Science
Highlights ______________________________________________________
Understanding the Reactivity of CoCrMo-implant Wear Particles
– Contact: Mary P. Ryan, Imperial College London
During their popularity in the mid 2000’s, CoCrMo-based metal-on-metal
(ball in socket) hip implants accounted for about a third of hip replacements
in the US. It was believed that this alloy would be longer-lived than previous
materials. However, unforeseen issues with mechanical wear and corrosion of the
material caused a high failure rate. Read more...
Structural Study of Potent Peptidic Fusion Inhibitors of Influenza
Virus Hemagglutinin – Contact: Ian A. Wilson, The Scripps Research
Institute
The influenza virus constantly mutates, helping to make “the
flu” a costly human disease year after year. Because of these mutations,
flu vaccines change every year and are a best guess of what strains will be
dominant in that year’s flu season. Our best therapeutic options are the
seasonal flu vaccine and antiviral medications like Tamiflu (oseltamivir) and
Relenza (zanamivir), but their effectiveness is declining. Read more...
Muscle Disorders at High Resolution: Native American Myopathy and
Beyond – Contact: Filip Van Petegem, University of British
Columbia
Native American Myopathy (NAM) is a genetic disorder that affects about 1 in
5,000 members of the Lumbee in North Carolina. A mutation in the gene
stac3 causes a variety of severe symptoms affecting muscles, joints,
spine, hearing, breathing, and speech. Read more...
SSRL-Related News
_____________________________________________________
X-ray Analysis Used to Predict Sulfur Corrosion Rates in Crude
Oil
Excerpt from February 1, 2018 Materials Performance article by Ben
DuBose
Scientists are working on the development of a new analysis tool to better
predict the corrosion rates of sulfur compounds in crude oil.
Driven by x-ray analysis, a team of researchers from Chevron (San Ramon,
California, USA) and the University of Saskatchewan (Saskatoon, Saskatchewan,
Canada) are performing a series of studies at SSRL to closely examine different
forms of sulfur in crude oil. Read more...
Hidden Medical Text Read for the First Time in a Thousand
Years
Excerpt from March 22, 2018 DOE Science News Source
An influential physician and a philosopher of early Western medicine, Galen
of Pergamon was the doctor of emperors and gladiators. One of his many works,
“On the Mixtures and Powers of Simple Drugs,” was an important
pharmaceutical text that would help educate fellow Greek-Roman doctors.
The text was translated during the 6th century into Syriac,
a language that served as a bridge between Greek and Arabic and helped spread
Galen’s ideas into the ancient Islamic world. But despite the
physician’s fame, the most complete surviving version of the translated
manuscript was erased and written over with hymns in the 11th
century – a common practice at the time. These written-over documents are
known as palimpsests.
An international team of researchers is getting a clear look at the hidden
text of the Syriac Galen palimpsest with an x-ray study at SSRL. Read more…
Video from CBS Bay Area: Bay Area Scientists Reveal Hidden
Ancient Texts
Secretary of Energy Rick Perry Visits SLAC
Excerpt from March 28, 2018 Stanford Report article
Secretary of Energy Rick Perry visited SLAC, where he toured the site of a
superconducting upgrade to the accelerator that powers the lab’s x-ray
laser and met with employees in a town hall meeting. Read more...
Professor Bruce Gates on the Molecules That Can Drive Chemical
Reactions
Excerpt from March 26, 2018 SLAC Today article by Amanda
Solliday
Bruce Gates, a professor of chemical engineering at University of
California, Davis, describes his innovative work to search for simple,
selective catalysts. We asked him about his most recent work at SSRL, where he
has teamed up with researchers to develop new approaches that take a close look
at the fine details of these materials and how they perform. Read more…
Honors and Awards _____________________________________________________
SSRL User, Assistant Professor William Chueh, Wins Outstanding Young
Investigator Award
Excerpt from February 27, 2018 Stanford Report article by Ashley
Boney
William Chueh, Assistant Professor of Materials Science and Engineering and
Center Fellow at the Precourt Institute for Energy, recently received the
Materials Research Society’s 2018 Outstanding Young Investigator Award
for his groundbreaking research in ionic and electronic charge transport and
Chueh leads a group of 25 students and postdocs tackling the challenge of
decarbonizing various energy transformation pathways. Specifically, his group
seeks to understand and engineer electrochemical reactions at the levels of
electrons, ions, molecules, particles and devices, using a bottom-up approach,
for applications in energy storage (such as lithium-ion and flow batteries) and
in energy conversion (such as fuel cells, electrolyzers and
photoelectrochemical cells). Read more…
Upcoming Events ______________________________________________________
- Synchrotron Radiation Instrumentation (SRI 2018): June
10-15, 2018, Taiwan Conference website
- 50 Years of Synchrotron Radiation in the UK and Its Global
Impact (UKSR50): June 26-29, 2018, Liverpool, UK Conference website
- 9th SSRL School on Synchrotron X-ray Scattering Techniques
in Materials and Environmental Sciences: July 16-18, 2018
