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X-ray studies at SLAC facilities help scientists understand the fundamental workings of nature by probing matter in atomic detail.

atoms forming a tentative bond
News Brief

Fan’s X-ray crystallography work at SLAC’s synchrotron moves us closer to a more protective coronavirus vaccine and a better understanding of how vital materials...

Fan wins this year's Klein award from SSRL.
News Release

Powerful X-rays from SLAC’s synchrotron reveal that our immune system’s primary wiring seems to be no match for a brutal SARS-CoV-2 protein.

SARS-CoV-2-NEMO
Illustration

This image shows the SARS-CoV-2 virus's main protease, Mpro, and two strands of a human protein, called NEMO.

SARS-CoV-2-NEMO
News Release

Studying a material that even more closely resembles the composition of ice giants, researchers found that oxygen boosts the formation of diamond rain.

Diamond rain formation
Feature

En route to record-breaking X-rays, SLAC’s Cryogenic team built a helium-refrigeration plant that lowers the LCLS-II accelerator to superconducting temperatures.

Images of frost and a thermometer superimposed over an aerial view of an accelerator building.
Illustration
A cross section of the LCLS-II accelerator showing where liquid and gaseous helium flow in and out of the system.
Cross section showing pipes and liquid and gas helium
Feature

An extension of the Stanford Research Computing Facility will host several data centers to handle the unprecedented data streams that will be produced by...

SRCF-II
Feature

After almost two decades of synchrotron experiments, Caltech scientists have captured a clear picture of a cell’s nuclear pores, which are the doors and...

The nuclear pore and its components.
Feature

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.
Feature

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 secretion from what is called "grass tree."
News Release

The facility, LCLS-II, will soon sharpen our view of how nature works on ultrasmall, ultrafast scales, impacting everything from quantum devices to clean energy.

LCLS-II cooldown
Animation
Now that the cavities have been cooled, the next step is to pump them with more than a megawatt of...
Cryomodule cavity animation