Developed at SLAC’s synchrotron, SSRL, the method could help make those electrochemical conversions more robust and efficient and can be applied to studying a wide range of energy technologies.
Since the first recorded case of highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 – commonly known as avian flu or bird flu – in 1996, Ian Wilson, professor of structural biology at Scripps Research, and his colleagues have been closely tracking the evolution of several key proteins using SSRL. Recently, Wilson’s team investigated the evolution of a protein that plays a crucial role in H5N1’s ability to transmit between species. Their analysis found that the protein is susceptible to a mutation that could help the virus attach to human cells, potentially increasing the risk of human transmission. The findings – published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences – underscore the need for ongoing monitoring of H5N1’s evolution.
Catalysts make our modern lives possible. By reducing the start-up energy needed for chemical reactions, they facilitate the production of fuels, plastics and textiles as well as vital water treatment processes. As a result, researchers are always looking to design new and improved catalysts – and for guidance, they often turn to X-ray facilities like the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource (SSRL) at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, where they can get a better handle on catalysts’ molecular structures. Now, in response to a boom in catalysis users, researchers have transformed Beam Line 10-2 into the first dedicated space for catalysis studies at SSRL.
Superconductivity – the ability of some materials to conduct electricity with no energy loss – holds immense promise for new technologies from lossless power grids to advanced quantum devices.
Using SLAC’s LCLS for one of the first studies of its kind, researchers discover surprising behaviors of a complex material that could have important implications for designing faster microelectronic devices.
Researchers carefully positioned lasers to compress billions of electrons together, creating a beam five times more powerful than ever before.
Researchers at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory will contribute to the DOE’s newly established Fusion Innovative Research Engine (FIRE) Collaboratives. These collaborative teams were created to bridge basic science research programs with the needs of the growing fusion industry. In total, the DOE announced $107 million in funding for six projects under this initiative.
It may be the smallest, shortest chorus dance ever recorded. Researchers observed how electrons, excited by ultrafast light pulses, danced in unison around a particle less than a nanometer in diameter. As reported in Science Advances, this is the first measurement of its kind and will enable researchers to evaluate electron dynamics in a new range of super-small particles, valued for their ability to trap and manipulate light.
Scientists have developed a groundbreaking method for generating fast, bright proton beams using a high-repetition-rate laser-plasma accelerator. This work, published in Nature Communications, resolves several long-standing challenges and ushers this technology to the threshold of real-world applications – all thanks to a stream of water.
Catalysts do several surprising things to assist with daily life – from bread making to turning raw materials into fuels more efficiently. Now, SLAC researchers have developed a way to speed up the discovery process for a promising new class of these helpful substances called single atom catalysts.
Funded by the Department of Energy, these centers are part of an effort that brings together national laboratories, universities and industry to invent and accelerate novel microelectronics technologies to operate efficiently or in extreme environments.
Check out the second of a two-part series exploring how artificial intelligence helps researchers from around the world perform cutting-edge science with the lab’s state-of-the-art facilities and instruments. Read part one here. In this part you’ll learn how AI is playing a key role in helping SLAC researchers find new galaxies and tiny neutrinos, and discover new drugs.
Check out the first of a two-part series exploring how artificial intelligence helps researchers from around the world perform cutting-edge science with the lab’s state-of-the-art facilities and instruments. In this part you’ll learn how SLAC researchers collaborate to develop AI tools to make molecular movies, speeding up the discovery process in the era of big data.
In 1974, the independent discovery of the J/psi particle at SLAC and Brookhaven National Laboratory rocked the physics world, and entire textbooks had to be rewritten. Earlier this month, SLAC hosted a symposium to celebrate the milestone.
SLAC’s SSRL helps pin down key players in the microbial production of methylmercury, a poison that can accumulate in fish.
The prototype DUNE 2x2 detector will capture up to 10,000 neutrino interactions per day. Researchers developed the new detector and advanced machine learning techniques to probe what all those neutrinos are up to.
The Department of Energy (DOE) has given the green light for construction to begin on a high-energy upgrade that will further boost the performance of the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS), the world’s most powerful X-ray free-electron laser (XFEL) at the DOE’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. When complete, the upgrade will allow scientists to explore atomic-scale processes with unprecedented precision and address fundamental questions in energy storage, catalysis, biology, materials science and quantum physics like never before.
Funded by the Department of Energy’s Office of Science, the Center for Energy Efficient Magnonics brings together a multidisciplinary group of researchers from SLAC and seven universities to discover how components of microelectronics can be built on spin waves that arise from magnetism.
In a study published today in Joule, researchers at the SLAC-Stanford Battery Center report that giving batteries their first charge at unusually high currents increased their average lifespan by 50% while decreasing the initial charging time from 10 hours to just 20 minutes.
The finding could help future efforts to design superconductors that work at higher temperatures.
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