This school will provide a practical users' guide to
planning and conducting scattering measurements at SSRL beam lines, and will
cover important techniques including small angle scattering, thin-film
scattering, powder diffraction, structure refinement and surface x-ray
scattering. The school will address topics that are not commonly included in
text books or class lectures, and typically obtained only through
on-the-experiment training. School website
- PULSE Ultrafast X-ray Summer Seminar 2018: June 24-28,
2018 Seminar website
- Argonne National Laboratory and Oak Ridge National
Laboratory – 2018 National School on Neutron & X-ray Scattering: July
22-August 4, 2018 Event website
- SSRL EXAFS Summer School: August 13-17, 2018
The five-day session will provide training in XAS and EXAFS theory,
experimental design, data acquisition strategies and FEFF based EXAFS data
analysis useful to both new and experienced users. It will include training
material for SSRL's expanding chemical catalysis user base, and a one-day
session at the beam lines with focus on sample preparation and advanced
experimental instrumentation for standard and in-situ/operando
measurements. Data processing and analysis techniques will include
introductions to EXAFS data fitting on simple systems leading to involved data
analysis methods with focus on advanced EXAFS fitting and interpretation. A
half-day session will be targeted towards experienced users and will include
lectures on near-edge analysis techniques, combining advanced spectroscopic
techniques with EXAFS and guidelines for proper reporting of EXAFS data. A web
site will be available soon.
- SSRL/LCLS Annual Users' Meeting at SLAC: September
25-28, 2018 Meeting
website
Society for Science at User Research Facilities (SSURF) Activities __________________
Capitol Hill Exhibition: April 25, 2018, Dirksen Senate Office
Building, Washington, D.C.
SSURF (formerly the National User Facility Organization, NUFO) will hold a
user science exhibition with a theme of Science as Infrastructure. The expo
will showcase a diverse set of research projects and capabilities contributed
by SSURF's member facilities and is open for all to attend. SSURF Events website
Contact Cathy
Knotts with your suggestions of science/technology highlights to be shared
with SSURF.
SSURF Annual Meeting 2018: June 26-28, 2018, College Park,
Maryland
This year’s meeting will focus on user facilities as a critical and
under-recognized component of the nation’s infrastructure. Early Bird
registration is available until April 15, and all attendees must pre-register
by June 1. Registration website
Announcement _________________________________________________________
Change to Stanford Marguerite S Line Bus Stop at SLAC
Due to an increase in the number of travelers on the S Line Marguerite bus
service running between SLAC and the Palo Alto train station, Stanford Parking
& Transportation Services (P&TS) has replaced the small Marguerite
Shuttle S Line bus with a larger electric bus, increasing rider capacity from
16 to 32. Line S operates weekday mornings 6:23 a.m. to 9:23 a.m. and weekday
evenings 4:28 p.m. to 6:34 p.m., year round (except university holidays). The
larger bus won’t be able to access the Stanford Guest House parking lot,
where the S Line used to stop at SLAC. Instead, it will stop at the parking lot
to the right of the SLAC Main Gate. Marguerite S Line Schedule
User Research Administration
______________________________________________
SSRL user operations will be shut down during these scheduled
breaks:
- May 29 - June 4, 2018
- July 4, 2018
- July 23, 2018 through mid-October 2018 for facility upgrades and
maintenance before the FY2019 user run resumes
SSRL Beam Time Request Deadline
- April 18, 2018 – Macromolecular Crystallography requests for
June – July 2018
SSRL Proposal Deadlines
- May 1, 2018 – X-ray / VUV (for beam time eligibility
beginning fall 2018)
- July 1, 2018 – Macromolecular Crystallography (for beam time
eligibility beginning fall 2018)
**With our user operations resuming in October instead of November, we need
to move up our call for SSRL X-ray and VUV proposals. Submit new proposals by these
new deadlines: May 1, August 1, November 1. See
SSRL Proposal & Scheduling Guidelines
Submit proposals and beam time requests for both facilities through the
User
Portal.
___________________________________________________________________________
The Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource (SSRL) is a third-generation
light source producing extremely bright x-rays for basic and applied
research. SSRL attracts and supports scientists from around the world who
use its state-of-the-art capabilities to make discoveries that benefit society.
SSRL, a U.S. DOE Office of Science national user facility, is a Directorate of
SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, operated by Stanford University for the
U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science. The SSRL Structural
Molecular Biology Program is supported by the DOE Office of Biological and
Environmental Research, and by the National Institutes of Health, National
Institute of General Medical Sciences. For more information about SSRL science,
operations and schedules, visit http://www-ssrl.slac.stanford.edu.
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Questions? Comments? Contact Lisa Dunn or Tomoko Nakai
