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Tiny microbes and molecular machines have an outsized impact on human health, and they play key roles in the vast global cycles that shape climate and make carbon and nitrogen available to all living things. 

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Science of life

This illustration shows arrestin, an important type of signaling protein

News Feature

The researchers observed how an enzyme from drug-resistant tuberculosis bacteria damages an antibiotic molecule. The new technique provides a powerful tool to examine changes...

Photo - CXI instrument at LCLS
News Feature

The National Institutes of Health center on the SLAC campus will make this revolutionary technology available to scientists nationwide and teach them how to...

Cryo-EM image of a proton pump involved in maintaining bone
News Feature

By placing the tiniest strands of proteins on one-atom-thick graphene, scientists capture promising X-ray laser images of these elusive biomolecules that play a key...

Illustration of amyloid fibrils on graphene
Press Release

The new facility provides revolutionary tools for exploring tiny biological machines, from viral particles to the interior of the cell.

SLAC-Stanford Cryo-EM Facility
News Feature

The staff scientist at the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource discusses his research and teaching, which includes training an international group of students to conduct...

Aerial view of University of Southern California’s Wrigley Marine Science Center
News Feature

Biochemical 'action shots' with SLAC’s X-ray laser could help scientists develop synthetic enzymes for medicine and answer fundamental questions about how enzymes change during...

SLAC associate staff scientist Thomas Joseph Lane at the Coherent X-Ray Imaging instrument
News Feature

With SLAC’s X-ray laser, a research team captured ultrafast changes in fluorescent proteins between “dark” and “light” states. The insights allowed the scientists to...

Aequorea victoria, a bioluminescent jellyfish
News Feature

The Scripps researcher is honored for groundbreaking research at the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource that accelerated the development of a vaccine for deadly Lassa...

Photo - Kathryn Hastie, staff scientist at The Scripps Research Institute
News Feature

With SLAC’s X-ray laser, scientists captured a virus changing shape and rearranging its genome to invade a cell.

The AMO (Atomic, Molecular & Optical Science) instrument
News Feature

A new X-ray laser technique allows scientists to home in on these single-electron triggers to better understand organic molecules that respond to light, including...

Thymine
News Feature

With SLAC’s X-ray laser and synchrotron, scientists measured exactly how much energy goes into keeping this crucial bond from triggering a cell's death spiral.

An optical laser (green) excites the iron-containing active site of the protein cytochrome c, and then an X-ray laser (white) probes the iron.
News Feature

The method dramatically reduces the amount of virus material required and allows scientists to get results several times faster.

Surface structure of the bovine enterovirus 2