Big Ideas Lab

Science of Scale-Up

A scientific breakthrough is only the beginning. World-changing technologies can take decades to move from a successful experiment to something people can actually use.

NIF Diagnostics

Inside the National Ignition Facility, scientists create bursts of fusion hotter than the center of the sun that vanish in 100 trillionths of a second. The only way to tr

STARMOC

The number of objects in orbit is doubling every two years, and the systems built to keep watch still run on formats designed around 1960s punch cards. At Lawrence Liverm

The Postdoc Journey

What happens after a PhD, but before a scientist is fully established? At Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, that in-between stage is treated as a proving ground. L

SLAM

At the National Lab Research SLAM, scientists from all 17 Department of Energy national laboratories get three minutes and a single slide to explain years of complex rese

The Bennu Asteroid

In September 2023, a small NASA capsule streaked through Earth’s atmosphere and landed in the Utah desert, carrying 122 grams of material from the asteroid Bennu. That ma

Genesis Mission

The Genesis Mission is a national effort to accelerate discovery by uniting AI, supercomputing, experiments, and the infrastructure of the national laboratories. This epi

Skyfall

Scientists are simulating cyber attacks and system failures on real-world energy infrastructure - without ever putting the actual grid at risk. This is Skyfall at Lawren

JASPER

In a remote corner of the Nevada desert, scientists at JASPER study one of the most consequential materials on Earth: plutonium. This is the story of how a bold experimen

HPC4EI

From corrosion-resistant coatings to next-generation batteries and stronger wind turbines, some of today’s toughest industrial challenges share a surprising common thread

Energetic Materials

Behind every safeguard of national security lies a world few ever see. Inside Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, scientists and engineers are redefining how explosio

Target Fabrication

At the center of every experiment at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s National Ignition Facility is a target - a tiny, precisely engineered object built to withst

24 Hour Operations

The world’s most demanding science never sleeps. From facilities that operate around the clock to the people monitoring safety, power, and infrastructure overnight, this

Discovery Science at NIF

At Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s National Ignition Facility, scientists recreate the most extreme conditions in the universe. Through the Discovery Science Pro

Drones

Drones, or autonomous sensing systems, step in where humans can’t. At Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, scientists are developing machines that can see, decide and

Dark Matter

Dark matter is one of the universe’s greatest mysteries. It’s the invisible force that glues galaxies together and sculpts cosmic structure. In this episode, we trace the

Neutrinos

Neutrinos are particles that defy expectations. They slip through matter effortlessly, changing identities and traveling vast cosmic distances. In this episode, we explor

Offsite Assignments

Every decision in national security hinges on knowledge, insight, and expertise - some of that expertise starts in a lab in Livermore. The Offsite Fellows Program places

Energy Flow Charts

LLNL’s Energy Flow Charts have become one of the clearest ways to understand the nation’s energy system. Learn how these diagrams capture everything from pandemic shutdow

CAMS

Ancient footprints, unidentified remains, brain cells - they're all part of the story told through atoms, and at the Center for Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (CAMS) at La