Science Highlights

Approximately 1,700 scientists visit SSRL annually to conduct experiments in broad disciplines including life sciences, materials, environmental science, and accelerator physics. Science highlights featured here and in our monthly newsletter, Headlines, increase the visibility of user science as well as the important contribution of SSRL in facilitating basic and applied scientific research. Many of these scientific highlights have been included in reports to funding agencies and have been picked up by other media. Users are strongly encouraged to contact us when exciting results are about to be published. We can work with users and the SLAC Office of Communication to develop the story and to communicate user research findings to a much broader audience. 

Science Highlight Archive Science Highlight Banner Images

Crystal Structure of an Anthrax Toxin -Host Cell Receptor Complex

Figure 1b.

X-ray images have revealed how anthrax hijacks important cell machinery to enter and destroy human cells.

BL9-2

Investigations to Identify the Soluble, Non-pertechnetate Species in the High-level Nuclear Waste at the Hanford Site

Figure 1

The Hanford nuclear waste site in southeastern Washington State is one of the most contaminated sites in the DOE complex.

BL4-1

A New Groove for the Helix-Turn-Helix Motif: Crystal Structures of the Human DNA Repair Protein AGT Bound to DNA

Figure 1

Error-free DNA replication depends on the maintenance of the correct chemical structure of each component base.

BL9-1

Side-on Cu-Nitrosyl Coordination by Nitrite Reductase

Figure 1

Nitric oxide (NO) is a small but powerful biologically active molecule that can protect or destroy cells.

BL7-1

Resurrecting the Dead - Structural Analysis of Hemagglutinin from the 1918 Influenza Pandemic Strain

Figure 1

Researchers have literally unearthed clues as to why the 1918 influenza pandemic was so deadly.

BL9-2

Understanding the Role of Thiolate Ligation in Nature's Hydroxylating Heme Enzymes

Chloroperoxidase is one of a large class of heme proteins that play important roles in a number of physiological processes, including xenobiotic metabolism, neurological development, blood pressure control, and immune defense.

BL7-3

Nanoparticles: Strained and Stiff

Extremely small pieces of a material aren't always a chip off a bigger block. How nanomaterials behave is tremendously important to know when trying to understand the roles of mineral nanoparticles in the environment, or design devices for nanotechnology.

BL1-4

Remembrance of Things Past

Figure 1

New evidence is overturning the assumption that the thermal oxide grown on single crystal silicon is completely amorphous.

Crystal Structures of Anthrax Toxin Lethal Factor Bound to an Optimized Substrate and Candidate Small Molecule Inhibitors

Figure 1

Anthrax makes a deadly cocktail of three toxin proteins that flood the bloodstream, leading to rapid death if the infection is not diagnosed and treated in its early stages.

BL7-1

Speed Limit of Magnetic Recording

Figure 1

Two important goals of technology are: smaller and faster.

Collaborate on Science Highlights

We can work with users and the SLAC Office of Communication to develop the story and to communicate user research findings to a much broader audience. 

SSRL User Office