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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.
