Greenhouse gases cause the rising global temperatures associated with climate change. At the ALS, researchers have determined that palladium/zirconium catalysts can reduce greenhouse gases like methane and carbon dioxide by converting them into useful fuel. Read more »
2018 User Meeting Photo Gallery
Photos from the ALS User Meeting October 2–4, 2018. Read more »
UEC Update from the 2018 User Meeting
Contact: Will Chueh, UEC Chair One of the main goals of the Users’ Executive Committee (UEC) this year was to act on the feedback received from participants in last year’s User Meeting. This year’s meeting chairs, Jennifer Ciezak-Jenkins, Alex Frañó, and Michael Jacobs, and the rest of the UEC worked hard to enhance the annualRead More Read more »
Antibody Therapy for Autoimmune Diseases
The balance between two types of white blood cells is disrupted in autoimmune diseases. Using protein crystallography, scientists have identified a human antibody that locks interleukin-2, a signaling protein, in a conformation that preferentially activates one cell type to restore the balance and treat autoimmune diseases. Read more »
ALS in the News (October 2018)
- Congress accelerates work on long-awaited light and neutron source upgrades
- With toxin, bacteria prove old dogs can learn new tricks
- Creating more sustainable water systems by taking lessons from the energy industry
- Scientists present new clues to cut through the mystery of Titan’s atmospheric haze
- Lab connections to 2018 Nobel Prize winners
- To change a catalyst’s electrochemical properties, just “shuffle”
- Scenes from ‘A New Light for Berkeley Lab’ celebration
Bob Gassaway Receives 2018 Tim Renner User Services Award
Bob Gassaway was awarded the 2018 Tim Renner User Services Award for his longstanding commitment to simultaneously supporting the ALS user community and advancing electrical safety at the ALS. Gassaway is an electronics engineering technologist who has been at Berkeley Lab for 30 years. Read more »
Noah Schwartz, User Office Supervisor
Noah Schwartz has worked at Berkeley Lab for 13 years, joining the ALS as User Services Office Supervisor in August. He jumped right in to help plan the User Meeting in October and will continue to work to improve the overall user experience. Read more »
Alex Hexemer, Senior Scientist and Computing Program Lead
Alex Hexemer leads the newly formed Computing Program at the ALS. His previous experience as a postdoc and beamline scientist at the ALS has prepared him for the challenges and opportunities in computing for high volumes of data. Read more »
Nanoscale Characterization of Iron and Calcium in the Alzheimer’s Brain
The amyloid plaques that accumulate in Alzheimer’s disease contain stores of iron. Using scanning transmission x-ray microscopy, researchers have characterized the iron’s chemical states in unprecedented detail. Their nanoscale analysis revealed excessive chemical reduction of the iron, which can release damaging free radicals. Read more »
New Manganese Materials Bolster Cathode Capacity
The most expensive component of a battery, the cathode, requires rare transition metals like cobalt. Previous attempts to replace cobalt with inexpensive and non-toxic manganese delivered insufficient performance. Now, researchers have optimized the composition of high-energy-density, high-capacity manganese-based cathodes. Read more »
