Big Ideas Lab
Your weekly 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.
52 episodes transcribedEnergetic Materials
Episode Date: March 24, 2026Behind every safeguard of national security lies a world few ever see. Inside Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, scientists and engineers are red...
Target Fabrication
Episode Date: March 10, 2026At the center of every experiment at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s National Ignition Facility is a target - a tiny, precisely engineered ob...
24 Hour Operations
Episode Date: February 24, 2026The world’s most demanding science never sleeps. From facilities that operate around the clock to the people monitoring safety, power, and infrastruct...
Discovery Science at NIF
Episode Date: February 10, 2026At Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s National Ignition Facility, scientists recreate the most extreme conditions in the universe. Through the D...
Dark Matter
Episode Date: January 13, 2026Dark matter is one of the universe’s greatest mysteries. It’s the invisible force that glues galaxies together and sculpts cosmic structure. In this e...
Offsite Assignments
Episode Date: December 16, 2025Every decision in national security hinges on knowledge, insight, and expertise - some of that expertise starts in a lab in Livermore. The Offsite Fel...
Energy Flow Charts
Episode Date: December 2, 2025LLNL’s Energy Flow Charts have become one of the clearest ways to understand the nation’s energy system. Learn how these diagrams capture everything f...
Advanced Lasers
Episode Date: September 23, 2025At Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, scientists are developing high-repetition-rate lasers that fire thousands of times per second. In this epis...
Element Discovery
Episode Date: September 9, 2025Scientists 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
Episode Date: August 26, 2025Supernovas, asteroids, dark matter, and dark energy… the universe is constantly changing. Today we’ll dive into how we track what’s shifting in the ni...
Laser Guide Star
Episode Date: August 12, 2025For decades, Earth’s atmosphere has blurred images of both stars and galaxies, greatly restricting our ability to see the universe clearly from the gr...
Forensic Science Center (Part 2)
Episode Date: July 15, 2025The modern world is an onslaught of threats – from biological and radioactive to nuclear and chemical. At the Forensic Science Center at the Lawrence...
Forensic Science Center (Part I)
Episode Date: July 1, 2025A mysterious package. A silent explosion. And a phone call that would change the course of forensic science forever. In this gripping first part of ou...
Polymer Enclave
Episode Date: June 17, 2025At Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, engineers and scientists are reimagining the way critical components for the U.S. nuclear stockpile are des...
