Events archive

In the film Diamonds are Forever, James Bond’s archnemesis uses diamonds to build a space-based laser weapon that can blow up stuff on Earth. SLAC physicist and Bond villain in training Emma McBride, however, uses lasers to mimic the extreme...

An audience sits on a patio listening to a science talk and demonstration.

Presented by Sebastien Boutet. SLAC's X-ray laser, the Linac Coherent Light Source, launched a new generation of light sources when it opened 10 years ago last month, with beams 10 billion times brighter than any before.

stillframe from public lecture video Seeing is Exploding

Presented by Margaux Lopez.

A visit to SLAC in October 2018 inspired Nitin Sawhney to create an original audio composition for two short visualization movies on the origins of the universe.

Presented by Christopher Tassone. Throughout human history, improvements in the structure of metals have been essential to the sharpness of swords and the strength of steel girders. Now we’d like to produce turbine blades and propellers with optimal shapes and...

Join us for the inaugural SLAC on Tap event at The Patio in Palo Alto. SLAC scientist Alan Fry will chat about lasers not attached to sharks, ultrafast science and the quantum mechanics of your sunglasses. Have a drink, learn...

Superconductors are materials in which electric current flows freely, without resistance. They are used to create the powerful magnetic fields needed to operate MRI machines and levitate high-speed trains, and have even served as building blocks for quantum computers. While...

What is the nature of design and the meaning it holds in human life? What does it mean to design well? To design ethically? How can the shaping of technology reflect our values as human beings? This talk explores how...

At the center of the Earth, matter is crushed under pressures millions of times higher than we experience here on the surface. Pressures in the cores of stars and giant planets are even more extreme. To understand how the Earth...

stillframe for public lecture video about liquid diamonds

Presented by Wah Chiu. Cryogenic electron microscopy (cryo-EM) is a revolutionary technology for making 3D images of the inner workings of cells in much higher resolution than ever possible before.

Diamonds are (not) forever

Seeing is Exploding: Snapping Biological Images with X-ray Laser Blasts

What on earth do Maseratis, ice hockey and corgi puppies have to do with telescopes?

Music for the Cosmos: An Exploration of Art & Physics

3D Printing for Perfect Metal Parts

Lasers not attached to sharks, ultrafast science and the quantum mechanics of your sunglasses

Making Waves in a Superconductor

Artful Design: Technology in Search of the Sublime!

Liquid Diamonds: New Materials at Pressures of the Earth’s Core

Cryo-EM: Amazing 3D Views of Life’s Molecular Machines