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

The Structure of the First Coordination Shell in Liquid Water

Figure 1

In ice, each water molecule is surrounding by 4 other molecules in a tetrahedral arrangement (left). The new result on liquid water shows that the molecules are connected only with 2 others.

Fighting Antibiotic Resistance: The dapE-encoded N-succinyl-L,L-Diaminopimelic Acid Desuccinylase from Haemophilus influenzae is a Dinuclear Metallohydrolase

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Antibiotics and the bacteria they attack are engaged in a constant race to out-evolve one another.

BL9-3

Chromium Speciation and Mobility in a High Level Nuclear Waste Vadose Zone Plume

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Toxic and carcinogenic chromate (hexavalent chromium as CrO42-) has contaminated the groundwater in Hanford, Washington.

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The Inner Workings of RNA Polymerase: How Genetic Information is Transcribed

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The Emittance Spoiler Foil: A Simple Method to Produce Femtosecond and Sub-Femtosecond X-ray Pulses from a SASE-Based Free-Electron Laser

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Computer simulations have shown that by using a cleverly placed piece of slotted foil, the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) will be able to produce brilliant x-ray pulses that are extremely

The Crystal Structure of a-Thrombin in Complex with Platelet Glycoprotein (GP) Iba

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When a blood vessel is cut, the body activates a repair mechanism that eventually seals the cut and prevents further blood loss.

BL9-2

Structure of Actin Cross-linked with a-Actinin: Bundles

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With the completion of the Human Genome Project and the emerging proteomics era, the biosciences community is beginning the daunting task of understanding the structures

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Remediation of Uranium-contaminated Ground Water at Fry Canyon, Utah

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A new technology that acts like a giant underground filter is successfully beginning to clean up the uranium contaminating an aquifer in a remote Utah canyon.

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Converting Methane to Methanol: Structural Insight into the Reaction Center of Particulate Methane Monooxygenase

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A team headed by Timothy Stemmler of Wayne State University's School of Medicine and Amy Rosenzweig at Northwestern University, has isolated a new form of a bacterial enzyme that efficientl

BL7-3

Synchrotron Mesodiffraction: A Tool for Understanding Turbine Engine Foreign Object Damage

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Aircraft turbine engines are prone to ingesting pebbles and other debris that can damage jet engine fan blades, dramatically reducing the longevity of the components - sometimes catastrophically

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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