Science & Technology Review November 2005

This month's issue has the following articles: (1) A Major Advance in Understanding Metals--Commentary by Tomas Diaz de la Rubia; (2) Materials Scientists Discover the Power of ParaDiS--A new supercomputer code is revealing how metals become stronger through the formation of dislocation line junctions; (3) A Wide New Window on the Universe--Livermore scientists and engineers are contributing to the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, which will provide unprecedented digital maps of the changing night sky; (4) Built for Speed: Graphics Processors for General-Purpose Computing--Commercial graphics processors used in the computer gaming industry are providing low-cost solutions for high-performance data processing; and (5) Negative Plasma Densities Raise Questions--Livermore physicists shed light on anomalous results in x-ray interferometry of plasmas.