Previous Editions__________________________________________________________________________SSRL Headlines Vol. 11, No. 11 May, 2011__________________________________________________________________________
Contents of this Issue:
In parallel, over the last few months the SPEAR3 Accelerator Physics Group,
working with physicists from the Accelerator Directorate's Accelerator Research
Division, have accelerated their effort to increase the brightness of SPEAR3,
which is critically important for most of the new scientific opportunities
discussed at the retreat. Initial results from their studies are very
encouraging, demonstrating an improvement of over 50% in brightness.
Substantial additional effort is still necessary before such an upgrade can be
implemented for normal storage ring operation, but the work is quite promising.
With the knowledge gathered from the retreat and these recent accelerator
studies, division heads are now drafting plans for how they can develop SSRL's
core capabilities and technologies to address tomorrow's scientific
opportunities. When these draft proposals are finished, we will launch a web
forum where SSRL users can view the proposals and offer feedback before the
strategic plan is finalized.
SSRL continues to produce exciting science in a wide range of areas, and it is
my hope that this will only increase as we define our strategic goals and align
our work with these goals.
—Chi-Chang Kao
A team led by Prof. Thomas Poulos of the University of California at Irvine in
collaboration with SSRL scientists used SSRL Beam Line 9-2 to systematically
address the observed discrepancies. They confirmed that the intense x-ray beam
encountered in crystallographic experiments did indeed change the iron
electronic state, and quantified the magnitude as a function of dose with
in-situ visible spectroscopy measurements, finding the exposure level
that
allowed the majority of the enzyme sites to remain in their original iron
oxidation state. By spreading the dose over multiple crystals, they designed a
method that allowed around 90% of the iron sites to be in the non-decayed state
while collecting a complete crystallography data set. Analysis of these
crystallographic data showed the Fe-O bond to be about 1.72 Å, very
similar to that obtained from the x-ray absorption spectroscopy data. This
study illustrates the sensitivity of enzyme metal sites to x-ray dose and the
importance of applying complementary in-situ methods when feasible.
The equipment and methods for combined crystallography and visible spectroscopy
data collection developed and used in this study are currently being made into
an automated and integrated feature of SSRL Beam Line 9-2. This work was
published in Biochemistry.
To learn more about this research see the full scientific highlight
A team of Stanford and SLAC researchers recently investigated the interaction
of hydrogen with such single-walled carbon nanotubes coated with platinum
nanoparticles. Experiments at SSRL Beam Line 13-2 revealed that the addition of
platinum as a catalyst made it possible for hydrogen to bond with the carbon
nanotubes at realistic conditions (<10 atmospheric pressure at room
temperature). This research shows that carbon nanotubes doped with a suitable
metal catalyst, such as platinum, represent viable materials for hydrogen
storage. However, much work remains before these nanotubes can achieve the
Department of Energy goal of 6% weight efficiency.
This research was published in the April 2011 edition of the Journal of the
American Chemical Society.
To learn more about this research see the full scientific highlight
"I was thrilled to hear of Keith's election to the National Academy of
Sciences," said Persis Drell, director of SLAC. "He has made major
contributions to our use of high-intensity synchrotron radiation for
diffraction studies of proteins, as well as phasing by anomalous scattering
methods," a technique used to recover vital information lost during the process
of X-ray diffraction. "This is a well-deserved honor."
Hodgson has been involved with SLAC in various capacities since 1973. As one of
the first users of the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource (then called
the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Project), he and his students did pioneering
work in both the use of synchrotron X-rays to determine the crystal structures
of proteins and the development of X-ray absorption spectroscopy to study
biological and chemical systems. Since then he has published extensively on
X-ray spectroscopic and crystallographic techniques, as well as using those and
other techniques to further the study of a large range of biological,
bioinorganic and inorganic systems. Hodgson served as SSRL Director from 1998
until 2005, helping realize both SPEAR3, a major upgrade to the venerable
synchrotron light source facility, and the genesis of the Linac
Coherent Light Source, the world's first hard X-ray laser and the next
generation in light source technology.
