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...

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

No human cell can function without these tiny machines, which cause disease when they go haywire and offer potential targets for therapeutic drugs.

Hitting molecules with two photons of light at once set off unexpected processes that were captured in detail with SLAC’s X-ray laser. Scientists say this new approach should work for bigger and more complicated molecules, too, allowing new insights into...

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

A close-up look at how microbes build their crystalline shells has implications for understanding how cell structures form, preventing disease and developing nanotechnology.

When it comes to making molecular movies, producing the world’s fastest X-ray pulses is only half the battle. A new technique reveals details about the timing and energy of pulses that are less than a millionth of a billionth of...

Just as Schroedinger's Cat is both alive and dead, an atom or molecule can be in two different states at once. Now scientists have exploited this behavior to make X-ray movies of atomic motion with much more detail than ever...