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Big Ideas Lab: Daily Summaries Delivered
by Mission.org
Your exploration inside Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Hear untold stories, meet boundary-pushing pioneers and get unparalleled access to groundbreaking science and technology. From national security challenges to computing revolutions, discover the innovations that are shaping tomorrow, today.
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- 2 days ago21 min
Tsunami Forecasting
Scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory are proving that it is possible to design a tsunami warning system that can deliver both accuracy and speed. The multi-pronged solution rides on the enormous exascale computing power of LLNL’s El Capitan supercomputer along with physics-based modeling and digital twin technologies in a collaborative effort. Guests featured (in order of appearance):Tzanio Kolev, Computational Mathematician, LLNLBronis R. de Supinski, Chief Technology Officer of Livermore Computing, LLNL--Big Ideas Lab is a Mission.org original series.Executive Produced by Levi Hanusch.Sound Design, Music Edit and Mix by Matthew Powell.Script by Levi Hanusch.Story Editing by Levi Hanusch.Audio Engineering and Editing by Matthew Powell.Narrated by Matthew Powell.Video Production by Levi Hanusch.Brought to you in partnership with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
- 2 weeks ago29 min
Exoplanets
The nearest exoplanet is about 4 light-years away, but from a single speck of light, scientists can peer into their atmospheres - and recreate pieces of these distant worlds here on Earth.Exoplanets are planets that exist beyond our solar system, and some of them are so extreme that they challenge our understanding of how planets formed. At Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, scientists are studying them in a variety of ways - two of them are: recreating the crushing pressures and temperatures of planetary interiors with powerful lasers, and developing imaging technology to detect their faint light across vast distances. Together, these approaches help reveal how distant planets form, what they’re made of, and what conditions might make them habitable. Guests featured (in order of appearance):Federica Coppari - Research Scientist at LLNLBenjamin Gerard - Research Scientist at LLNL--Big Ideas Lab is a Mission.org original series.Executive Produced by Levi Hanusch.Sound Design, Music Edit and Mix by Matthew Powell.Script by Caroline Kidd.Story Editing by Levi Hanusch.Audio Engineering and Editing by Matthew Powell.Narrated by Matthew Powell.Video Production by Ryan Gerecke.Brought to you in partnership with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
- Sep 29, 202621 min
Rare Earth Elements
Rare-earth elements are hidden inside nearly every piece of modern technology - your phone, electric vehicles, fighter jets. They aren't scarce in number. They're scarce because pulling them apart is one of the hardest problems in chemistry, and the United States depends almost entirely on other countries to do it.At Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, scientists are borrowing a solution nature spent millions of years perfecting - and inventing new materials that could make overlooked elements suddenly valuable - to rebuild a domestic supply chain from the ground up.Guests featured (in order of appearance):Scott McCall - Materials Physicist and Emeritus Actinide and Lanthanide Science Group Leader, LLNLDan Park - Synthetic Biology Group Leader, Biosciences and Biotechnology Division, LLNL--Big Ideas Lab is a Mission.org original series.Executive Produced by Levi Hanusch.Sound Design, Music Edit and Mix by Matthew Powell.Script by Levi Hanusch.Audio Engineering and Editing by Matthew Powell.Narrated by Matthew Powell.Brought to you in partnership with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
- Sep 15, 202624 min
CODA Telescope
The breakthrough wasn’t a new telescope. It was a new way to build one.For decades, space telescopes were built as exquisite, one-of-a-kind instruments. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory took a different approach: design for “good enough” instead of perfect, and rethink how a telescope is manufactured, engineered and integrated for space.The result was CODA, an easily manufacturable, lower-cost telescope that helped turn a small NASA exoplanet mission called Pandora from an idea into something that could actually reach space.This is what becomes possible when innovation gets crafty with the technology that’s already here.Guests featured (in order of appearance):Jordan Karburn - Deputy Project Manager of Pandora and Principal Investigator of the CODA Telescope, LLNLShawn Higbee - Mission Manager for Space Sensing, LLNL--Big Ideas Lab is a Mission.org original series.Executive Produced by Levi Hanusch.Sound Design, Music Edit and Mix by Matthew Powell.Script by Caroline Kidd.Story Editing by Levi Hanusch.Audio Engineering and Editing by Matthew Powell.Narrated by Matthew Powell.Video Production by Levi Hanusch.Brought to you in partnership with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
