SeeCalifornia.com

Livermore, California is probably one of the smartest cities in the nation. Over 7,000 people go to work each day there, earning their living by researching, inventing and thinking. It is only one of two U.S. cities (Berkeley is the other) that has an element named after it, Livermorium Lv116. Famed inventor of the hydrogen bomb, Edward Teller, was co-founder of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in Livermore and served as its director for many years. He is in the right photo, no glasses.

Innovations in science, computing, physics, medicine, forensics, space travel and energy are a few contributions we can thank Livermore for, as well as on-location movie productions. Portions of “Star Trek Into Darkness” were filmed at the National Ignition Facility, home to the world’s largest and most energetic laser system. With the approval of the Department of Energy, this unique facility was utilized for the first time as a film set in 2012.

National Ignition Facility is capable of producing temperatures of hundreds of millions of degrees and pressures of hundreds of billions of atmospheres simulating the conditions in the interior of stars and giant planets like Jupiter. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) offers tours of both its Main Site in Livermore and of Site 300, the Laboratory’s explosives test facility just east of Tracy. See: llnl.gov

For those who love the arts, don’t miss The Livermore Valley Dance Theatre production of The Nutcracker ballet this week.