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

Panoramic Holography: Toward a Single Shot Stopwatch

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Panoramic images are captivating in any form, with their wide field of view and extremely high resolution.

BL13-3

A New Mechanism of Charge Density Wave Discovered in Transition Metal Dichalcogenides

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Using SSRL's beam line 5-4, researchers from Fudan University in Shanghai and SSRL have worked out the mechanism behind the formation of charge density waves in 2H-structured transitio

BL5-4

More Evidence for a Revolutionary Theory of Water

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The traditional picture of how liquid water behaves on a molecular level is wrong, according to new experimental evidence collected by a collaboration of researchers from the Department o

Determination of Band Offsets between the High-k Dielectric LaAlO3 Film and the In0.53Ga0.47As Substrate

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Researchers working in part at SSRL Beam Lines 8-1 and 10-1 recently characterized the band offsets in a

BL8-1

Understanding Thin Film Structure for the Rational Design of High-Performance Organic Semiconductors for Plastic Electronics

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Using SSRL Beam Lines 11-3 and 10-1, a team of researchers including SSRL scientists Mike Toney and Jan Lüning (now at Université Pierre et Marie Curie), and Stanford University researchers, gra

BL10-1

Structure of the TGF-β Receptor Complex Reveals Evolutionary Adaptations that have Led to Diversification of Function within the Superfamily

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TGF-beta is the founding member of a large family of biological molecules important in regulating cellular growth and

BL11-1

In situ Observation of Sulfur in Living Mammalian Cells: Uptake of Taurine into MDCK Cells

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Sulfur is essential for life, playing important roles in metabolism and protein structure and function.

BL6-2

X-ray Diffuse Scattering Measurements of Nucleation Dynamics at Femtosecond Resolution

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The process of melting has long been of interest to scientists.

Snapshots of the IL-4 Receptor Ternary Complexes: An Opportunity to Visualize the Basis of Cytokine Receptor Pleiotropy in the Immune System

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Stanford University School of Medicine scientists working in part at SSRL's Beam Line 11-1 have uncovered new molecula

BL11-1

Ferroelectric Self-assembled PbTiO3 Perovskite Nanostructures onto (100)SrTiO3 Substrates from a Novel Microemulsion-aided Sol-Gel Preparation

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BL11-3

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