**** **** **** * * * * * * **** **** **** * * * * * * **** **** * * **** HEADLINES - a digital monthly publication
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SSRL Headlines Vol. 3, No. 8 February, 2003
__________________________________________________________________________Contents of This Issue:
1. Science Highlight - Extrusion-molded
Environmental Benefits from SSRL
(contact: John Pople)
Much of our manufactured environment - many metals, plastics, glasses, ceramics, fiberglass and papers - consists of extrusion-molded products. To minimize waste, extrusion-molding plants must balance quality of product, speed of process and cost of production (primarily electricity) for each particular material. They need to know how fast each material can be processed at what energy cost while maintaining the quality of the finished bulk material. Fundamental changes in the macromolecular arrangement of materials occur at critical deformation rates. Thus, manufacturers can tailor the extrusion process to the characteristics of the material by knowing the key shear and extrusion rates that are revealed by the molecular structure of the material being processed whilst minimizing production costs, both in monetary terms and minimizing impact to the environment.
Research performed at BL1-4 at SSRL has been used to correlate the molecular structure of extrusion-molded polymers with its bulk material properties and determined those key shear and extrusion rates. Plants currently operating above the revealed optimum deformation rates can therefore save substantial electrical and environmental costs by reducing extrusion speed while retaining or improving the desired bulk rheological qualities in the finished product. The quality, profit and environmental implications of this procedure for industry are difficult to overemphasize.
More information regarding this research can be found on the SSRL Home Page (click on the Feb 2003 Science Highlight link). Please see the SSRL Science Highlights page for an archive of the highlights.
2. Biological Small-Angle X-ray
Scattering/Diffraction Experiments at SSRL
during the SPEAR3 Transition Period and Beyond
(contact:
Hiro Tsuruta)
SSRL is pleased to announce a major change in its plan to support biological small-angle scattering/diffraction users when SPEAR3 turns on early 2004. The SAXS/D instrumentation on BL4-2 will be available to the user community from the beginning of the commissioning period. At that point, SSRL will have the new 20-pole 2T wiggler in place and new front-end components for SPEAR3 operation. We will keep the existing optical components and operate the new wiggler at a reduced magnetic field. This mode of wiggler operation is required to limit thermal load on optics and is compatible with SPEAR3 operation up to ca. 200 mA. We expect beam characteristics superior to those of SPEAR2 beam due to the low emittance of SPEAR3. For instance, the flux density of the 9-keV beam will be a factor of 3 to 10 higher than the current flux density, depending on actual wiggler field and ring current. At some time later, likely late 2005 or 2006 depending on funding to complete the XAS side stations, the full upgrade of the BL optics for high current SPEAR will be completed.
SSRL has recently decided to dedicate BL4-2 for biological small angle scattering/diffraction experiments, based on continuing demand from the SSRL user community and with the concurrence of the SSRL Proposal Review Panel. This decision makes it possible to optimize the beam line optics as well as the SAXS/D instrumentation to meet specific requirements of the structural biology user community. The brighter source SPEAR3 will eventually provide the flux density about 70-fold higher than the current flux density when BL4 optics upgrade has been completed. During the BL4 optics upgrade, we will relocate a part of our BL4-2 instrumentation to another SSRL beam line to support SAXS/D users.
As a part of a broad cooperative agreement to increase collaboration between SSRL and the Photon Factory (Tsukuba, Japan), we are actively pursuing the possibility for SSRL SAXS/D users to carry out experiments at PF during the SPEAR3 shutdown. The first such opportunity is anticipated in May or June 2003. Users have already been contacted about their interest in this possibility.
SSRL and its staff look forward to supporting the SAXS/D users on BL4-2 at full capacity in 2004 and coming years.
3. Rich History of SPEAR Acknowledged
Before we begin to dismantle the equipment on March 31 to make room for the new SPEAR3 accelerator, a small event will be held to commemorate the significant research that resulted from studies at the Stanford Positron Electron Accelerating Ring (SPEAR). At SPEAR, which was constructed in 1972, counter-rotating beams of electrons and positrons were circulated at energies up to 4 GeV. In terms of the rich harvest of discoveries it has yielded, SPEAR has been the most cost-effective machine ever built in the field of high energy physics. http://www2.slac.stanford.edu/vvc/experiments/spear.html. It also contributed to the beginning of the revolution of using synchrotron radiation to study the properties, structure and function of materials as the first user facility to provide x-rays for experimenters on a multi GeV storage ring.
