For the first time, scientists have revealed the steps needed to turn on a receptor that helps regulate neuron firing. The findings might help researchers understand and someday treat addiction, psychosis and other neuropsychological diseases.

Physicists at SLAC and Stanford propose that the influence of cosmic rays on early life may explain nature’s preference for a uniform “handedness” among biology’s critical molecules.

The lab is responding to the coronavirus crisis by imaging disease-related biomolecules, developing standards for reliable coronavirus testing and enabling other essential research.

This new technology could enable future insights into chemical and biological processes that occur in solution, such as vision, catalysis and photosynthesis.