Our UEC is continually adapting to the rapidly changing status quo as the COVID-19 pandemic continues. After careful considerations and discussions with ALS management, we have decided to change the format of the ALS User Meeting 2020 to a virtual (online) meeting. Read more »
ALSNews Vol. 415
April 29, 2020
Fun Project While Staying at Home
This paper model of the ALS is fun for all hands, young and old. Print, cut out, and assemble your own ALS, from the beamlines inside to the iconic dome on top. Read more »
Shelter-in-Place Message from Director Steve Kevan
A far cry from the familiar, bustling ALS, our facility is running at minimal operations and the majority of our staff is working from home. I speak for the entire ALS staff when I write that we miss all of you, and hope you are healthy and safe. Read more »
April 2020 Message from the User Office: Proposal Updates
Plans will be developed to phase in research at the ALS, becoming more robust as the COVID-19 timeline plays out. In the meantime, the ALS user office database is tracking the lost beamtime for each proposal. Users can see this information by viewing their proposals in ALSHub and noting the discrepancy between allocated and scheduled beamtime. Read more »
Porous Electrolyte Frameworks for All-Solid-State Batteries
With the help of microtomography at the ALS, researchers developed a method to produce a porous electrolyte framework that they used to construct a working all-solid-state battery. Such batteries potentially offer a higher energy density, longer cycle life, and better inherent safety than state-of-the-art lithium-ion batteries. Read more »
How the ALS Team Shelters in Place
While we have been under a shelter-in-place order in the Bay Area, the ALS community has mostly been telecommuting. We caught up with Angelic Lucero, Karen Nunez, Ina Reichel, Bruce Rude, Ashley White, and Antoine Wojdyla to see how they have been handling this unprecedented experience. Read more »
Study Leads to Firmer Grasp of Biochemical “Reactive Handle”
Protein crystallography provided new insight into a functional group of molecules that, if added to bacterial enzymes, could enable a variety of alterations to the bacteria’s polymer output. Tweaking enzymes to produce these “reactive handles” is a first step toward biosynthesizing diverse polymers with tailored properties. Read more »
ALS in the News (April 2020)
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- World’s physics instruments turn their focus to COVID-19
- Mystery solved, rotavirus VP3 is a unique capping machine
- Berkeley Lab teams compete to feed the hungry
- Berkeley Lab Advanced Light Source x-ray facility to study COVID-19
- Seeing ‘under the hood’ in batteries
- Berkeley Lab to conduct R&D to improve the nation’s COVID-19 testing capabilities
- Jennifer Doudna awarded 2020 Guggenheim Fellowship
- National labs join fight against COVID-19
- COVID-19 related research at Berkeley Lab
- Critical research hit as COVID-19 forces physics labs to close
- 13 reasons we know why Roman concrete is stronger than its modern equivalent
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Jason Jed, Systems Manager
Before Jason Jed joined the ALS last month, he had already toured the facility in person and through virtual reality. Is it any wonder that he knows some of the more hidden rooms at the ALS? Read more »
Direct Imaging of Fracture Closure in Reservoir Shales
Using x-ray microtomography at the ALS, researchers identified and characterized the microscale factors affecting fluid flow through shale fractures propped open with sand or ceramic spheres. A better understanding of propped fractures can lead to safer and more efficient recovery of hard-to-reach oil and gas resources. Read more »
