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Physical and Life Sciences
Barbee wins NRL award for publication of white dwarf research
Material scientist Troy Barbee is the most recent recipient of the Naval Research Laboratory's Alan Berman Research Publication Award for his work looking into the makeup of a white dwarf. The paper, which was the most recent paper stemming from a long history of collaboration between Barbee, researchers in the Naval Research Laboratory's (NRL) X-ray Astronomy Program and…
A new approach to predicting spacecraft re-entry
In mid-December 2011, the Laboratory received a call from the Air Force Joint Space Operations Center (JSpOC). At the time, Laboratory scientists were working with JSpOC to upgrade their command and control software. But this call was about something very different. The Russians had launched a mission to Phobos, one of the moons of Mars, in early November, but it failed to…
Research explores applications for new field of electronics
By looking at the way electrons are excited, researchers can gain a better understanding of the new field of transparent electronics. Postdoc Andre Schleife, who works in the Lab's Quantum Simulations Group, developed a new approach to investigate the interplay of excitonic effects and electron doping. (In semiconductor production, doping intentionally introduces…
Lab co-sponsors North Dakota energy technology symposium
Tomas Diaz de la Rubia, the Lab's deputy director for Science and Technology, discussed Monday how high performance computer modeling and simulation can accelerate the development of clean energy technologies in a keynote address at North Dakota State University (NDSU) in Fargo, N.D. The Laboratory was a co-sponsor of the "North Dakota Energy Symposium: Using Technology to…
Wild salmon rare in the wild
Salmon in the wild may not be so wild after all. New research shows that there are so many hatchery-raised Chinook salmon spawning in the Mokelumne River that the wild fish are hardly wild at all. According to the new report, about 10 percent of the fall-run Chinook that spawn in the river are naturally born fish. If, as researchers suspect, this has been happening for…
Ten scientists named Distinguished Members of Technical Staff
Ten Laboratory researchers have been named Distinguished Members of Technical Staff (DMTS) for their extraordinary scientific and technical contributions to the Laboratory and its missions as acknowledged by their professional peers and the larger community. Jim Candy of the Engineering Directorate, John Castor of the Weapons and Complex Integration Principal Directorate,…
Lawrence Livermore partners with Native American carbon researchers to help support Marshallese resettlement
LIVERMORE, Calif. -- Researchers from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and a team of American Indian scientists and engineers have partnered to study the possible use of Black Earth technology, or Cpryo, to help mitigate the uptake of radiocesium in locally grown foods in the Marshall Islands. After World War II, the United States conducted 66 nuclear detonations…
Extreme summer temperatures occur more frequently
LIVERMORE, Calif. -- Extreme summer temperatures are already occurring more frequently in the United States, and will become normal by mid-century if the world continues on a business as usual schedule of emitting greenhouse gases. By analyzing observations and results obtained from climate models, a study led by Phil Duffy of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory…
Putting the squeeze on planets outside our solar system
LIVERMORE, Calif. -- Just as graphite can transform into diamond under high pressure, liquid magmas may similarly undergo major transformations at the pressures and temperatures that exist deep inside Earth-like planets. Using high-powered lasers, scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and collaborators discovered that molten magnesium silicate undergoes a…
Scientists help define structure of exoplanets
LIVERMORE, Calif. -- Using models similar to those used in weapons research, scientists may soon know more about exoplanets, those objects beyond the realm of our solar system. In a new study, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory scientists and collaborators came up with new methods for deriving and testing the equation of state (EOS) of matter in exoplanets and figured…
Scientists create new atomic X-ray laser
Lab scientists and international collaborators have created the shortest, purest X-ray laser pulses ever achieved, fulfilling a 45-year-old prediction and ultimately opening the door to new medicines, devices and materials. The researchers, reporting today (Jan. 26) in Nature , aimed radiation from the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS), located at the Stanford Linear…
Lab team develops new capability for atomistic simulations
Conventional scientific wisdom says that the interatomic forces between ions that control high-temperature processes such as melting are insensitive to the heating of the electron "glue" that binds the ions together. In effect, traditional atomistic simulations ignore electron temperature completely. However, in a recent Physical Review Letter , Lab physicists John…
In search of... the dark sky
Most astrophysicists stare at the night sky and look at stars. But Lance Simms looks at the blackness of night and knows there is something else there. Simms, a postdoc in the Lab's Physics Division, has been working for a year on a NASA project called the Cosmic X-Ray Background Nanosatellite (CXBN). Set for an August launch, the breadbox-sized satellite -- built in…
Grad student Swanberg recognized by APS
Erik Swanberg, a graduate student working in the Lab's Experimental Nuclear Physics Group, received the Margaret Burbidge Award from the American Physical Society (APS) California Section at the organization's fall 2011 meeting. Swanberg, who will earn a Ph.D. in nuclear engineering from UC Berkeley in May, has been conducting research at LLNL for three years. He was…
Power generation is blowing in the wind
LIVERMORE, Calif. -- By looking at the stability of the atmosphere, wind farm operators could gain greater insight into the amount of power generated at any given time. Power generated by a wind turbine largely depends on the wind speed. In a wind farm in which the turbines experience the same wind speeds but different shapes, such as turbulence, to the wind profile, a…
Seeing is believing: LLNL Postdoc reveals wonders of the protist world
No matter how sophisticated instruments have become, or how data intensive results may be, there is still something satisfying and frequently informative about seeing what a researcher is studying. Sometimes samples are so small, or so large, or so far away that it's almost impossible to get a visual perspective that makes any sense or reveals any insight. That's where the…
Planets around stars are the rule rather than the exception
LIVERMORE, Calif. --There are more exoplanets further away from their parent stars than originally thought, according to new astrophysics research. In a new paper appearing in the Jan. 12 edition of the journal, Nature , astrophysicist Kem Cook as part of an international collaboration, analyzed microlensing data that bridges the gap between a recent finding of planets…
Lawrence Livermore Laboratory team achieves breakthrough detecting nuclear materials
When a young man was advised to pursue a career in plastics in the 1967 movie, "The Graduate," people could not have envisioned one of the material's uses developed by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) scientists. In a key discovery, a team of LLNL researchers has developed the first plastic material capable of efficiently distinguishing neutrons from gamma…
Lawrence Livermore receives $1.75 million to integrate more renewable sources into California's energy grid
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) is working with the California Energy Commission to develop ways to increase the amounts of wind and solar generation integrated into California's energy grid.The project will use LLNL's high-resolution weather models and high performance computing to characterize intermittent renewable resources, including wind and solar power…
Lab researcher clarifies water's ionic conductivity
Lab researcher Sebastien Hamel of the Condensed Matter and Materials Division's Quantum Simulation Group has resolved a long-standing issue concerning the evaluation of ionic conductivity in fluids using quantum molecular dynamics (QMD) simulations. Quantum simulations have offered new insight into the microscopic dynamical processes of proton transport and into the…
