Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Stories

AI-driven autonomous labs transform materials discovery

Operating A-Lab autonomous materials facility

Multi-agent AI systems now design, run, and analyze materials experiments with minimal human input. In January 2026, China's Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology published MARS, coordinating 19 large language model agents with robots. A September 2026 paper in Nature Machine Intelligence introduced MatBrain, a lightweight system that generated 30,000 candidate crystal structures in 48 hours.

Updated Sep 27

Laser-driven muon beams image through concrete for the first time

New Capabilities

Demonstrated compact laser-driven accelerator for muon production

In June 2026, researchers at a Romanian laser facility fired the world's most powerful beam through a two-meter concrete wall and into a black van. The shadow it cast revealed a stack of lead blocks—the first image produced almost entirely by muons, particles created on demand by the laser.

Updated Sep 26