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May 15, 2013
New findings by researchers carrying out experiments at the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science’s Advanced Photon Source help explain why some drugs that interact with two kinds of human serotonin receptors have had unexpectedly complex and sometimes harmful effects.
April 30, 2013
Art historians have long supposed that Pablo Picasso employed ordinary house paint, in place of conventional artists' paints, in some of his artwork. A recent collaborative effort between the Art Institute of Chicago and two Argonne National Laboratory research facilities utilized twenty-first century research to demonstrate conclusively that pigment from one of Pablo Picasso's paintings was indeed derived from a common house paint of the era in which he created the art work.
April 25, 2013
Observing the evolution of a particular type of antibody in an HIV-infected patient has provided insights that will enable vaccination strategies that mimic antibody development within the body, thanks to a multi-institution study carried out at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory and Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Laboratory
April 15, 2013
Scientists utilizing a variety of spectroscopic techniques to probe the catalysis process, including x-ray absorption spectroscopy at the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science’s Advanced Photon Source, reported progress in revealing previously unknown mechanistic details about blue dimer’s water oxidation reaction, which may result in cost-effect, practical, and sustainable alternative energy sources.
April 11, 2013
A major breakthrough in measuring the structure of nanomaterials under extremely high pressures has been achieved by researchers carrying out experiments at the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science’s Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Laboratory. Their method for avoiding the distortions of high-energy x-ray beams utilized to image the structure of a gold nanocrystal could lead to new nanomaterials created under high pressures and a greater understanding of what happens in planetary interiors.
April 9, 2013
A breakthrough that could eventually help researchers develop new treatments for early-aging diseases and redesign AIDS medications to avoid side effects such as diabetes is the result of research was carried out at the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science’s Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Laboratory.
April 2, 2013
Electrodes based on “conversion chemistry” have the potential to double energy storage capacities compared to electrodes in existing lithium-ion batteries, but the electrochemical reactions giving rise to this improved performance remain a mystery. Scientists utilizing the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science’s Advanced Photon Source at Argonne investigating the fundamental basis for the performance advantage gained new element-specific insights that represent significant milestones in understanding electrochemical reactions in battery electrodes and in the experimental tools available to investigate such reactions.
March 14, 2013
Discovering how living things absorb and convert light energy into a form that can change the molecules involved in such processes would not only help scientists understand them, but could lead to ways to mimic such processes for more efficient solar energy conversion, for instance. A clearer understanding of how light can drive biological processes has emerged from x-ray diffraction studies carried out on beamlines at the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science’s Advanced Photon Source and the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, helping shed a brighter light on some of life's most critical processes.
March 14, 2013
For decades, biochemists and biophysicists have worked to reveal the relationship between protein structural complexity and function, only to discover more complexity. They relied on freeze-trapping to capture protein intermediates at various steps along a biochemical pathway. Now a research group has developed the necessary infrastructure at the BioCARS beamline at the Argonne Advanced Photon Source to watch proteins function in real time on the picosecond time scale. Their work brings us many steps closer to knowing how proteins function, or malfunction when leading to disease.
March 12, 2013
Researchers utilized the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science’s Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Laboratory, as well as the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, to study the rare-earth magnetic material europium titanate. In a magnetic field, the (near) optical properties of this material change quite dramatically, presenting hope of a strong magneto-electric material often dreamed of by engineers for use in combining magnetic and charge parameters for many memory, processing, and sensor devices.
March 1, 2013
Researchers utilizing Advanced Photon Source x-rays have developed a new model of how sound waves travel through iron and iron-silicon alloys. Their results suggest that the amount of light elements in the inner core of the Earth could be two times more than estimated in previous studies.
February 20, 2013
Light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are known for their energy efficiency and durability. But the bluish, cold light of current white LEDs has precluded their widespread use for indoor lighting. Now, with a critical assist from the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science’s Advanced Photon Source, scientists have fabricated what is thought to be the world's first LED that emits a warm white light utilizing a single light-emitting material, or phosphor, with a single emitting center for illumination.
February 11, 2012
Thanks to implementation of a high-repetition-rate, high-power laser system at the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science’s Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Lsboratory, it has become possible to study light-induced intramolecular processes and solvent interactions in rapidly evolving molecular systems.
