2014 News Feature Archive

December 19, 2014
News Feature
First Direct Evidence that a Mysterious Phase of Matter Competes with High-Temperature Superconductivity
SLAC study shows the so-called ‘pseudogap’ hoards electrons that otherwise might pair up to carry current through a material with 100 percent efficiency.
December 15, 2014
News Feature
Is the Higgs Boson a Piece of the Matter-Antimatter Puzzle?
Experiments have helped explain some of the imbalance between matter and antimatter in the universe, but not all of it. Now a SLAC theorist and his colleagues have laid out a possible method for determining if the Higgs boson is involved.
December 11, 2014
News Feature
DESY's Henry Chapman Awarded Leibniz Prize for X-ray Laser Research
A scientist at Germany’s DESY lab who participated in pioneering studies at SLAC's LCLS has been awarded a scientific prize by a research foundation.
Image - Henry Chapman (DESY)
December 8, 2014
News Feature
Study May Help Slow the Spread of Flu
Understanding details of a flu antibody offers new insight for future structure-based drug discovery and novel avenues for designing vaccines.
A false color image of an influenza virus particle
December 4, 2014
News Feature
X-ray Laser Reveals How Bacterial Protein Morphs in Response to Light
Researchers captured the highest-resolution snapshots ever taken with an X-ray laser that show changes in a protein’s structure over time.
Image - This illustration depicts an experiment at SLAC that revealed how a protein from photosynthetic bacteria changes shape in response to light.
December 4, 2014
News Feature
Rattled Atoms Mimic High-temperature Superconductivity
An experiment at SLAC provided the first fleeting glimpse of the atomic structure of a material as it entered a state resembling room-temperature superconductivity – a long-sought phenomenon in which materials might conduct electricity with 100 percent efficiency under everyday conditions.
Image - In a high-temperature superconducting material known as YBCO, light from a laser causes oxygen atoms to vibrate between layers of copper oxide in a way that favors superconductivity.
December 4, 2014
News Feature
Dr. Franklin Orr Confirmed as Under Secretary for Science and Energy
Orr's position encompasses both science and energy, including the Office of Science. SLAC is one of the national laboratories under the position's purview.
December 3, 2014
News Feature
Symmetry: Searching for a Dark Light
A new experiment is on the hunt for dark photons, hypothetical messengers of an invisible universe.
December 3, 2014
News Feature
SLAC, RadiaBeam Build New Tool to Tweak Rainbows of X-ray Laser Light
SLAC and RadiaBeam Systems have teamed up to construct a “dechirper” that will allow scientists to adjust the “color spectrum” of X-ray pulses in pioneering LCLS experiments.
November 26, 2014
News Feature
Tom Abel Named Fellow of American Association for the Advancement of Science
Abel, associate physics professor at Stanford and at SLAC and acting director of KIPAC, was recognized for the advances he’s made using supercomputers to explore the first billion years of cosmic history.
Photo - tom abel
November 21, 2014
News Feature
Robotics Meet X-ray Lasers in Cutting-edge Biology Studies
Scientists at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory are combining the speed and precision of robots with one of the brightest X-ray lasers on the planet for pioneering studies of proteins important to biology and drug discovery.
This illustration shows the components in an experimental setup used in crystallography experiments at SLAC's Linac Coherent Light Source X-ray laser.
November 20, 2014
News Feature
President Obama Bestows National Medal of Science on SLAC Director Emeritus and Nobelist Burton Richter
Burton Richter, Nobel laureate and director emeritus of SLAC, has received the National Medal of Science – the nation's highest honor for achievement in the field of science.
November 20, 2014
News Feature
Agreement Gives Energy Storage Companies Easier Access to SLAC
More than a dozen energy-storage companies have streamlined access to research facilities and expertise at SLAC under a new cooperative R&D agreement with CalCharge.
November 17, 2014
News Feature
SLAC X-ray Laser Brings Key Cell Structures into Focus
Scientists have used SLAC’s X-ray laser to produce detailed images of tiny cellular structures that play a major role in Earth’s life-sustaining carbon cycle.
Image - A geometric structure from a bacterial cell, called a carboxysome, is struck by an X-ray pulse (purple) at SLAC’s Linac Coherent Light Source. (SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory)
November 13, 2014
News Feature
SUNCAT Director Jens Nørskov Awarded 2015 Langmuir Prize
The SLAC and Stanford professor and SUNCAT director is being honored for groundbreaking work in catalysis, which promotes chemical reactions in thousands of industrial processes.
November 13, 2014
News Feature
New Project Will Expand Opportunities for Biological Discovery With SLAC’s X-ray Laser
A new experimental station in development at SLAC will expand capabilities for atomic-scale explorations in human health, biology, energy and environmental science.
Image - This artistic rendering shows planned instrumentation for a Macromolecular Femtosecond Crystallography (MFX) experimental station at SLAC's Linac Coherent Light Source. MFX will expand LCLS's capacity and flexibility for biological experiments.
November 12, 2014
Press Release
Study at SLAC Explains Atomic Action in High-Temperature Superconductors
A study at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory suggests for the first time how scientists might deliberately engineer superconductors that work at higher temperatures.
November 12, 2014
News Feature
Symmetry: Ancient Pigments, Modern Mystery
When Chinese workers searching for water found the famous Terracotta Warriors instead, they brought to light a scientific mystery.
November 11, 2014
News Feature
Symmetry: The November Revolution
Forty years ago, two different research groups announced the discovery of the same new particle and redefined how physicists view the universe.
November 11, 2014
News Feature
Stanford Scholars Tapped for Quantum Materials Research Grants
SLAC science and technology advisor Zhi-Xun Shen is among the recipients of the Moore Experimental Investigators in Quantum Materials grants, one of the top grants in quantum materials research. Another recipient, Columbia University Professor Tony Heinz, will join SLAC and Stanford in January 2015.

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