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Livermore scientists unveil melting point of iron

DOE/Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Two scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory have discovered that iron in Earth-core conditions melts at a pressure of 225 GPa (or 32 million pounds per square inch) or about 5,100 kelvins (8,720 degrees Fahrenheit).

JGI launches community sequencing program

DOE/Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Business Announcement

The Department of Energy's Joint Genome Institute (JGI) is poised for a resounding response to the age-old question, "If we build it, will they come?" Already, collaborators are queuing up to take advantage of one of the world's most powerful DNA sequencing facilities for the debut of DOE's Community Sequencing Program (CSP).

Supernovae shape up for cosmology

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

A collaboration among the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the European Southern Observatory, and the University of Texas has yielded the discovery that Type 1a supernovae do not explode spherically. This discovery marks the first time that the intrinsic polarization of a normal Type 1a supernova has been detected.

Homing in on dark energy

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A unique set of 11 distant Type Ia supernovae studied with the Hubble Space Telescope constrains cosmological parameters, sheds new light on dark energy, and reduces uncertainty due to host-galaxy extinction, according to the latest findings of the Supernova Cosmology Project.

Funder: DOE/US Department of Energy, NASA, National Science Foundation

Livermore scientists achieve first full mapping of phonons in plutonium

DOE/Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Making a landmark event in the history of the experimental investigation of plutonium, scientists from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory for the first time have fully mapped the phonons in gallium-stabilized delta plutonium. The experiment promises to reveal much about the physics and material properties of plutonium and its alloys.

Genomes of tiny microbes yield clues to global climate change

DOE/Joint Genome Institute
Peer-Reviewed Publication

By analyzing the genomes of several microscopic ocean-dwelling organisms sequenced at the U.S. Department of Energy's Joint Genome Institute (JGI), scientists are gaining new insights into how the planet's oceans affect its climate.

Journal: Nature
Funder: DOE/US Department of Energy, Office of Science

Measuring the shape of an exploding white dwarf star

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A team of scientists has established that the extraordinarily bright and remarkably similar astronomical "standard candles" known as Type Ia supernovae do not explode in a perfectly spherical manner. Led by Lifan Wang, an astronomer in Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's Physics Division, the researchers used the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile to measure, for the first time, the intrinsic polarization of a normal Type Ia supernova.

Funder: DOE/US Department of Energy, European Southern Observatory, NASA, National Science Foundation

Lab laser researcher wins prestigious Edward Teller Medal

DOE/Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Grant and Award Announcement

The American Nuclear Society has awarded the prestigious 2003 Edward Teller Medal to a veteran researcher at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Laurance J. Suter [pronounced Sutter] is an expert in the design and utilization of hohlraums, the tiny gold containers that hold a laser target as intense X-rays heat it during inertial confinement fusion experiments.

Berkeley lab physicist challenges speed of gravity claim

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Albert Einstein may have been right that gravity travels at the same speed as light but, contrary to a claim made earlier this year, the theory has not yet been proven. A scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) says the announcement by two scientists, widely reported this past January, about the speed of gravity was wrong.

Journal: Physical Review Letters
Funder: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Imaging lithium with an electron microscope

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Lithium atoms, smallest after hydrogen and helium, have been imaged along with cobalt and oxygen in the compound lithium cobalt oxide, an important material in rechargeable lithium batteries. The first-time electron-microscope imaging of lithium was performed on the One Angstrom Microscope at DOE's National Center for Electron Microscopy in Berkeley, Calif.

Journal: Nature Materials
Funder: US Department of Energy's Office of Science - Office of Basic Energy Sciences, National Science Foundation