February 8, 2013
Researchers from Argonne National Laboratory and Northern Illinois University have shown that the ultrafast x-ray spectroscopy technique employed at a high-brightness x-ray light source such as the Argonne Advanced Photon Source can produce valuable new information about the physics underlying photoexcitation.
February 8, 2013
Research at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Photon Source and Center for Nanoscale Materials that adds to our understanding of the way light interacts with multiferroics represents an important step toward the development of future electronic devices.
January 22, 2013
Thanks to the efforts of a research team from Eli Lilly and Company, with the help of the Lilly Research Laboratories Collaborative Access Team x-ray beamline at the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science’s Advanced Photon Source, the structure of an important methylation enzyme is now known. The results of this research can be utilized to provide new direction and focus in the race to create drugs to combat disease, especially cancer.
January 21, 2013
Exactly how hot is the center of the Earth? Apparently hotter than we had thought, according to new investigations by researchers working at the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science’s Advanced Photon Source.
January 7, 2013
Utilizing high-brightness Advanced Photon Source x-rays, researchers with the Illinois Institute of Technology viewed the actions of an antibody targeted toward the proteoglycan biglycan — one of a group of polysaccharide-protein conjugates present in connective tissue and cartilage — that may help illustrate the underlying pathology of rheumatoid arthritis.
December 10, 2012
Unraveling the complexities of spin-orbital coupling could someday lead to new high-temperature superconductors and workable quantum computers via an elusive phase of matter called a “quantum spin liquid.” Two groups of researchers utilizing x-ray beamlines at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Photon are delving into the new physics required to develop just such a material.
November 30, 2012
The key to developing a better and more efficient battery technology may lie in designing and building batteries not from the top down, but from the bottom up — beginning at the nanoscale. A team of researchers has taken such an approach by developing titanium dioxide (TiO2) electrodes that can actually improve their own electrochemical performance as they are used.
November 20, 2012
The human enterovirus 71 (or EV71) can, in infants and young children, cause polio-like paralysis and fatal encephalitis. The virus is now considered an emerging threat to public health. By unveiling the crystal structure of EV71, researchers working at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Photon Source have taken the essential first step in finding ways to prevent the virus from creating fatal disease, providing strong impetus for therapeutics and drug design to prevent and cure EV71 infection.
November 19, 2012
The nucleic acid RNA is an essential part of the critical process by which the cells in our bodies manufacture proteins. Utilizing the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Photon Source, researchers investigated the unique folding behavior of ribozyme, which is an RNA that acts as a catalyst. Their work provides a path for predicting the structures of newly discovered noncoding RNAs, and will ultimately enhance understanding of how noncoding RNAs take on important biological functions.
November 15, 2012
In many physical processes, substances undergo phase transitions, where they are transformed from one state (solid, liquid, or gas) to another. Utilizing the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Photon Source, researchers investigated interactions between engineered multivalent substances. Understanding this research will be important in guiding future studies to further evaluate the role of phase transitions in biological systems.
November 12, 2012
Research at the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science’s Advanced Photon Source provides new insights about a material that might form the basis for an alternative to conventional silicon-based semiconductor technology.
November 9, 2012
Research at the Argonne Advanced Photon Source has shown that by using complex oxides with correlated electrons confined to quantum well geometry, a new dimension can be added to the mix, moving us closer to everyday electronics that become smaller and faster than they are today.
October 9, 2012
A method for neutralizing influenza B viruses has been discovered by researchers working at the Argonne Advanced Photon Source and two other U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science synchrotron light sources. Their breakthrough results pave the way for development of a universal vaccine for all influenza A and B viruses.
October 10, 2012
The reliability and longevity of electronics is critical to our world that is dependent upon Internet and telecommunications technology. Research at the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science’s Advanced Photon is bringing new information about thermal fatigue in environmentally friendly, lead-free solder joints. These insights bring scientists a step closer to developing useful models for making reliability predictions about solder-joint failure in this important new material.
September 24, 2012
Technologies such as microelectronics and lithography require nanoscale polymer films that sit on other materials. An understanding of the interplay between the dynamics of thin film and underlying substrate is crucial in determining the appropriate materials to be utilized for new and improved applications. Experiments at the Argonne Advanced Photon Source provide important new insights about thin polymer films on various substrates.
