Weyl Fermions Discovered After 85 Years
Weyl fermions, elusive massless particles first theorized 85 years ago, have now been detected as emergent quasiparticles in synthetic crystals of the semimetal TaAs. The discovery could allow for the...
View ArticlePhonon Polariton Behavior in 2D Materials
Synchrotron infrared nanospectroscopy (SINS) was used to study the behavior of phonon polaritons in ultrathin crystals of hexagonal boron nitride. The results pave the way towards engineering...
View ArticleA New Pathway for Radionuclide Uptake
Scientists have reported a major advance in understanding the biological chemistry of radioactive metals, opening up new avenues of research into strategies for remedial action in the event of possible...
View ArticleAerosol Oxidation Speeds Up in Smoggy Air
To better understand the effects of organic aerosols on climate, pollution, and health, researchers measured aerosol reaction rates at ALS Beamline 9.0.2. They discovered an unexpectedly large...
View ArticlePorous Framework Electrocatalysts Are Key to Carbon Dioxide Conversion
Researchers have made significant headway in the quest to convert CO2 into valuable chemical products such as fuels, pharmaceuticals, and plastics. Recent work at the ALS has shown MOFs and COFs as a...
View ArticleManganese Reduction-Oxidation Drives Plant Debris Decomposition
ALS research has shown that manganese reduction-oxidation (redox) reactions are an important factor in controlling the rate of plant debris decomposition. Understanding the role of manganese will help...
View ArticleExploring the Repeat-Protein Universe
Researchers have published a landmark study that used both crystallography and SAXS to validate computationally designed structures of novel proteins with repeated motifs. The results show that the...
View ArticleA New Universal Parameter for Superconductivity
Scientists have been researching high-temperature (high-Tc) superconductors for decades with the goal of finding materials that express superconducting capabilities at room temperature, which would be...
View ArticleShutting Out Ebola and Other Viruses
Researchers have used protein crystallography at the ALS to understand how a drug molecule that has shown some efficacy against Ebola in mice inactivates a membrane protein, called TPC1, used by...
View ArticleAn Atomic-Level Understanding of Copper-Based Catalysts
Copper-based catalysts are widely used in chemical industries to convert water and carbon monoxide to hydrogen, carbon dioxide, and methanol. There are theoretical models used to explain this reaction,...
View Article3D Charge Order Found in Superconductor
Resonant soft x-ray diffraction studies of a cuprate high-temperature superconductor revealed a 3D, long-range charge order—the first of its kind ever reported in a cuprate—that competes with...
View ArticleNew Fuel Cell Design Powered by Graphene-Wrapped Nanoparticles
Interest in hydrogen fuel for automotive applications has been growing steadily in the scientific and automotive community over the last decade. Hydrogen is the lightest and most plentiful element on...
View ArticleNew Insights into Oxygen’s Role in Lithium Battery Capacity
Researchers working at the ALS have recently made new discoveries in understanding the nature of charge storage in lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries, opening up possibilities for new battery designs with...
View ArticleHow Antidepressants Block Serotonin Transport
Malfunctions in the complex protein "machinery" of serotonin transport can result in depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, aggression, anxiety, and Parkinson's disease. Now, researchers have...
View ArticleSINS Reveals Dopant Effects in Plasmonic Materials
Using synchrotron infrared nanospectroscopy (SINS) at the ALS, researchers have for the first time probed infrared plasmonic excitations in single nanocrystals. This allowed the pinpointing of dopant...
View ArticleNew Catalyst Boosts Selective Formation of Olefins from Syngas
Experiments at the ALS have helped to explain how a new catalyst significantly boosts the selective formation of light olefin molecules—important building blocks in the petrochemical industry—from...
View ArticleA Surface Treatment for Improving Fuel-Cell Cathodes
Solid-oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) are a promising path toward the "clean" conversion of chemical energy to electrical energy with little or no carbon dioxide emission. With the help of the ALS,...
View ArticleMolecular Switch Triggers Bacterial Pathogenicity
Using an array of high-powered x-ray imaging techniques at the ALS, scientists have revealed for the first time the molecular steps that turn on bacteria's pathogenic genes. The study could open up new...
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