Two particular achievements in high energy physics at SPEAR were the discovery of psi and tau. In 1974, the psi particle was discovered that is made up of a combination of a quark and an antiquark of an entirely new kind; this work was recognized by the award of the 1976 Nobel Prize in Physics to Burton Richter of SLAC, an award he shared with Samuel C. C. Ting of MIT for the simultaneous discovery of this new particle at Brookhaven National Laboratory. In 1976 the tau particle was discovered, which turned out to be the third in the sequence of electrically charged elementary particles called leptons. The first lepton discovered was the electron, found in 1897; the second was the muon (1937); and the third was the tau, discovered at SPEAR in 1976. Martin Perl of SLAC was awarded the Wolf Prize in 1982 and the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1995 for its discovery.
A few forward-thinking Stanford and SLAC faculty and scientists realized that the synchrotron radiation produced by SPEAR could be used to study many aspects of the structure of matter at the atomic and molecular scale - from surface properties of semiconductor materials to the structure of protein molecules. This led a grant to NSF with subsequent funding of the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Project (SSRP). SSRP provided beams that enabled breakthrough discoveries in many fields involving the use of hard and soft x-rays with matter and laid the groundwork for what was to become a very large expansion in synchrotron use and facilities, both in the U.S. and abroad. Indeed, many of the concepts for producing synchrotron radiation on 3rd generation storage rings such as permanent magnet undulators were first developed and tested on SPEAR. SPEAR was fully dedicated to synchrotron radiation research in 1990 and has since served a growing user community.
4. LCLS and LCLS-II Presented to DOE BES
Subcommittee Planning 20-year Facilities Roadmap
(contacts: John Galayda,
Jerry Hastings)
The Office of Basic Energy Sciences (BES) charged the BES Advisory Committee (BESAC) to produce a 20-year facilities roadmap, to be integrated with facilities roadmaps from the other Offices in DOE-SC. BESAC convened a Subcommittee, chaired by Profs. Sunil Sinha and Geraldine Richmond, to carry out a review of proposals for major new facilities being brought forward by the DOE laboratories under the stewardship of DOE-BES. The Subcommittee met in Rockville, MD on February 22-23. To gather information for their deliberations, written information was provided to the Subcommittee in advance of the meeting by each of the laboratories on their major facilities initiatives. Representatives from the laboratories gave presentations, followed by questions and discussion with the Subcommittee. The proposals spanned the synchrotron radiation spectrum from infrared to hard x-rays, and the neutron spectrum from cold to energetic. A high-performance transmission electron microscope, a catalysis research facility and an MRI facility were also proposed. SSRL and SLAC proposed two facilities - the LCLS (talk given by John Galayda) and the LCLS-II (talk given by Jerry Hastings on an upgrade of LCLS beyond its baseline configuration that would begin in around 2012). Representatives of SSRL, APS and NSLS also assembled a concept for a "Green Field Free-Electron Laser" that might be constructed at some time in the 2015-2020 timeframe and a talk on this GFEL was presented by Kwang-Je Kim.
In closed session, the Subcommittee rated proposals in terms of scientific justification and readiness for construction. The LCLS Project received the highest possible rating and this should play an important role in helping keep LCLS on its current schedule that calls for first light in 2007 and project completion in 2008. Plans for LCLS II (upgrade and expansion of LCLS) were also favorably reviewed though it was clearly recognized that early experience with LCLS itself will be crucial to planning any future US investment/expansion in hard x-ray free electron laser facilities. The Subcommittee also expressed strong support for accelerator R&D as it is key enabling technology for BES core missions and stated that it is essential to attract and educate students in accelerator science and technology disciplines. The report of the Subcommittee is in preparation, and will be finalized soon. Sunil Sinha made the summary presentation of the Subcommittee findings to the full February 24-26 BESAC meeting and the recommendations will be forwarded to Dr. Ray Orbach, Director of the DOE Office of Science. This presentation may be found at: http://www.sc.doe.gov/production/bes/BESAC/BESAC_Sinha_Richmond_02-25-03.ppt. Further information on LCLS, including the two written documents on LCLS and LCLS-II presented to the Subcommittee, may be found on the SSRL WWW site at: http://www-ssrl.slac.stanford.edu/lcls/besac_subpanel_FEB2003.html
5. SSRL Welcomes Two New Staff Scientists
(contact: Jo Stöhr)
We are happy to announce that Mike Toney and Uwe Bergmann have joined the SSRL scientific staff. This considerably strengthens SSRL's program in hard x-ray science. Before coming to SSRL, Mike was a research staff member at the IBM Almaden Research Laboratory for almost twenty years. He brings with him extensive experience in x-ray as well as neutron scattering techniques and has worked at several synchrotron radiation laboratories, in particular, the NSLS. His research at IBM concentrated on structural studies of surfaces, interfaces and thin films, spanning a broad range of materials such as polymers, electrochemical solid/liquid interfaces and magnetic thin films. Uwe also has extensive x-ray experience and has carried out research at several synchrotron radiation laboratories. In the mid nineties he spent two years at the ESRF working in the area of inelastic x-ray scattering. More recently he has been employed in the Physical Biosciences Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. His research interests have included the development of resonant x-ray techniques and the use of x-ray absorption, x-ray emission, and x-ray Raman scattering for the study of metalloproteins, various hydrocarbons and more recently liquids.
