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

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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.

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

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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.

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

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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.

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

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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.

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 research to people who aren't scientists. This is the story of how Lawrence Livermore built a program to teach its researchers a skill that turns out to be as essential as the science itself: making the work understandable.

Guests featured (in order of appearance):

• Brandon Zimmerman - Staff Scientist, LLNL
• Christine Zachow - Operations Manager, LLNL

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Big Ideas Lab is a Mission.org original series.

Executive Produced by Levi Hanusch.

Sound Design, Music Edit and Mix by Matthew Powell.

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.

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 material has existed for more than four and a half billion years, preserving clues from the earliest moments of the solar system. At Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, a team of scientists is now studying tiny fragments of the sample with extraordinary precision, examining isotopes and microscopic minerals to read the stories locked inside. As studies continue, they are revealing how some of the ingredients used by life on Earth are also present in ancient space rocks.

Guests featured (in order of appearance):

• Greg Brennecka - Staff Scientist, LLNL
• Thomas Kruijer - Staff Scientist, LLNL

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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.

The Genesis Mission is a national effort to accelerate discovery by uniting AI, supercomputing, experiments, and the infrastructure of the national laboratories. This episode explores the problem Genesis is trying to solve, the growing gap between the pace of scientific discovery and the scale of the challenges facing the nation. At Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, this vision is turning into a reality through infrastructure, workforce training, and governance.

Guests featured (in order of appearance):

• Dario Gil - Department of Energy Undersecretary for Science and the Director of the Genesis Mission
• Rob Neely - Associate Director for Weapon Simulation and Computing, LLNL
• Lori Diachin - Principal Deputy for Computing, LLNL

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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.

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 Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

From real-world incidents like the Ukraine power grid cyberattack 2015 to cascading failures across interconnected systems, this episode explores how cyber-physical incidents can disrupt critical infrastructure in the United States - and how scientists at Skyfall are working to understand and prepare for them. Researchers are using simulation, AI and new approaches like the immune infrastructure framework to understand those risks - and design systems that can adapt and recover when things go wrong.

Guests featured (in order of appearance):

• Nate Gleason - Cyber and Infrastructure Resilience (CIR) Program Lead, LLNL
• Vaibhav Donde - Associate Program Lead, CIR, LLNL
• Colin Ponce - Computer Scientist, CIR, LLNL

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Big Ideas Lab is a Mission.org original series.

Executive Produced by Levi Hanusch.

Sound Design, Music Edit and Mix by Matthew Powell.

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.