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Unwinding a Quadruple Helix

The double helix is not the only structure formed by DNA and RNA. Guanine-rich DNA and RNA sequences can fold into quadruple-helix structures called G-quadruplexes. Recently, researchers visualized the unfolding of a G-quadruplex by a protein called DHX36, gaining valuable insight into a potential target for drug development. Read more »

Miscibility–Function Relations in Organic Solar Cells: Significance of Optimal Miscibility in Relation to Percolation

In this article, Ye et al. present the determination of liquidus miscibility and its temperature dependence of organic films by scanning transmission x‐ray microscopy and outline an approach to convert liquidus miscibility to an effective Flory‐Huggins interaction parameter χ, which will pave a way to predict morphology and processing strategies of polymer solar cells. Read more »

ALS-U Project Receives CD-1 Approval

The ALS Upgrade (ALS-U) project has received federal approval (CD-1) to proceed with preliminary design, planning, and R&D work. This major upgrade will boost the brightness and coherent flux of ALS soft x-ray beams at least a hundredfold, enabling transformative science that cannot be performed on any existing or planned light source in the world. Read more »

Mike Martin and Hendrik Ohldag Named 2018 APS Fellows

Two ALS scientists have been named Fellows of the American Physical Society. Mike Martin, a senior scientist and operations lead for the Photon Science Group is recognized “for the advancement of synchrotron infrared spectroscopy including the development of synchrotron infrared nanospectroscopy and 3D FTIR tomography.” Hendrik Ohldag, a staff scientist who joined the ALS earlier this month, is recognized “for contributions to unique insight into complex magnetic materials with unprecedented spatial and temporal resolution using novel x-ray techniques.” Read more »

Final Registration Reminder for the ALS User Meeting, October 2-4

Online registration for this year’s User Meeting closes Thursday, September 27. This year’s event features an exciting new format designed especially with students and early career scientists in mind. We will also celebrate the ALS’s 25th anniversary with retrospective talks about how the ALS was built and how our science has evolved over time. Read more »

Ordered Magnetic Patterns in a Disordered Magnetic Material

Scientists have confirmed the presence of chirality, or handedness, in nanometers-thick samples of amorphous (noncrystalline) multilayer materials. The chirality—which potentially could be exploited to transmit and store data in a new way—was observed in the domain walls between neighboring regions of opposite spin. Read more »

Pupa Gilbert to Receive the 2018 Shirley Award

Pupa Gilbert, professor of physics at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, is the 2018 recipient of the David A. Shirley Award for Outstanding Scientific Achievement at the ALS, “for her development of polarization-dependent imaging contrast mapping to image the orientation of carbonate nanocrystals in marine biominerals.” 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 »