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.

Knowing a magnet’s past will allow scientists to customize particle beams more precisely in the future. As accelerators stretch for higher levels of performance, understanding subtle effects, such as those introduced by magnetic history, is becoming more critical.

A magnet on a test stand inside SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory.

Edelen draws on machine learning to fine tune particle accelerators, while Kurinsky develops dark matter detectors informed by quantum information science.

Side by side photographs of a woman and a man.

The Small Business Innovation Research Program brings government and private industry together to develop next-generation X-ray optics for LCLS-II.

A narrow two-mile long building stretches through trees and foothills.
SLAC Science Explained

XFELs: Spying on atoms and molecules

Molecular movie-making is both an art and a science; the results let us watch how nature works on the smallest scales.

Molecular movie filmstrip.

The X-rays they produce reveal the secrets of everything from ancient texts to modern pharmaceuticals.

 A synchrotron is a type of particle accelerator that produces intense beams of light.

Taking pictures of tiny, flash-frozen things with electrons is revolutionizing biology and technology. SLAC and Stanford host one of the world’s leading facilities for doing cryo-EM research, improving the technology and making it available to researchers across the country.

cryo-EM image of Caulobacter bacterium

It will explore cosmic mysteries as part of the Rubin Observatory’s Legacy Survey of Space and Time.

LSST camera focal plane

After decades of experience in the DOE lab system and as director of a leading synchrotron light source, he’s back to where he earned his PhD – with a much bigger mission.

Stephen Streiffer

By revealing the chemistry of plant secretions, or exudates, these studies build a basis for better understanding and conserving art and tools made with plant materials.

Plant secretion from what is called "grass tree."

Scientists discover superconductivity and charge density waves are intrinsically interconnected at the nanoscopic level, a new understanding that could help lead to the next generation of electronics and computers.

A beam of light lands on a series of squiggly lines. Where the beam lands, the lines are straight.

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