#advanced light source

X-ray Footprinting Solves Mystery of Metal-Breathing Protein

Scientists have discovered the details of an unconventional coupling between a bacterial protein and a mineral that allows the bacterium to breathe when oxygen is not available.

The research, conducted by a team of scientists at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), could lead to new innovations in linking proteins to other materialsfor bio-based…

How X-rays Pushed Topological Matter Research Over the Top

Beamline 10.0.1 at Berkeley Lab’s Advanced Light Source is optimized for studies of topological properties in materials. (Credit: Roy Kaltschmidt/Berkeley Lab)

While using X-rays generated by the Advanced Light Source (ALS), a synchrotron facility at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory(Berkeley Lab), to study a bismuth-containing thermoelectric material that can…

When Rocket Science Meets X-ray Science

Note: This is the first installment in a four-part series that focuses on a partnership between NASA and Berkeley Lab to explore spacecraft materials and meteorites with X-rays in microscale detail. 

It takes rocket science to launch and fly spacecraft to faraway planets and moons, but a deep understanding of how materialsperform under extreme conditions is also needed to enter and land on…

Glowing Crystals Can Detect, Cleanse Contaminated Drinking Water

Tiny, glowing crystals designed to detect and capture heavy–metal toxins such as lead and mercury could prove to be a powerful new tool in locating and cleaning up contaminated water sources.

Motivated by publicized cases in which high levels of heavy metals were found in drinking water in Flint, Mich., and Newark, N.J., a science team led by researchersat Rutgers University used intense X-rays at

New X-Ray Microscopy Technique Images Nanoscale Workings of Rechargeable Batteries

There’s a new tool in the push to engineer rechargeable batteries that last longer and charge more quickly. An X-ray microscopy technique recently developed at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has given scientists the ability to image nanoscale changes inside lithium-ion battery particles as they charge and discharge. The real-time images providea…

Researchers find a way to extend life and improve performance of fuel cell electrodes

Researchers at MIT have developed a practical and physically-based way of treating the surface of materials called perovskite oxides, to make them more durable and improve their performance. These materials are promising candidates to serve as electrodes in energy-conversion devices such as fuel cellsand electrolyzers. This surface treatment could solve one of the major challenges…

A powdery mixture of graphene-wrapped magnesium nanocrystals, produced at Berkeley Lab, is stable in air. The mixture’s energy properties show promise for use in hydrogen fuel cells. (Eun Seon Cho/Berkeley Lab)

Hydrogen is the lightest and most plentiful element on Earth and in our universe. So it shouldn’t be a big surprise that scientists are pursuing hydrogen as a clean, carbon-free,…