- Sep 1, 202619 min
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. In this episode, Lawrence Livermore researchers explain the science of scale-up. From durability, cost, manufacturing, and unexpected changes in performance to the risks that can stall a promising idea, LLNL combines modeling, experimentation, risk assessment, and industry partnerships to help breakthroughs reach the real world faster and more reliably. Guests featured (in order of appearance): Sarah Baker - Group and Program Leader for Carbon Technologies, LLNL Andrew Wong - Materials Scientist, LLNL -- Big Ideas Lab is a Mission.org original series. Executive Produced by Levi Hanusch. Sound Design, Music Edit and Mix by Matthew Powell. Script by Caroline Kidd. Story Editing by Levi Hanusch. Audio Engineering and Editing by Matthew Powell. Narrated by Matthew Powell. Video Production by Levi Hanusch. Brought to you in partnership with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
- Aug 18, 202618 min
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 trust what happened is to measure it - and Lawrence Livermore has spent decades building the instruments that can see the unseeable, the same instruments that proved the world's first fusion ignition was real. This is the story of NIF's diagnostics: how Lawrence Livermore learned to photograph a dying star, prove a nuclear stockpile still works without ever testing it, and turn an event too fast, too hot, and too dense to touch into knowledge. Guests featured (in order of appearance): Dave Schlossberg - Experimental Physicist, National Ignition Facility, LLNL Cara Vennari - Experimental Physicist, LLNL -- Big Ideas Lab is a Mission.org original series. Executive Produced by Levi Hanusch. Sound Design, Music Edit and Mix by Matthew Powell. Script by Caroline Kidd Story Editing by Levi Hanusch. Audio Engineering and Editing by Matthew Powell. Narrated by Matthew Powell. Brought to you in partnership with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
- Aug 4, 202621 min
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 Livermore National Laboratory, a mission operations center called STARMOC is proving that the future of space operations can be built fast, affordable and in-house - by testing new ways to fly satellites, train AI and stay ahead in a crowded, contested sky. This is STARMOC at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Guests featured (in order of appearance): Luc Peterson - Associate Program Leader for Data Science, Space Program, LLNL Phillip Rittmuller - Principal Investigator for STARMOC -- Big Ideas Lab is a Mission.org original series. Executive Produced by Levi Hanusch. Sound Design, Music Edit and Mix by Matthew Powell. Script by Caroline Kidd Story Editing by Levi Hanusch. Audio Engineering and Editing by Matthew Powell. Narrated by Matthew Powell. Video Production by Levi Hanusch. Brought to you in partnership with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
- Jun 30, 202615 min
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. LLNL postdocs are given rare facilities, hard problems, mentorship, career development time, and a community built around collaboration. The result is more than professional development. It’s the moment a scientist starts becoming the person others look to for answers. Guests featured (in order of appearance): Tomi Akindele - Systems Modeling and Evaluation Group Leader, Physics Division, LLNL Ted Baumann - Chemist and Postdoc Program Lead, LLNL -- Big Ideas Lab is a Mission.org original series. Executive Produced by Levi Hanusch. Sound Design, Music Edit and Mix by Matthew Powell. Script by Caroline Kidd Story Editing by Levi Hanusch. Audio Engineering and Editing by Matthew Powell. Narrated by Matthew Powell. Video Production by Levi Hanusch. Brought to you in partnership with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
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About Big Ideas Lab
Your exploration inside Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Hear untold stories, meet boundary-pushing pioneers and get unparalleled access to groundbreaking science and technology. From national security challenges to computing revolutions, discover the innovations that are shaping tomorrow, today.
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Frequently Asked Questions
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Big Ideas Lab covers topics including Science, History, Government, Physics. Our AI identifies the specific themes in each episode and highlights what matters most to you.
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