(AGENPARL) - Roma, 6 Febbraio 2026(AGENPARL) – Fri 06 February 2026 A weekly compendium of media reports on science and technology achievements
at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Though the Laboratory reviews
items for overall accuracy, the reporting organizations are responsible for
the content in the links below.
LLNL Report, Feb. 6, 2026
Multi-ignition fires have a disproportionately devastating impact compared to
single-ignition fires. (Photo: Mike McMillan/Pacific Southwest Forest
Service, USDA)
Wildfire forecasts fill a burning need
Bay Area lab’s new model for forecasting wildfires could change how they’re fought — and save lives
When a lightning storm struck the parched Diablo mountain range in August
2020, igniting fires that turned the skies an apocalyptic shade of orange,
the Governor’s Office activated current Oakland Fire Department Assistant
Chief Christopher Foley to face the fire’s multiple fronts. “Most of the
state was burning,” said Foley.
Often fueled by dry lightning, multi-ignition wildfires continue to represent
a severe threat and a significant challenge to firefighting efforts and
firefighter safety. But a new model from the Lawrence Livermore National
Laboratory and UC Irvine could be a crucial new tool — offering a new
understanding of multi-ignition fires and the weather systems they create.
“We see a clear trend for those more extreme fires over western U.S.. over
the recent one to two decades. But why?” said Qi Tang, LLNL scientist and
author of the study. “One possible reason is that those multi-ignition
fires occur when there’s dry lightning. When there’s a system driving
many lightnings, they can start fires in close-by areas.”
Read More
Bay Area lab’s new model for forecasting wildfires could change how they’re fought — and save lives
The Science on Saturday lecture series returns to Livermore, featuring this
year’s theme, “Computing the Future.”
Science on Saturday computes the future
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s free public lecture series returns
February 7–28 at Las Positas College in Livermore, Calif., with four
Saturday sessions for middle- and high-school students. This year’s theme
is “Computing the Future.”
The series opens Feb. 7 with “Cosmic Treasure Hunt: Finding Stardust in
Meteorites.” That session will dig into how ancient grains preserved in
meteorites reveal information about the stars that formed our solar system.
Future sessions turn to computing-intensive research.
The lecture slated for Feb. 14 on AI and supercomputing in biology will be
presented by Dan Faissol, who leads LLNL’s work on the GUIDE (Generative
Unconstrained Intelligent Drug Engineering) platform. The Feb. 28 quantum
computing session will be presented by LLNL scientists Sean O’Kelley and
Kristi Beck. The Feb. 21 session covers how graphics processing units,
originally developed for video games, are at the heart of the AI wave. GPUs
now run atmospheric simulations up to 100 times faster.
Read More
By adding a lid-like structure to a carbon nanotube, LLNL researchers
mimicked how biological channels open and close to allow ion transport.
(Image: Liam Krauss/LLNL)
Put a lid on it
https://www.azonano.com/news.aspx?newsID=41622
In a recent study published in Nano Letters, researchers from Lawrence
Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and the University of Maryland reported
their results, demonstrating the synthetic “molecular gate” mechanism
that emulates the behavior of barrel-shaped proteins known as porins,
creating pores in cell membranes to allow specific molecules to pass through.
When water and ions traverse channels that are merely a nanometer in width,
they exhibit peculiar behaviors. Within these confined spaces, water
molecules align in a single file. This alignment compels ions to release some
of the water molecules that typically surround them, leading to the
distinctive physics of ion transport.
Biological channels are particularly skilled at this phenomenon, frequently
orchestrating the opening and closing of channels to facilitate intricate
functions such as signaling within the nervous system.
The researchers used a chemical method to fabricate exceptionally short,
fluorescent nanotubes featuring specific lid-like structures at their ends.
Read More https://www.azonano.com/news.aspx?newsID=41622
New work opens new possibilities for advanced manufacturing, soft robotics,
national defense, energy damping and information storage. (Image: Sandia
National Laboratories)
CRAFTing new plastics
https://optics.org/news/17/1/40
A project at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and Sandia
National Laboratories has identified a new way to optimize the quality of
3D-printed thermoplastics.
Described in Science, the technique varies the intensity of the light used in
an additive fabrication operation to influence the crystallinity of the
printed material.
The approach has been named crystallinity regulation in additive fabrication
of thermoplastics (CRAFT), and could have implications for advanced
manufacturing, soft robotics and information storage, among other
applications.
“A classic example of crystallinity is the difference between high-density
polyethylene like a milk jug, and low-density polyethylene like plastic
bags,” said Johanna Schwartz from LLNL. “The bulk property difference in
these two forms of polyethylene stems largely from differences in
crystallinity.”
However, contemporary manufacturing strategies, from injection molding to
traditional 3D printing, result in monolithic objects unable to spatially
encode crystallinity, noted the project in its paper.
Read More https://optics.org/news/17/1/40
Researchers at LLNL identified a pathway to form a polymer that retains its
stability even after it decompresses. (Image: Stanimir Bonev)
A polymer that doesn’t bounce back
https://phys.org/news/2026-01-fleeting-stable-scientists-uncover-recipe.html
When materials are compressed, their atoms are forced into unusual
arrangements that do not normally exist under everyday conditions. These
configurations are often fleeting: when the pressure is released, the atoms
typically relax back to a stable low-pressure state. Only a few very specific
materials, like diamond, retain their high-pressure structure after returning
to room temperature and atmospheric pressure.
But locking those atomic arrangements in place under ambient conditions could
create new classes of useful materials with a wide range of potential
applications. One particularly compelling example is energetic materials,
which are useful for propellants and explosives.
In a study published in Communications Chemistry, researchers at Lawrence
Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) identified a first-of-its-kind carbon
dioxide-equivalent polymer that can be recovered from high-pressure
conditions.
“A polymeric form of carbon dioxide stores far more energy than ordinary
carbon dioxide because its atoms are locked into a dense, covalently bonded
network,” said LLNL scientist and author Stanimir Bonev.
Read More
https://phys.org/news/2026-01-fleeting-stable-scientists-uncover-recipe.html
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