Skip to main content

ALS

Home / News

All News & Updates

Winter 2022 Shutdown Recap

The main driver for the recent shutdown (January to early March) was preparing the storage ring wall for the installation of the ALS-U accumulator ring. Check out the video of all the projects that took place during this shutdown. Read more »

Dynamic Measurements of Antiferromagnetically Aligned Spins

Researchers developed a technique that enables time-resolved, direct detection of spin currents in either ferromagnetic or antiferromagnetic materials at GHz frequencies. Studying the dynamic properties of antiferromagnetic spintronic effects could lead to greater stability and faster intrinsic switching speeds compared to conventional spintronics. Read more »

ALS Doctoral & Postdoctoral Fellowship Applications Open May 6

ALS Doctoral and Postdoctoral Fellowships allow researchers to spend a year in residence at Berkeley Lab working at the frontier of synchrotron radiation research and helping advance state-of-the-art techniques and applications. The next application cycle will be open May 6–June 6, 2022. Read more »

Key to Coral Resilience Is Faster Skeletal Crystallization

In a new study, researchers show that the crystallization rate of coral skeletons differs across species and is correlated with their resilience to ocean acidification. The results have implications for predicting coral reef survival and developing mitigation strategies against having their bony skeletons weakened by ocean acidification. Read more »

A Novel Insulating State Emerges in a 2D Material

Researchers found a unique insulating state in an atomically thin material, driven by the combined effects of lattice–charge interactions and atomic-bond formation. The work provides a better understanding of charge ordering in two-dimensional materials and opens up new possibilities for achieving designer electronic properties. Read more »PPT-icon-35 PDF-icon-35

Newly Discovered Bacterial Enzyme Produces Useful Biopolymer

Researchers identified a bacterial enzyme that produces a novel biopolymer. The polymer, dubbed acholetin, is a chain of sugar molecules known as a polysaccharide. Acholetin is similar in structure to chitin, the major component of insect exoskeletons, and holds promise as a useful biomaterial because of its biodegradability and biocompatibility. Read more »

Structural organization of the spongy mesophyll

Many leaves have two layers of photosynthetic tissue: the palisade and spongy mesophyll. The latter is not well characterized and often treated as a random assemblage of irregularly shaped cells. These results show that simple principles may govern the organization and scaling of the spongy mesophyll in many plants and demonstrate the presence of structural patterns associated with leaf function. Read more »