Researchers successfully bioengineered changes to a molecular “assembly line” for bioactive compounds, based in part on insights gained from small-angle x-ray scattering at the ALS. The ability to re-engineer these assembly lines could improve their performance and facilitate the synthesis of new medically useful compounds. Read more »
Survival of T. rex Microvascular Structures from Deep Time
Researchers used several analytical techniques at the ALS to demonstrate how soft-tissue structures may be preserved in dinosaur bones, countering long-standing scientific dogma that protein-based body parts cannot survive more than one million years. Read more »
Highly Permeable Perfluorinated Sulfonic Acid Ionomers for Improved Electrochemical Devices: Insights into Structure-Property Relationships
Perfluorinated sulfonic acid ionomers (PFSAs) induce significant mass-transport limitations in proton exchange membrane fuel cell catalyst layers due to their semicrystalline PTFE-based matrix. We present a novel PFSA with an amorphous perfluorinated matrix, which vastly improves gas permeability, reduces transport resistance, and improves catalyst utilization in functional catalyst layers. Read more »
Berkeley Lab Helps Reveal How Dinosaur Blood Vessels Can Preserve Through the Ages
A team of scientists used infrared and x-ray imaging performed at the Advanced Light Source to determine the chemical mechanisms that allow soft tissue structures to persist in dinosaur bones—countering the long-standing scientific dogma that protein-based body parts can’t survive more than 1 million years. Read more »
X-Ray Technology Sheds New Light on Antibiotic Synthesis
Atomic-scale structural analyses performed at the ALS are helping scientists understand the inner workings of the enzyme “assembly lines” that microbes use to produce an important class of compounds, many of which have uses as antibiotics, antifungals, and immunosuppressants. Read more »
The Choreography of Quantum Dot Fusion
X-ray scattering experiments helped reveal how nanosized crystals (“quantum dots”) self-assemble and fuse to form “supercrystals” with potentially useful electronic properties. The findings provide new insight into the fabrication of high-performance, low-cost electronic materials for photovoltaic and photon-sensing applications. Read more » 
Freeze Frame: Scientists Capture Atomic-Scale Snapshots of Artificial Proteins
Protein-like molecules called polypeptoids have great promise as precision building blocks for creating a variety of designer nanomaterials. In this study, rsearchers used cryo-EM, a technique originally designed to image proteins in solution, as well as x-ray scattering techniques, to characterize the structure of polypeptide nanosheets. Read more »
Scientists Explore Egyptian Mummy Bones With X-Rays and Infrared Light to Gain New Insight on Ancient Life
Researchers from Cairo University worked with teams at the ALS to study soil and bone samples dating back 4,000 years. The experiments are casting a new light on Egyptian soil and ancient mummified bone samples that could provide a richer understanding of daily life and environmental conditions thousands of years ago. Read more »
Custom-Designed Models Reveal How Proteins Assemble on Minerals
Seashells, bone, and other hard tissues form through a little-understood process combining proteins and minerals. Researchers gained insight using a model system of proteins they designed and synthesized from scratch, characterizing how these building blocks assemble on mica. Read more »
Self-Assembling Nanomaterials Are Organized and Tunable
Perovskite superlattices have a wide variety of applications, but they are difficult to synthesize. Researchers have now characterized their self-assembly process to better understand how to create a variety of superlattice materials. Read more »
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