6. NIGMS Site Review of JCSG
(contacts: Linda Brinen,
Ashley Deacon)
The Joint Center for Structural Genomics (JCSG), one of nine pilot project centers funded by the NIH/NIGMS Protein Structure Initiative, had its first site visit on February 21, 2003. NIGMS review committees visited each of the nine centers during the months of January and February in order to review progress made in the first two and half years of the funded pilot period. Members of the site visit committee included Brian Matthews, Chair (University of Oregon), David Davies (NIH), Anthony Kossiakoff (University of Chicago), Rowena Matthews (University of Michigan), Chris Sandler (Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center) and NIGMS staff observers Helen Sunshine, John Norvell and Jiayin Li.
JCSG's site visit took place at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) in La Jolla, California, where the Administrative Core and part of the Crystallomics Core of JCSG are centered. The rest of Crystallomics and the BioInformatics Cores of JCSG are also centered at nearby institutions in La Jolla. The Structure Determination Core, centered at SSRL, was represented by Keith Hodgson, Linda Brinen and Ashley Deacon who gave an overview of accomplishments to date, an animated presentation of the screening-data collection-structure solution process and the plan for continued work within the SDC Core. While the final outcome of the site visit review will not be known for some time, the presentations made by JCSG members seemed well received by the NIGMS committee.
7. R&D Discussions on Superconducting
Undulators
(contacts: Jim Welch,
John Galayda)
R&D for Short Period Superconducting Undulators for Light Sources was the topic of a collaboration meeting held February 5-7, 2003, at SSRL by participants from SLAC (SSRL), APS, BNL and LBL. This recently formed collaboration is working together to solve the long-term and common ground problems associated with the development of this technology. On the agenda was a review of the state-of-the-art, examples of the promise of superconducting undulators as a significant upgrade well beyond the capabilities of in-vacuum permanent magnet undulators, and a detailed discussion of the critical R&D issues. The timeliness of the subject and the fact that this was the first face-to-face meeting of the collaboration made the event most productive and exciting.
8. SRI Abstracts
(contact: sri03@lbl.gov)
The Eighth International Conference on Synchrotron Radiation Instrumentation (SRI 2003) will be held August 25-29, 2003, at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, California. The conference, sponsored by the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory and the ALS, will feature an exciting and comprehensive program covering new developments in synchrotron radiation sources and free electron lasers at photon energies from infrared to hard x-rays, beam line instrumentation and experimental techniques.
Monday, March 3, 2003 is the deadline to submit abstracts from which oral presentations will be selected. Submission instructions and the abstract submission form are available at: http://www.sri2003. lbl.gov/html/abstracts.html.
Tuesday, June 3, 2003 is the deadline for early registration. Visit the SRI 2003 Web page for the preliminary program; online registration; and for additional information on the meeting site, accommodations, travel tips, tourist links, and a companion sightseeing program.
At the direction of the Secretary of Energy, SLAC will operate at Security
Level 2 until we receive further guidance from the DOE. Everyone entering the
site is required to show photo ID. You are requested to have your SLAC badges
ready to display as you approach the entry gates in order to minimize traffic
back-ups. During this increased security alert, we ask everyone to exercise
extra vigilance and care at the lab and to report any unusual activity or
occurrences to SLAC Security at 926-2551.
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 S ciences. Additional information about SSRL and its operation and schedules is available from the SSRL WWW site.
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