Hodgson received the E.O. Lawrence Award from the Department of Energy in 2002
and was named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of
Science in 2006. He is also a member of several scientific societies and has
been active in national scientific policy, including chairing the DOE
Biological and Environmental Research Advisory Committee from 1995 to 2005.
Hodgson earned his BS from the University of Virginia in 1969 and his PhD from
the University of California, Berkeley in 1972, and then joined Stanford as
Assistant Professor of Chemistry in 1973.
"I guess it is possible to make fundamental studies of disorder in organic
semiconductors sexy," Rivnay wrote in a note to mentor Mike Toney.
Congratulations, Jonathan!
Guehr and his colleagues plan to excite a sample material with a pulse of light
from the Linac Coherent Light Source, then probe the sample using pulses of
extreme ultraviolet or soft x-ray photons to see how the electron properties
within the excited sample change over time.
Congratulations, Markus!
Please join CHESS, DESY, SSRL and the Photon Factory for "XDL 2011 - Science at
the Hard X-ray Diffraction Limit". This series of workshops will be devoted to
science with diffraction-limited, high repetition rate, hard x-ray sources
(such as energy recovery linacs and ultimate storage ring sources).
All workshops will be held at the Robert Purcell Conference Center, Cornell
University, Ithaca, New York. Learn more on the XDL 2011 website.
NUFO Annual Meeting at SLAC, June 27-29 - The 2011 National User Facility
Organization (NUFO) Annual Meeting will be hosted by SSRL, the Linac Coherent
Light Source, and SLAC Particle Physics and Astrophysics. The theme of this
year's meeting is "NUFO Encourages Access and Awareness." Throughout the
meeting, invited speakers and participants will be asked to consider issues
related to facility access and awareness, which will be discussed in depth
during breakout sessions. The meeting will include several sessions that focus
on resources to help promote science, educating future scientists, encouraging
diversity, how interaction with user facilities helps universities and small
business, technology transfer, working with industry, and how NUFO can help to
facilitate these discussions. An additional breakout session will offer
practical tips for communicating science to the general public. All are welcome
to attend the full program or to pick and choose the sessions that are most
applicable to them. Please register in advance on the NUFO Annual Meeting
website.
Synchrotron X-Ray Absorption Spectroscopy Summer School, June 28-July 1
- The SSRL Summer School on Synchrotron X-Ray Absorption Spectroscopy on June
28- July 1 seeks to provide training in theory, experimental design, data
acquisition strategies, and data analysis to both beginners and advanced
students. Transition metal K-edge XANES analysis for electronic structure
determination and EXAFS analysis for geometric structure determination
applicable to relevant systems in the fields of biology, environmental science,
catalysis and material science will be covered. In addition to invited lectures
presented by experts in the field, the summer school will also include
practical training sessions that focus on teaching detailed experimental
procedures at SSRL Beam Lines 11-2, 7-3, 4-1 and 2-3 and data analysis
techniques. Learn more and register at the SRXAS website.
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.
REMINDER: New proposals can be submitted three times each year: Submit new
X-ray/VUV proposals by June 1, September 1, December 1; submit new
Macromolecular Crystallography proposals by July 1, December 1, April 1.
Proposals submitted in June for X-ray/VUV or July for Crystallography will be
peer reviewed over the summer and eligible to request beam time beginning when
the 2012 run starts in November 2011.
Illuminating the Material and Biological World
In the same issue of Symmetry magazine, another article describes the
first successful use of synchrotron radiation for protein crystallography -
including a diffraction pattern of the protein rubredoxin - by Keith Hodgson
and his graduate student James Phillips and postdocs Marguerite Bernheim and
Alexander Wlodawer. It was performed at SSRL (then SSRP) in 1977, and the
revolution of synchrotron-based structural biology research began.
Shooting for $0.50-per-Watt PV Modules
__________________________________________________________________________
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 National Institute of General Medical
Sciences. Additional information about
SSRL and its operation and schedules is available from the SSRL WWW
site.
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