Building a Gated-Access Fast Lane for Ions April 25, 2025 - In organic conductors where charge is carried by both electrons and ions, scientists have discovered a way to make the ions move more than ten times faster than in comparable ion-tranport methods. The results could apply to a host of areas, including improved battery charging, biosensing, soft robotics, and neuromorphic computing. Read more »
Deep-Dive Inspection of a Molecular Assembly Line April 21, 2025 - By locking down certain movable parts of a modular drug-building protein, researchers learned new details about how carrier proteins transfer the product protein between modules. The results offer insights that could enable scientists to design and create new and improved medicines, such as antibiotics, using synthetic biology. Read more »
The Secret to Drought Tolerance Lies in a Lilac Crypt March 31, 2025 - Many species of California lilac grow throughout the state, north to Humboldt and south to San Diego. Some species have developed an adaptation for arid climates: the stomatal crypt. This extremely rare anatomy intrigued a group of researchers, who characterized species with these crypts at the ALS. Their microtomography characterization revealed how the stomatal crypt helps plants survive drought. Read more »
Mapping the Quantum Landscape of Electrons in Solids March 31, 2025 - Researchers found a way to reconstruct quantum geometric tensors (QGTs)—mathematical entities that encode how an electron’s wave function is shaped by its quantum environment. The mapping of QGTs enables the discovery and control of novel quantum phenomena such as superconductivity and unconventional electronic phases. Read more » 
Energy-Saving, Acid-Free, Hard-Rock Lithium Extraction March 28, 2025 - Researchers used in situ x-ray diffraction to develop a direct, more energy-efficient, and cheaper way to extract lithium from its source mineral, spodumene. The approach not only promises to reduce energy consumption and processing costs but also supports the sustainable scaling of lithium production to meet growing market needs. Read more »
A Clearer Look at Lithium-Ion Traffic Jams in Batteries February 24, 2025 - By directly visualizing the uneven insertion of lithium ions into electrodes with well-defined crystal orientations, researchers learned why fast charging decreases battery lifespan and performance. The work could provide insights into better battery utilization and help investigations of the surface insertion reaction during fast charging. Read more » 
Bennu’s Ancient Brine Sheds Light on Recipe for Life February 24, 2025 - Researchers traced the evolution of minerals (“salts”) in an ancient brine, as recorded in samples from the asteroid Bennu, returned to Earth by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission. The results support the idea that asteroids like Bennu may have delivered water and essential chemical building blocks of life to Earth in the distant past. Read more » 
Reaction Mechanism of Commercial Lithium-Ion Battery Cathodes February 20, 2025 - Researchers used soft x-ray resonant inelastic x-ray scattering at the ALS to understand the role of aluminum doping in improving the stability of commercially used cathode materials for lithium-ion batteries. Read more »
Mind-Blowing Materials: Mimicking Neurons for Faster Computing February 20, 2025 - Researchers used x-ray absorption spectroscopy and resonant inelastic x-ray scattering at the ALS to uncover the atomic-level mechanism of conductance switching for a neuromorphic material that has the potential for energy-efficient computing. Read more »
Autonomous Beamlines: Harnessing Bayesian Optimization to Revolutionize Accelerator Science January 28, 2025 - Scientists at the Advanced Light Source are developing automated beam optimization systems, collaborating with other light sources to deploy common controls across facilities. Using machine learning, they demonstrated automated beamline alignment that optimizes beam size and flux at the push of a button. Read more »