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Physical and Life Sciences
East Greenland ice sheet has responded to climate change for the last 7.5 million years
Using marine sediment cores containing isotopes of aluminum and beryllium, a group of international researchers has discovered that East Greenland experienced deep, ongoing glacial erosion over the past 7.5 million years. The research reconstructs ice sheet erosion dynamics in that region during the past 7.5 million years and has potential implications for how much the ice…
UCOP awards grants and fellowships to collaborate with Lawrence Livermore
The University of California Office of the President awarded more than $14 million to four grants and four graduate fellowships to collaborate with staff scientists at Lawrence Livermore and Los Alamos national laboratories. UC scientists received $7.9 million to work with Lawrence Livermore researchers on two of the research grants and two in-residence graduate…
Thinning of Antarctic glacier began in 1940s
New research by an international team shows that the present thinning and retreat of Pine Island Glacier in West Antarctica is part of a climatically forced trend that was triggered in the 1940s. The team -- made up of scientists from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the British Antarctic Survey, University of Copenhagen, University of Alaska, Naval Postgraduate…
Friedmann receives Greenman Award
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) energy guru Julio Friedmann has been honored with the Greenman Award by the Greenhouse Gas Control Technologies (GHGT) conference series. Friedmann is recognized for his tireless efforts to promote carbon capture and storage, particularly at large scale. This award is given to those who have made career-scale impact on the…
New measurements of oceanic organic matter help scientists in understanding of climate
Researchers have found that new measurements of the size, age and composition of organic matter in the Pacific Ocean affects short-term and long-term climate impacts. The findings could have implications for climate in terms of how long organic matter is stored in the ocean before being converted into CO2 and re-entering the atmosphere. Marine organic matter is one of…
Mineral increases solar cell efficiency
A mineral found in nature may be the key to more efficient solar panels. New research by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) material scientist Marcus Worsley and colleagues from UC Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory shows that using the mineral perovskite in graded band gap solar cells achieves an average steady efficiency rate of 21.7 percent…
Cloudy feedback on global warming
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory researchers have identified a mechanism that causes low clouds -- and their influence on Earth’s energy balance -- to respond differently to global warming, depending on their spatial pattern and location. The results imply that studies relying solely on recent observed trends underestimated how much Earth will warm due to increased…
GEOS Team Aims for Exascale Target
Massively parallel physics simulations provide Lawrence Livermore with a wealth of data to complement experimental observation. Within the Physical and Life Sciences Directorate, computational geoscience is a cornerstone of the Atmospheric, Earth, and Energy Division's (AEED) efforts to advance energy and environmental technology. Because the nation's security depends in…
PLS postdocs embrace Research Slam
Picture this: it's the day of your first poster presentation as a postdoc. You've picked out your best professional suit (or your only professional suit, reserved just for this occasion), your poster has been beautifully printed with help from the Lab's print plant, and your heart is racing with nerves and excitement. Your first interested visitor stops by, quizzically…
Four Lawrence Livermore National Lab researchers selected as 2016 APS Fellows
LIVERMORE, California – Four Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) scientists have been selected as 2016 fellows of the American Physical Society (APS). Election to APS fellowship recognizes the society member’s exceptional contributions to the field of physics through research, leadership, applications of physics or contributions to physics education. APS…
LLNL scientists develop a new method to measure radiation dose in cancer patients
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) scientists and collaborators have developed a new technique to measure radiation dose levels using gene expression analysis of whole blood from cancer patients receiving targeted radiation therapy. There are unique challenges to estimate the internal dose after radiotherapy is administered. The current practice of calculating…
Fusion award honors LLNL scientist's career
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers’ (IEEE) Nuclear & Plasma Sciences Society (NPSS) selected Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) researcher Wayne Meier as the recipient of their 2016 Fusion Technology Award. The award will be presented at the 2017 Symposium on Fusion Engineering June 4-8 in Shanghai, China. The Fusion Technology Award…
Researchers explore biomechanical regulation of a key gene in bone
Researchers from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), in collaboration with Damian Genetos at UC Davis and Alex Robling at Indiana University School of Medicine, investigated a regulatory element for the gene controlling bone mechanoadaptation. Over time, pressure loaded on the skeleton builds bone mass while bone mass is lost from disuse. The sclerostin (Sost)…
DoD awards grant to distinguish aggressive forms of breast cancer that spread in the body
The Department of Defense (DoD) awarded a team from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and UC Merced a three-year, $768,803 grant to study breast cancer metastasis. Researchers are on the hunt to identify, characterize and potentially exploit the information packaged in different types of extracellular shed vesicles (ESVs) to determine if they can distinguish…
Livermore scientists purify copper nanowires
Cell phones and Apple watches could last a little longer due to a new method to create copper nanowires. A team of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) scientists have created a new method to purify copper nanowires with a near-100 percent yield. These nanowires are often used in nanoelectronic applications. The research, which appears in the online edition of…
Laskas dishes on the 'Concussion' controversy
Jeanne Marie Laskas, author of The New York Times best-selling book "Concussion," visited Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) last week, drawing a crowd of more than 200 employees to hear first-hand the sequence of events that led to her book and the subsequent Hollywood movie starring Will Smith. "Concussion," released in 2015, was based on Laskas' 2009 GQ…
Splitting hairs to advance forensic science
With initial help from his work at a Utah university, an Australian-born biochemist is partnering with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) to discover a second science-based forensic tool for identifying people in addition to DNA profiling. Now an LLNL contract employee, Glendon Parker is working with the Lab's Forensic Science Center employees to develop a…
Laboratory researchers find Earth composed of different materials than primitive meteorites
Scientists from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) have found that, contrary to popular belief, the Earth is not comprised of the same material found in primitive meteorites (also known as chondrites). This is based on the determination that the abundance of several neodymium (Nd) isotopes are different in the Earth and in chondritic meteorites. A long-standing…
Lab team wins National Institutes of Health two-year grant to develop chlamydia vaccine
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), with UC Irvine and Synthetic Genomics, won a two-year $485,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to explore new ways to develop a chlamydia vaccine. The team’s project, "Synthetic Generation of a chlamydia Vaccine," uses bioengineering to formulate a major outer membrane protein (MOMP) vaccine. This protein…
Iron springs back to shape under pressure
A team of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) physicists has performed a series of calculations shedding light on an unexpected way that iron transforms under dynamic compression. In a paper published in Physical Review Letters, the team describes first-principle calculations on two solid phases of iron, as well as on intermediate crystal structures along the…
