Previous Editions__________________________________________________________________________SSRL Headlines Vol. 11, No. 10 April, 2011__________________________________________________________________________
Contents of this Issue:
The experience of this year's budget process highlights the importance of the
sustained effort made by the user community, through organizations such as the
National User Facility Organization (NUFO) and Synchrotron Neutron User Group
(SNUG), in communicating the impact of science and technology on the nation's
economy and, in particular, the essential role the DOE Office of Science plays
in supporting the nation's research infrastructure.
With that in mind, I encourage you to participate in this year's NUFO annual
meeting, which will be held here at SLAC on June 27-29. The theme of this
year's meeting is "NUFO Encourages Access & Awareness." The meeting will focus
on outreach, access, science vision and funding, diversity, technology
transfer, and working with industry. The meeting will also offer user
representatives the chance to practice translating their science for the
public, and user administrators the chance to hone their skills at delivering
key messages about the science we do and why it is important.
Finally, SSRL together with DESY, KEK and CHESS is organizing a series of six
workshops dedicated to scientific opportunities enabled by diffraction-limited,
high repetition rate, hard x-ray sources-such as energy recovery linacs and
ultimate storage rings-and high repetition rate FELs. These workshops, which
will be held at Cornell University's Robert Purcell Conference Center
throughout June, will help us formulate the long term strategy for SSRL. I
encourage you to participate as much as possible. Detailed information about
the workshops can be found on the CHESS
website.
—Chi-Chang Kao
While much is known about how the acquired immune system recognizes and
responds to pathogens, the innate immune system, which also fights off
infections and disease, is much less well understood. The inflammatory
responses of the innate immune system can be activated by toll-like receptors
(TLRs), which often bind to elements from pathogens that have a regular repeat,
such as double-stranded RNA. Researchers theorize that TLRs may also bind to
stable parts of outer membrane proteins or covalent modifications of these
proteins. Either way, even if the pathogen mutates to try to escape host
defense mechanisms, the TLRs will still recognize them.
In a recent study, researchers from Vanderbilt University Medical Center and
Weill Cornell Medical College studied the outer membrane protein PorB from
Neisseria meningitides, a causative agent of bacterial meningitis. By
determining the outer membrane protein's crystal structure at SSRL's Beam Lines
9-2 and 11-1, and combining this with additional data collected at the Advanced
Light Source and the Cornell High Energy Synchrotron Source, the research team
was able to deduce that stationary electric charges on the N.
meningitidis PorB structure may be important for the interaction. The TLRs'
ability to bind to the outer membrane protein despite mutations can be
explained by the fact that small changes in the electric charges have very
little effect on the TLRs' overall attraction to N. meningitidis PorB.
This work was recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy
of Sciences.
"Our findings point to management and control of this other phase as the
correct path toward optimizing these novel superconductors for energy
applications, as well as searching for new superconductors," said Zhi-Xun Shen
of the Stanford Institute for Materials and Energy Science (SIMES), a joint
institute of the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
and Stanford University. Shen led the team of researchers that made the
discovery; their findings appear in the March 25 issue of Science.
The team found that electrons in the pseudogap phase, do not pair up as was
previously understood. Instead, they reorganize into a distinct yet elusive
order of their own. The knowledge that the pseudogap indicates a new phase of
matter provides a clear signpost for follow-up research, according to Ruihua
He, a post-doctoral researcher at the Advanced Light Source and first author of
the paper. He outlined the next steps: "First to-do: uncover the nature of the
pseudogap order. Second to-do: determine whether the pseudogap order is friend
or foe to superconductivity. Third to-do: find a way to promote the pseudogap
order if it's a friend and suppress it if it's a foe." Read the full SLAC
press release.
To learn more about this research see the full
scientific highlight
A joint solar research effort managed by Stanford and the University of
California-Berkeley has won $25 million in funding from the U.S. Department of
Energy's SunShot Initiative, which seeks to aggressively drive solar energy
innovations. Portions of the work will be conducted at the Stanford Synchrotron
Radiation Lightsource, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the National
Renewable Energy Laboratory.
The Stanford-Berkeley group, dubbed the Bay Area Photovoltaics Consortium, or
BAPVC, will develop and test the innovative new materials, device structures
and fabrication processes needed to produce inexpensive, efficient photovoltaic
modules in high volume. The SunShot Initiative's ultimate goal is to reduce the
cost of installed solar energy systems to one dollar a watt, an accomplishment
that would enable solar energy systems to be broadly deployed across the
country.
"It's a simple goal that will make solar competitive with the more conventional
types of power," said BAPVC co-PI and SSRL Senior Scientist Mike Toney. To
reach this goal, the consortium estimates they will need to bring down
manufacturing costs and improve device performance to the point that
manufacturing solar cell modules costs about 50 cents a watt. The other 50
cents a watt will go toward installation, power management, permitting and
other costs needed to bring the collected energy to the electrical grid.
As the most widespread solar systems are based on just a few well-understood
materials, BAPVC will search for and characterize new materials and processing
that outperform the standard ones. The consortium will also conduct in situ
analyses during processing to find the best fabrication processes to control
material structure and defects.
To assure close alignment with industry and manufacturing needs, the consortium
also includes industry participants: initial industry members include GE,
Applied Materials, Corning, Boeing-Spectrolab, CaliSolar, Alta Devices,
Intermolecular, Applied Materials, Bosch, NuvoSun, Solexant, Alion, Crystal
Solar, Solar Junction, Encore Solar and Stion.
The BAPVC project is co-directed by Yi Cui, associate professor of materials
science and engineering at Stanford, and Ali Javey, associate professor of
electrical engineering and computer sciences at Berkeley.
