Big Ideas Lab
Episodes
Energy Flow Charts
02 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
LLNL’s Energy Flow Charts have become one of the clearest ways to understand the nation’s energy system. Learn how these diagrams capture everythi...
CAMS
18 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Ancient footprints, unidentified remains, brain cells - they're all part of the story told through atoms, and at the Center for Accelerator Mass Spect...
Advanced Lasers
23 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
At Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, scientists are developing high-repetition-rate lasers that fire thousands of times per second. In this epis...
Element Discovery
09 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Scientists are still adding to the periodic table and expanding what we know about matter. At Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, researchers are ...
World’s Largest Camera
26 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Supernovas, asteroids, dark matter, and dark energy… the universe is constantly changing. Today we’ll dive into how we track what’s shifting in ...
Laser Guide Star
12 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
For decades, Earth’s atmosphere has blurred images of both stars and galaxies, greatly restricting our ability to see the universe clearly from the ...
Interns
29 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What’s it really like to intern at one of the nation’s premier science and national security labs? In this episode of The Big Ideas Lab, we follow...
Forensic Science Center (Part 2)
15 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The modern world is an onslaught of threats – from biological and radioactive to nuclear and chemical. At the Forensic Science Center at the Lawrenc...
Forensic Science Center (Part 1)
01 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A mysterious package. A silent explosion. And a phone call that would change the course of forensic science forever. In this gripping first part of o...
Polymer Enclave
17 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
At Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, engineers and scientists are reimagining the way critical components for the U.S. nuclear stockpile are des...
Quantum Computing
03 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What if scientists could use the peculiar world of quantum mechanics to design solutions once thought impossible - changing how we build, heal, and co...
AI at the Lab
20 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Artificial intelligence is transforming how science is conducted at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. From accelerating drug discovery to optimi...
Jupiter Laser Facility
06 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
From fusion experiments to cancer-fighting tech, the Jupiter Laser Facility is where bold ideas meet billion-watt lasers. In this episode, we go insid...
Spring Break - We'll Be Back Soon!
08 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Big Ideas Lab is taking a quick spring break, but the story is far from over. We're continuing to uncover the untold breakthroughs and hidden historie...
Machinists
01 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Before a laser fires or a rocket launches, machinists make the mission possible. This episode explores the world of machining at Lawrence Livermore Na...
Space Security
25 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In the vast silence of space, security is anything but quiet. At Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, cutting-edge science and strategic defense co...
Tech Transfer
18 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Today we’ll explore how technologies developed at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory make their way from the Lab into industry — impacting liv...
Inertial Fusion Energy
11 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What if we could harness the same energy that powers the stars to fuel our world? Scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory are working tow...
Community Giving
04 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is celebrated for its groundbreaking science - from Fusion Ignition to safeguarding the nuclear stockpile. But ...
Drug Discovery
25 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
For centuries, drug discovery was a slow, trial-and-error process—sometimes taking decades to develop life-saving treatments. But what if we could s...
Optics Recycle Loop
18 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Inside the National Ignition Facility, 192 laser beams push the limits of science and technology, supporting critical national security and scientific...
Planetary Defense (Part 2)
11 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Asteroids have reshaped Earth before—and scientists know another impact is inevitable. When traditional deflection methods won’t work, what’s th...
Planetary Defense (Part 1)
04 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In 2013, a house-sized asteroid exploded over Chelyabinsk, Russia, with the force of 30 atomic bombs. A century earlier, an asteroid impact flattened ...
NIF Sustainment
28 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
How do you maintain a facility built to achieve the impossible? In this episode, we explore the National Ignition Facility Sustainment Project—an un...
Earthquake Modeling
21 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The ground beneath us is always moving—but what can it reveal about our future? At Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, seismic monitoring has ev...
Next Gen Innovators
14 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What happens when you bring a group of fifth graders into one of the world’s most advanced science labs? It’s not just magic—it’s mission-crit...
Roads to Removal
07 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Entire communities erased by hurricanes. 240,000 square kilometers burned. Floodwaters swallowing towns. Extreme weather isn’t a distant threat—it...
Additive Manufacturing
17 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Once a concept in 1940s science fiction, additive manufacturing—better known as 3D printing—has become a game-changer in modern production. Unlike...
Stockpile Modernization
10 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In the mid-1990s, global treaties and a U.S. moratorium on nuclear testing marked a turning point in reducing the nuclear threat. As Cold War tensions...
Site 300
03 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
After the first successful atomic bomb test in 1945, code-named Trinity, a new era in global politics began. Unlocking the power of the atom sparked a...
NARAC
26 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In the 1960s and 70s, researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory were pushing the boundaries of nuclear weapons technology. Â But these bre...
El Capitan
19 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
For decades, it was an ambitious dream: to create a supercomputer powerful enough to tackle humanity's most complex problems. Now, that dream is a rea...
DYNA3D
12 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
What does designing hurricane-proof buildings have to do with heart surgery and light beer? Surprisingly, the answer lies in a groundbreaking computer...
Implantables
29 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Imagine an artificial retina that restores sight or micro-devices implanted to monitor health in real time. This isn’t science fiction—it’s our ...
Beyond Ignition
22 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Over millennia, humanity has mastered fire, wind, steam and even the atom to fuel its progress. Now, we stand on the brink of the next monumental leap...
Fusion Ignition
15 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Step inside LLNL’s National Ignition Facility, home to the world’s largest and most powerful laser. It’s a building as vast as three football fi...
Day in a Life of Deterrence
08 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Strategic deterrence is the foundation of U.S. national defense, but it’s only as strong as the nuclear triad that supports it.Think of the nuclear ...
Strategic Deterrence
01 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In October 1962, a U-2 reconnaissance plane captured images of Soviet missile sites under construction in Cuba. What followed was a tense 13-day stand...
Supercomputing
24 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In the 1960s, a quiet revolution was taking shape behind the scenes—one that would eventually touch every corner of our modern world. As Cold War te...
History of the Lab
17 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In the wake of the Soviet Union's first atomic bomb test, the looming threat of nuclear war sent shockwaves through the United States. Air raid sirens...
Meet the Lab
10 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
What if one square mile could change the world?Welcome to Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, where groundbreaking scientific discoveries are tran...
About Big Ideas Lab
03 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Welcome to the Big Ideas Lab, a weekly podcast that takes you inside Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Hear untold stories, meet boundary-pushin...