September 11, 2012
Drug resistance has become an increasing problem in the treatment of tuberculosis, posing a significant challenge for combating a disease that has been a leading cause of death worldwide for more than 5,000 years. Utilizing the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science’s Advanced Photon Source, researchers unlocked the secrets of a protein that plays an important role in tuberculosis’s multidrug resistance, helping guide future research toward new ways of controlling this disease.
September 7, 2012
Metals such as copper, zinc, and iron are important nutrients and are technologically useful. More than one-third of all proteins are thought to bind metals, so knowing which metals are bound and how that binding changes in response to the environment could have big implications. Researchers working at the Argonne Advanced Photon Source developed a new experimental approach that helps researchers identify which proteins bind metals and what roles they play in life.
August 27, 2012
Researchers working at U.S. Department of Energy facilities at Argonne National Laboratory including the Advanced Photon Source, have synthesized and characterized monodisperse gold-core silver-shell nanoparticles using a bio-template that has potential as a water soluble catalyst for creating fuel from biomass such as dead trees, branches and tree stumps, yard clippings, wood chips, and even municipal solid waste.
August 21, 2012
Researchers from Argonne National Laboratory, Brookhaven National Laboratory, and Nanjing University have demonstrated the principles of a novel and advanced design of x-ray Fabry-Perot resonators, which are shown illustrated to have extremely high finesse, sharp tails, and ultrahigh contrast and can achieve unprecedented high resolution and (temporal) coherence, for use with hard x-rays at large incidence angles.
August 14, 2012
Hydrogen is a clean fuel, but how can we generate hydrogen in large quantities and in a “green” fashion? One way is biological photosynthesis, which includes an efficient reaction step that splits water into hydrogen and oxygen with the help of certain catalysts. Working at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Laboratory, a team of Argonne scientists has determined the structure of one such catalyst, a complex cobalt oxide.
August 9, 2012
New techniques for imaging with unprecedented detail and resolution the complex, tree-like branching nature of neuronal networks have been developed by researchers utilizing by the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science’s Advanced Photon Source, opening the door to three-dimensional tomographic reconstructions, a vital tool for studying the brain and nervous system.
August 2, 2012
Nature makes science fun by never failing to surprise. The bond-valence model has for years been used to relate the number of nearest neighbors of the central atom of a molecule or crystal and the interatomic distances between the atoms to the valence state. Now research at the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science’s Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Laboratory shows that gaining valence information requires a lot more work when it comes to mixed-valence systems.
July 6, 2012
The workings of a molecular switch that activates plant hormones, tags them for storage, or marks them for destruction have been revealed by an international collaboration of researchers carrying out experiments at the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science’s Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Laboratory.
June 25, 2012
The field of organofluorine chemistry has been shaken up by the findings of a research team whose experiments at two U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science facilities including the Advanced Photon Source are challenging some long-held theoretical assumptions.
June 18, 2012
Proteins that are found in nature, but do not normally bind the influenza virus, can be engineered to act as broad-spectrum antiviral agents against a variety of flu virus strains, including the H1N1 pandemic influenza, according to research at the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science’s Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Laboratory.
June 14, 2012
In biological systems, membranes are as important as water. They form the barrier between our cells, where we perform the chemical reactions of life, and the outside environment. New research at the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science’s Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Laboratory promises to change the way we think about lipid-protein interactions and to open new avenues for the study of important membrane-driven processes.
May 18, 2012
What makes bird feathers so colorful? Research at the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science’s Advanced Photon Source reveals the complex three-dimensional nanostructures responsible for non-iridescent colors in bird feathers. These nanostructures could serve as a source of new photonic devices such as remote controls, optical data recorders, and much more.
May 16, 2012
Multiferroics have attracted increased interest due to their potential use in technologies such as improved electronic memory chips and highly sensitive magnetic field sensors. Researchers utilizing the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science’s Advanced Photon Source at Argonne have unmasked the exact source of the purported ferroelectric behavior in a multiferroic material of great technological interest, overturning the conventional wisdom.
May 8, 2012
A team of physicists employed high-energy x-rays from the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science’s Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Laboratory to penetrate the everyday mystery of a splash, revealing previously hidden structures and dynamics.
