Covalent Bonding in Actinide Sandwich Molecules STXM studies have revealed unexpected bonding interactions in two key organometallic actinide “sandwich” complexes, which are vital as industrial or bioinorganic catalysts and as precursors for nanomaterial synthesis. Differences in their covalent bonding could profoundly affect their chemical and physical properties. Read more…   Contact: Stefan Minasian New ALSRead More Read more »

Research Finds Vitamin D Deficiency Affects Bone Quality A team of researchers working at the ALS has found that vitamin D deficiency plays a significant role in the bone-aging process, reducing bone quality and increasing fracture susceptibility. Read more…   Contact: Bjorn Busse Evidence for a Weak Iron Core at Earth’s Center High-pressure x-ray spectroscopyRead More Read more »

Twist Solves Bilayer Graphene Mystery Researchers have discovered a new twist to the story of bilayer graphene, solving a mystery that has held back device development. In stacking graphene monolayers, subtle misalignments create an almost imperceptible twist between the layers that can have surprisingly strong effects on electronic properties. Read more…   Contact: Aaron BostwickRead More Read more »

High-Pressure MOF Research Yields Structural Insights Metal-organic frameworks have shown promise in a variety of applications ranging from gas storage to ion exchange. Accurate structural knowledge is key to the understanding of the applicability of these materials; to learn more, researchers used ALS Beamline 11.3.1 to perform in situ, high-pressure, single-crystal x-ray diffraction. Read more…Read More Read more »

Celebrating Success and Looking Forward in Challenging Times ALS Director Roger Falcone took some time recently to reflect on the scientific and engineering accomplishments at the ALS while facing up to some of the challenges of the coming year. A difficult fiscal environment that features significant cuts in national scientific funding means that the ALSRead More Read more »

The Molecular Ingenuity of a Unique Fish Scale ALS research has shown how the scales of a freshwater fish found in the Amazon Basin can literally reorient themselves in real time to resist force, in essence creating an adaptable body armor. Read more…   Contact: Robert O. Ritchie Ring Leader: Musa Ahmed, Chemical Sciences Division InRead More Read more »

2013 ALS User Meeting Highlights More than 400 users and staff attended this year’s User Meeting, which kicked off Monday, October 7, with a welcome from Users’ Executive Committee Chair Corie Ralston and Berkeley Lab Director Paul Alivisatos. Attendees enjoyed a full program of keynote speakers, science highlights, workshops, a historical overview, facility updates, aRead More Read more »

Countdown to 2013 ALS User Meeting: October 7-9 There is still time to register online for this year’s ALS User Meeting.  With 4 keynote talks [James Murphy (DOE), Michael Eisen (UC Berkeley), James Krupnick (LBNL), and Jamie Cate (UC Berkeley)], 6 science highlights, 13 workshops, and 27 exhibitors, we are breaking all sorts of meeting records.Read More Read more »

A Spintronic Semiconductor with Selectable Charge Carriers Researchers found a semiconductor with two properties crucial for spintronics: a large Rashba effect (splitting of degenerate spin states) and ambipolarity (conduction via electrons and holes). Furthermore, it is possible to control whether the charge carriers are electrons or holes by engineering the surface layer. Read more… Contact: LucaRead More Read more »