News archive

Browse the full collection of SLAC press releases and news features and stay up to date on the latest scientific advancements at the laboratory.

With up to a million X-ray flashes per second, 8,000 times more than its predecessor, it transforms the ability of scientists to explore atomic-scale, ultrafast phenomena that are key to a broad range of applications, from quantum materials to clean...

LCLS-II first light

Physicist and scientific leader Sarrao will become SLAC’s sixth director and succeeds X-ray scientist Chi-Chang Kao, who stepped down after 10 years in the position.

Headshot of John Sarrao

After decades of effort, scientists have finally seen the process by which nature creates the oxygen we breathe using SLAC’s X-ray laser.

Photosystem II

New SLAC-Stanford Battery Center bridges the gaps between discovering, manufacturing and deploying innovative energy storage solutions. 

Illustration showing a battery researcher at left, a battery at center and a grid of battery applications at right.

Researchers used cryo-EM (left) to discover how a chamber in human cells (right) directs protein folding. 

A pom-pom like object with curly tangles in purple and blue shades and yellow tangles at center, reminiscent of a zinnia blossom.
Chi-Chang Kao has decided to return to research after serving 10 years as director of the Department of Energy’s (DOE) SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. He will continue in the lab director role until a replacement is found.
Chi-Chang Kao

Powerful X-rays from SLAC’s synchrotron reveal that our immune system’s primary wiring seems to be no match for a brutal SARS-CoV-2 protein.

SARS-CoV-2-NEMO
A new study has found that “diamond rain,” a long-hypothesized exotic type of precipitation on ice giant planets, could be more common than previously thought.  In an earlier experiment, researchers mimicked the extreme temperatures and pressures found deep inside ice...
Diamond rain formation

The facility, LCLS-II, will soon sharpen our view of how nature works on ultrasmall, ultrafast scales, impacting everything from quantum devices to clean energy.

LCLS-II cooldown

The work sheds light on the web of hydrogen bonds that gives water its strange properties, which play a vital role in many chemical and biological processes.

UED Water