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HPC, Simulation, and Data Science
Meet the machines that matter: How El Capitan keeps its cool
LLNL tackles the nation’s toughest security challenges through bold, multidisciplinary science powered by advanced facilities and instruments. In this four-part series, meet the machines that work behind the scenes at the Laboratory to drive discovery, push boundaries and enable excellence. From inspecting optics and trapping ions to cooling supercomputers and detecting…
Meet the machines that matter: the Optics Inspector
LLNL tackles the nation’s toughest security challenges through bold, multidisciplinary science powered by advanced facilities and instruments. In this new series, meet the machines that work behind the scenes at the Laboratory to drive discovery, push boundaries and enable excellence. From inspecting optics and trapping ions to cooling supercomputers and detecting…
Big Ideas Lab explores how the Genesis Mission aims to accelerate scientific discovery
Scientific discovery has always moved through a familiar cycle: question, hypothesis, experiment and a result. In the latest episode of the Big Ideas Lab podcast, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) explores how the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Genesis Mission aims to accelerate that process by uniting AI, high-performance computing (HPC), experiments and the…
LLNL showcases AI-enabled science, national security and energy innovation at AI+ Expo
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) leaders, scientists and engineers joined national voices at the Special Competitive Studies Project’s (SCSP) AI+ Expo May 7-9 in Washington, D.C., highlighting how AI is reshaping science, security and energy innovation. The public Expo brought together government, industry, academic and Department of Energy (DOE) national…
LLNL optics system set to fly to the moon with Firefly Aerospace for Ocula imaging service
A team of scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) recently delivered a high-resolution optics system to Firefly Aerospace in support of Firefly’s Ocula commercial lunar imaging service. The payload is scheduled to fly onboard Firefly’s Elytra spacecraft in lunar orbit as part of Blue Ghost Mission 2, targeted to launch no earlier than late 2026. The…
AI expands what research projects students can accomplish at LLNL’s STEM with Phones workshop
Forget spreadsheets. At Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s (LLNL) STEM with Phones student workshop, students are using smartphones and artificial intelligence (AI) to conduct advanced scientific analysis. Led by LLNL’s David Rakestraw, participants in the program discover how to turn a tool already in their pocket — a smartphone — into an instrument for…
Screening enzymes to break down plant waste and produce valuable biofuels
Locked away inside the walls of plant cells lies a valuable source of energy: sugar. But to access that sugar — which could provide a domestic source of bioenergy that strengthens U.S. energy security — researchers must first break down cellulose, the structural component of plant cell walls. A team at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) has designed two high…
Big Ideas Lab podcast spotlights how Skyfall defends the power grid from cyberattacks
A blackout spread across more than a hundred cities in Ukraine after malware infected the nation’s power grid. This sophisticated breach was the first of its kind, speaking the language of the industrial control systems to carry out a remote operation on physical infrastructure. The incident led U.S. Department of Energy national security experts to ask: what would happen…
DOE opens new HPC4EI call to connect US manufacturers with national-lab supercomputing
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has opened a new call for proposals under the High-Performance Computing for Energy Innovation (HPC4EI) program, a national initiative managed by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) that connects U.S. manufacturers with the computing power and scientific expertise of DOE’s national laboratories. The program invites companies to…
Simulations predict ground motion for earthquakes on Bay Area’s Hayward fault
The Hayward fault, part of the larger San Andreas fault system, runs 74 miles through the East Bay of the San Francisco Bay Area. The fault is overdue for an earthquake that could cause extensive damage to such a dense population zone. In a recent study, published in Seismological Research Letters, scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and Lawrence…
Four decades after Chernobyl, National Atmospheric Release Advisory Center reflects on a defining moment
Documents were scattered across the floor as scientists hurriedly reviewed reports on weather patterns and radiation measurements, while colleagues in Europe awaited updates and information on the emerging radioactive crisis. Forty years later, the Chernobyl reactor accident response stands as critical experience that paved the way for what is now the National Atmospheric…
New protein-screening platform accelerates rare-earth separation for U.S. supply chain
To ensure a robust domestic supply chain in the U.S., Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) scientists are using bacterial proteins to separate the rare-earth elements that are ubiquitous in magnets, batteries and electronics. These proteins, called lanmodulin, evolved in bacteria that use rare-earth elements to power their metabolism. But to scale up and advance…
LLNL to harness quantum computing for next-generation magnets
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) has been selected to lead a project that will receive $4.1 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Energy Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) as part of the Quantum Computing for Computational Chemistry (QC3) program. QC3 seeks to develop and apply quantum algorithms to accelerate simulations of chemistry…
Looking into the void to cancel out material instabilities
Picture two materials sandwiched together. The boundary between them may appear flat, but, in reality, it is full of tiny bumps and dents. Suddenly, the materials are hit with a shockwave. If that wave hits a bump in the material interface, it slows down. If it hits a dent, it accelerates forward. This imbalance creates fast, narrow jets of material — called the Richtmyer…
Weapons Physics & Design ACT awards drive university partnerships and research
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) has announced five research teams selected for awards through the Lab’s FY26 Academic Collaboration Team (ACT) annual call for proposals. Awards support university research partners for up to three years to perform research in collaboration with Lab scientists and offer an important way to build long-term connections with…
All 50 episodes of the Big Ideas Lab now available on LLNL podcast page
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s (LLNL) Big Ideas Lab podcast marks a new milestone with the release of its 50th episode. The latest episode, delving into high-performance computing for energy innovation, can be found alongside the entire series on the new LLNL podcast page. Since its debut in September 2024, the Big Ideas Lab has aimed to rethink how science…
LLNL partners with Inertia to develop fusion energy technology
Scientists from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) are partnering with San Francisco Bay Area fusion energy startup Inertia Enterprises Inc. to advance fusion laser technology, as well as inertial fusion target manufacturing and designs. This collaboration is an expansive and integrated private sector-led partnership, unique in the history of LLNL and the DOE…
Big Ideas Lab explores how HPC for Energy Innovation advances U.S. industry
Some of the toughest challenges in American manufacturing are being solved without ever stepping onto a factory floor. Inside supercomputers, scientists are modeling systems too complex, costly or time-consuming to test in the real world. In the latest episode of the Big Ideas Lab podcast, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) spotlights the High-Performance…
Big Ideas Lab podcast explores energetic materials and the science behind explosive performance
In less than a millionth of a second, a high explosive can release its energy, generating pressures and temperatures that push materials to their limits. At Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), scientists in the Energetic Materials Center (EMC) study these extreme conditions using experiments, computation and specialized facilities. The latest episode of the Big…
Allowing atoms to come and go opens the door to better materials modeling
Most materials, especially metals and ceramics, are crystals. Their atoms are arranged in three-dimensional lattices that repeat the same exact pattern, over and over again. But there’s a well-known saying in materials science: “Crystals are like people. It is the defects that tend to make them interesting.” In a new study, published in Physical Review Letters, researchers…
