lawrence livermore national laboratory

  • Supercomputer Suggests ‘Super Diamonds’ Could Exist in Space

    Supercomputer Suggests ‘Super Diamonds’ Could Exist in Space

    Diamonds are the hardest naturally occurring material on Earth, but a supercomputer just modeled stuff that’s even harder. Called a ‘super-diamond,’ the theoretical material could exist beyond our planet—and maybe, one day, be created here on Earth. Like normal diamonds, super-diamonds are made from carbon atoms. This specific phase of carbon, composed of eight atoms,…


  • Japan Debuts Six-Story Experimental Fusion Reactor

    Japan Debuts Six-Story Experimental Fusion Reactor

    The biggest experimental nuclear fusion reactor in operation was inaugurated north of Tokyo today, as scientists continue to plug away at making nuclear fusion a viable source of the world’s energy. The reactor—JT-60SA—is a tokamak, a doughnut-shaped reactor that can heat plasma to 360 million degrees Fahrenheit (200 million degrees Celsius). The reactor fired up…


  • Will Nuclear Fusion Ever Power the World?

    Will Nuclear Fusion Ever Power the World?

    Only an unusually naive child, or a fossil fuel executive, could sincerely argue that our current energy situation is sustainable. For over 50 years now, well before the scope of the climate crisis was clear, scientists have been working toward an alternative: fusion power (i.e., using the heat from nuclear fusion reactions to generate electricity).…


  • What to Know About the Latest Covid-19 Lab Leak Hype

    What to Know About the Latest Covid-19 Lab Leak Hype

    The debate over the origins of covid-19 is reaching a fever pitch. On Monday, the Wall Street Journal published an article describing a report circulated within the U.S. government last year, which found that a virus research lab in Wuhan, China plausibly could have been the source of the pandemic. At the same time, though,…