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How Water Promotes Catalysis of Methane to Methanol

Researchers unraveled how water helps catalyze the conversion of methane, the main component of natural gas, into methanol, a liquid fuel. The work supports the efficient production of methanol and other useful chemicals and could help reduce the amount of greenhouse gases released by the flaring and venting of methane. Read more »PPT-icon-35 PDF-icon-35

Rotavirus VP3 Is a Multifunctional Capping Machine

Rotavirus, a major cause of infantile gastroenteritis, is responsible for the deaths of about 200,000 children per year. Although vaccines are available, the virus still circulates, and a fuller understanding of the viral structures is needed. Here, scientists investigate the structure and function of the last unsolved rotavirus structural protein. Read more »

Artificial Antiferromagnets Facilitate Studies of Domain-Wall Motion

Researchers fabricated artificial spin lattices that undergo a paramagnetic-to-antiferromagnetic phase transition. These artificial antiferromagnets enable studies of dynamical properties that are critical to understanding, and ultimately implementing, real-world applications such as advanced computing and data-storage technologies. Read more »

2020 Shirley Award to Honor Miquel Salmeron

By taking surface studies from ultrahigh vacuum to near-ambient pressure, Miquel Salmeron’s work at the ALS has had deep impact on a broad range of scientific questions, revealing the chemical, electronic, and mechanical properties of surfaces and interfaces on the nanometer (and often atomic) scale. Read more »

Evaluation of Free Energy Calculations for the Prioritization of Macrocycle Synthesis

Free energy perturbation methods represent a paradigm shift in drug discovery, where computational methods inform benchtop activities. Macrocycles are highly constrained molecules, often resulting in nonintuitive structure–activity relationships requiring lengthy synthetic routes. Free energy perturbation methods can be used to predict potency, guiding synthetic chemistry efforts to de-risk complex synthesis. Read more »

X-Rays Recount Origin of Oddball Meteorites

Reconstructions of 3D patterns of magnetic orientation imprinted in rare meteorites helped resolve questions about their origins. Known as type IIE iron meteorites, they appear to have originated from a parent body that had a composition featuring both fully melted and unmelted parts—other meteorite types display only one composition. Read more »

COSMIC Probes Evolution of Single-Atom Platinum Catalyst

Researchers synthesized a single-atom platinum catalyst that outperformed, by a factor of 15, conventional platinum-based catalysts, which are used for fuel cells and automotive emissions control. Operando x-ray spectromicroscopy at the ALS’s COSMIC beamline revealed how electronic interactions affect the material’s morphology. Read more »

Antiferromagnet Transmits Coherent Spin Waves

Researchers discovered how pure spin currents (also known as spin waves) can be efficiently and coherently transmitted through an electrically insulating antiferromagnetic material. The work represents a notable milestone in the use of antiferromagnetic materials for low-power spintronic devices at room temperature. Read more »PPT-icon-35 PDF-icon-35