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.

Scientists developed a new method to unlock the secrets of RNA. The implications are wide-reaching, from better understanding diseases to designing new therapeutics. 

CXI hutch

Proving the technique works puts scientists one step closer to unraveling the mysteries of hydrogen transfers.

Red and blue laser beams strike a sample.

A groundbreaking study shows defects spreading through diamond faster than the speed of sound 

Shocking a diamond with a high-power laser produced defects that propagated faster than the speed of sound.

Peter Dahlberg has combined two complex imaging techniques into one. The 2021 Panofsky Fellow adds cryo-ET and biosensors to fluorescence microscopy to give context to high-resolution images of individual proteins in cells.

A green, red and blue outline encloses small yellow dots and orange circles, representing parts of a cell.

A materials scientist who specializes in superconductors, Sarrao brings a deep background in national lab leadership and the evolution of SLAC science. 

Headshot of John Sarrao

Three SLAC scientists explain what they do to ensure the world's largest digital camera for astronomy is ready for the big time.

A digital sensor array is visible through a large camera lens inside a white room.

Scientists developed a groundbreaking technology that allows them to see sound waves and microscopic defects inside crystals, promising insights that connect ultrafast atomic motion to large-scale macroscopic behaviors.

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Powerful X-rays generated at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory help researchers shed new light on feather evolution.

This figure shows how protein compositions in feathers change over time and temperature.

SSRL's X-ray tools reveal that alcohol groups on a nanodiamond's surface allow one of the world's most valuable materials to bond with one of its most abundant.

Purple layers surround angular red chunks. These are struck by gold rays, which release white spheres from the purple and red objects.

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