soria Santacruz Pich and Nora Alonge (NASA JPL).
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LLNL gamma-ray sensor has the best resolution

An instrument designed and built by LLNL researchers is the highest-resolution gamma ray sensor that has ever flown in space.

Developed by LLNL and Portland State University researchers, innovative matrix-free solvers offer performance gains for complex multiphysics simulations.
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Matrix unloaded: Graphics processor-boosted solvers for diffusion physics

LLNL mathematician and collaborators publish a recent paper introducing specialized solvers optimized for simulations running on graphics processing unit (GPU)–based supercomputers.

LLNL researchers and collaborators observed a phase transition in magnesium oxide that is believed to reside in the interiors of Super-Earths, planets with masses and radii larger than Earth but smaller than ice giants like Neptune.
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Magnesium oxide undergoes dynamic transition when it comes to super-Earth exopl…

LLNL researchers and collaborators unlock new secrets about the interiors of super-Earth exoplanets, potentially revolutionizing our understanding of these distant worlds.

In the Arctic Ocean, sea ice reached its minimum extent of 1.44 million square miles (3.74 million square kilometers) on Sept. 15, 2020 - the second lowest extent since modern record-keeping began.
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A pattern of temperature change emerges from natural climate fluctuations

LLNL scientist and collaborators find the unique temperature trend patterns associated with natural climate variability for 1980–2022.

In a milestone for supercomputing-aided drug design, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and BridgeBio Oncology Therapeutics today announced clinical trials have begun for a first-in-class medication that targets specific genetic mutations implicated in many types of cancer. The drug discovery work was powered by LLNL supercomputers Ruby (shown), Quartz and Lassen.
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LLNL and BridgeBio announce trials for supercomputing-discovered cancer drug

LLNL and BridgeBio announce the commencement of clinical trials for a first-in-class medication that targets specific genetic mutations implicated in many types of cancer.