In addition to the $25 million awarded to the BAPVC project, Secretary of
Energy Steven Chu awarded $25 million to SVTC Technologies (San Jose,
California) and $62.5 million to the U.S. Photovoltaic Manufacturing Consortium
(Albany, New York, and Palm Bay, Florida). The SVTC Technologies work seeks to
accelerate the development, manufacturing and commercialization of
next-generation copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) thin film photovoltaic
manufacturing technologies. The U.S. Photovoltaic Manufacturing Consortium
will create a fee-for-service manufacturing development facility that will
enable start-ups, materials suppliers and other photovoltaic innovators to
greatly reduce up-front capital and operating costs during product development
and pilot production.
For more information, see the Department of Energy press release.
The award, given for the first time this year, honors those who "create
accessible and innovative development or applications of computer technology to
enhance research in the life sciences at the molecular level," according to a
press release issued by the society.
See the American
Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology's press release for more
information.
Congratulations to Ed Stern, Farrel Lytle, the late Dale Sayers and John Rehr,
winners of the 2011 Advanced Photon Source's Arthur H. Compton award. Nominated
for their pioneering development of the theory and use of x-ray absorption fine
structure spectroscopy (XAFS), these individuals and their early work
transformed how x-ray researchers around the world study local structure around
x-ray absorbing atoms in gases, liquids, and amorphous and crystalline solids.
Classic papers by these pioneers have been sited thousands of times and have
influenced countless researchers.
On Friday, April 22, SLAC hosted Senate Energy and Water Appropriations
Subcommittee Staff Member Leland Cogliani. Cogliani's visit to SLAC included an
overview of laboratory science and a tour of both SSRL and the Linac Coherent
Light Source. Cogliani's time at SSRL focused in particular on partnerships
with industry and included a meeting with Cocrystal Discovery, Inc., Scientist
David Bushnell.
SSRL, the Linac Coherent Light Source and SLAC's particle physics and
astrophysics user facilities were represented at the National User Facility
Organization (NUFO) exhibit on Capitol Hill earlier this month. SSRL
representatives Michael Toney and Cathy Knotts highlighted research underway at
the facilities and addressed how the science underpins U.S. competitiveness and
innovation. Learn more on the NUFO website.
To help inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers, please
nominate scientists, engineers or related professionals who have had a major
impact on their field to be considered for this elite cadre of professionals.
Other fields such as law, business, government, and public service are also
considered. The nomination form and more information can be found here on the
festival website.
Seminars to Share Scientific Computing Knowledge, Experience - This month marks
the beginning of a new scientific computing seminar series, which showcases
scientific computing techniques from across the lab and beyond. Lectures by
SLAC researchers will discuss the science made possible by the vast amounts of
data produced by the LCLS, images of the universe in three dimensions and more.
Scientists from other institutions will also share new methods for using
computing to advance science. The first lecture, given by LCLS Instrument
Scientist Garth Williams earlier this week, discussed new methods in coherent
imaging and nano crystallography. Williams demonstrated how the raw data taken
by the Coherent X-ray Imaging instrument-which can already exceed 700 megabytes
per second and total more than 100 terabytes for some experiments-is converted
into molecular and atomic structures. The lectures are currently scheduled for
one Tuesday a month in SLAC's Kavli Auditorium. The next will take place on May
17.
Annual Users' Conference, October 24-26 - Plan to participate in the Annual
SSRL/LCLS Users' Meeting and Workshops, October 24-26, 2011 to learn about new
developments and share exciting user research at both LCLS and SSRL. The draft
program and registration details will be posted shortly. In the meantime,
please take a few moments to consider nominating your colleagues or students
for the William E.
and Diane M. Spicer Young Investigator Award, the Melvin P.
Klein Professional Development Award, and the Farrel W.
Lytle Award. Submit your nominations to Cathy Knotts
(knotts@slac.stanford.edu). These awards will be presented at the Users'
Meeting. You can also reserve lodging for the meeting by contacting the
Stanford Guest
House. Specify SSRL/LCLS/SLAC to take advantage of discounted
rates.
X-ray/VUV May-July Schedule Posted - Many beam lines were significantly
oversubscribed, but we tried to accommodate as many user experiments as
possible; view the SPEAR X-ray/VUV schedule from the SSRL
website or view your specific beam time through the portal.
Call for New SSRL X-ray/VUV Proposals: Due June 1, September 1 or December 1 -
New
X-ray/VUV proposals can be submitted three times a year: June 1, September 1
and December 1. Proposals submitted by June 1 will be peer reviewed, rated and
eligible for beam time beginning in November 2011.
Call for SSRL X-ray/VUV Beam Time Requests: Due September 1 - Proposal
spokespersons or their authorized lead contacts on active proposals can submit
new X-ray/VUV beam time requests for the first scheduling period (late November
2011 through February 2012) by September 1. (New proposals submitted June 1 are
also eligible to submit requests by this date; ratings for new proposals will
be provided in August). Request beam time via the user portal (request
a password if you have not already requested one or cannot remember your URA
password; note this is different from your SSRL or SLAC password).
A New Type of Battery
Redesigning the Magnet
__________________________________________________________________________
SSRL Headlines is published electronically monthly to inform SSRL users,
sponsors and other interested people about happenings at SSRL. SSRL is a
national synchrotron user facility operated by Stanford University for the
U.S. Department of Energy Office of Basic Energy
Sciences. Additional support for
the structural biology program is provided by
the DOE
Office of Biological and Environmental Research, the NIH
National Center for Research Resources and the NIH Institute for General Medical
Sciences. Additional information about
SSRL and its operation and schedules is available from the SSRL WWW
site.
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